Leadership Report 

Sir Ken Robinson 1950 -2020

Sir Ken was a great educator who understood the importance of creativity and curiosity in our school systems worldwide. He was a much admired educator who valued the child and the process of learning. 

For me his message resonated loudly and clearly.  He always promoted creativity and curiosity as key links to improving learning and school systems. His message was for teachers to instil these important educational concepts within the children they teach. He was a master at personalising the message in such a way that you felt empowered to improve your classroom practices or for leaders the school vision and philosophy around teaching and learning.

Recently I had the real pleasure to listen to him at conference, and then to have an opportunity to spend a few moments in person discussing education for the future......it was magic!

He was a major icon for nurturing teachers and improving systems. Along with two other notable individuals; Pasi Sahlberg and John Hattie they saw system improvement as based around teacher quality. What I really admired was their collective understanding as to how to improve learning was evidence based... not anecdotal.

So thank you Sir Ken and lets hope his message will resonate long and loudly in education many years ahead.

Covid - 19 Update

We are now entering week 8 of term three. I understand many in the community are anxious as to when all this will end, and when will kids return to school. I know there are many rumours out there as to when we will return to on-site learning. The only factual piece of information I have received was Minister Merlino advising parents students will return to on-site learning in term four. The question is when? 

When I received qualified directions from DET the community will be the first to know.

Request for On-site Supervision

Reminder those families that meet the criteria for on-site supervision must have the formal written request emailed to school no later than Sunday, 30/08/2020. As you would appreciate we cannot accept last minute requests.

Final Thought

I made mention last week how much I appreciated Luke's leadership while I was absent. I also mentioned my real appreciation of the teachers as they deal with the real swings and roundabouts during this lockdown. Well again hats off to several members of staff: Rhonda, Steph, Mark and Luke who hand, yes hand delivered our information packs to our 2021 Foundation families. The sense of community and commitment by all at Newlands is really very impressive, and I feel very privileged to be part of the Newlands community.