Guyra Central School Magazine

Principals Report

The NAIDOC 2021 theme – Heal Country! – called for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.

 

NAIDOC 2021 invites the nation to embrace First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia's national heritage and equally respect the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders as they do the cultures and values of all Australians.

 

Is has been an opportunity for staff and students of Guyra Central School to come together to celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the oldest continuing cultures on the planet. Our original plans for NAIDOC Celebrations 2021 at Guyra Central School involved inviting the community, parents/carers, and families into the school to celebrate with us. 

That has not been possible again this year. Thank you to Eunice Blair and Amy Pixton and the great Guyra Central School Aboriginal Education team for their efforts. The Junior AECG need to be acknowledged for the role that they play within our school, during NAIDOC week and across the whole year.

 

We continue to give COVID-19 updates when they become available. Please be aware that all information that is published on Facebook and through the school newsletter, emails or individual notes home with your children is coming directly from NSW Health or NSW Department of Education. At the school we continually check to ensure that we are following all restrictions and rulings. I would encourage our families to contact the school if you have any questions or require clarification. New information emerges regularly and without too much notice. 

 

Everyone has been very patient, waiting for delivery of our brand new 24-seater bus.  I am 

glad to announce that Guyra Central School is now proud owner of two school buses. This gives us the capability to transport 34 students at any given time. We have been a little restricted with excursions these past few weeks but hopefully this will ease soon, and we will be in full swing. We currently have 5 staff members who are licensed to drive the larger bus.

 

Our initial sign off and timeline has been established for the renovations to our new Commercial Kitchen at the school. This renovation is set to commence, COVID permitting during the later stages of Term 3 and into Term 4. Our Year 11 students have now been given the option to select Hospitality during the recent subject selection process. This subject cannot be delivered within a school without a Commercial Kitchen or a Hospitality trained VET teacher. Our new Head Teacher Technological and Applied Studies (TAS) Lea-Ann Best comes to us as an experienced Head Teacher TAS and is a qualified Hospitality VET teacher. Lea-Ann will join our team in Term 4.

 

We wish our Year 12 students good luck as they head into their Trial HSC exam period at the end of Week 3. We congratulated our parents/caregivers and families for their great commitment to the success of their children. I know that our staff have been working overtime to ensure that all students go into exams with confidence and support. 

 

I have published at the end of this message the adjustment to HSC exams and projects that was provided to schools by Leanne Nixon Friday 23rd July 2021. 

Please contact me if you have further questions.

 

Michelle Nicholson

Proud Principal 

Guyra Central School

 

 

Changes to the 2021 HSC timetable

Leanne Nixon, Deputy Secretary, NSW Department of Education, School Performance (North) 

Friday 23rd July 2021

 

Dear Principals,

 

NESA has just announced additional changes to the 2021 HSC timetable due to the evolving COVID situation. The changes are designed to give students more certainty in the lead up to their exams.

 

Changes NESA has detailed include:

  • Extend the hand in date for all major projects by two weeks. The hand-in date for Industrial Technology has been extended by four weeks
  • Reschedule Drama performance exams to run from 6 to 10 September in Greater Sydney and 13 to 17 September outside of Greater Sydney
  • Reschedule the Music performance exams to run from 30 August to 3 September in Greater Sydney and 6 to 10 September outside of Greater Sydney
  • Reschedule the written exams to begin one week later on 19 October with HSC results out on 17 December.