Principal's Report

Welcome

It has been a wonderful start to the year, having everyone back learning together onsite, even despite the short and sharp lockdown. 

It has been particularly great seeing students so happy being at school and engaging in all of the activities that we were prevented from participating in last year. 

Our Year 7s have made a great start to their secondary schooling and were welcomed into our College during our first whole school assembly for the year. I really enjoyed visiting the Year 7 camp and getting to know so many of our new students. Congratulations to 7G and 7F who won their respective camps tug of war championships. 

Family Voluntary Contributions - Thank You!

As you will likely be aware, our school council introduced the ability for families to target voluntary contributions to particular projects. 

This was introduced following concern that a reduction in our compulsory school fees might reduce our school's capacity to continue to fund new projects are the school. 

The result from our school community has been outstanding, with over $14,000 raised in the first three weeks of school. The school council has already approved the purchase of the following items:

Performing Arts: New Keyboard Lab and Drama Theatre upgrade

Science: 24 x Junior Microscopes

Visual Arts: 6 x SLR Cameras 

Next Projects through donations:

We are now eager to move ahead with some of our bigger projects, which have already received some considerable donations. 

*We are currently in discussions to complete this as part of the current capital works project which would enable the funds raised to be moved to another project. 

Our school council has been delighted with the response, with many families donating significant sums. Each family who makes a donation will receive a letter of appreciation from myself and our school council president Debra Ramsay on behalf of our council. 

COVID Inspired Innovation

While none of us would wish to repeat the remote learning experience, there has been a range of practices and innovations that we have implemented this year as a result of our time in remote learning. 

One of the big changes has been the use of Microsoft Teams for collaboration across the school, including staff, teachers, students and classes. We spent time at the end of the year reviewing the architecture of teams for collaboration and put changes in place before the return of students this year. This meant that we were well placed to make an immediate move to remote learning during the recent lockdown. 

One of the other changes that we have implemented has been a change to our bell times. This followed feedback from the school community that the class times during remote learning were easy to remember. In order to make the bell times consistent, we are now starting school 7min earlier each day. Benefits of the new bell times include:

• easier to remember
• additional 30min of class time per week
• reduced wait time between bus arrivals and first bell

Form Assembly      8:40-8:45am

Period 1                    8:45-9:35am

Period 2                    9:35-10:25am

Recess                      10:25-10:50am

Period 3                    10:50-11:40am

Period 4                    11:40-12:30pm

Lunch                        12:30-1.20pm

Period 5                    1:20-2:10pm

Period 6                    2:10-3:00pm

Learning Outcomes from 2020

I have had numerous conversations with families about the impact of COVID on students and their families. It has been interesting to see and hear the diversity of experiences. While there is no doubt that many students  didn't engage with their learning to the same extent as when learning onsite, we were pleased to see strong Numeracy and Literacy (PAT) testing data at the end of the year. In fact each year level in our junior school managed to achieve a higher overall mean result compared to the cohort from the year before. 

We are now in the process of comparing each students PAT results with recent On Demand Literacy and Numeracy assessments to track student learning growth since Grade 6. This information will be used to develop learning plans for students to ensure that we cater for their individual needs. 

Capital Works Project Begins 

Any recent visitors to our school will have noticed the fencing and demolition works that have been underway outside of the Performing Arts Centre. 

These works will continue throughout the year, with the expected completion timeline:

Feb - June (Stage 1) Hospitality, Canteen, Community Room

June - November (Stage 2): STEM Centre

October - December (Stage 3): Year 8 Centre

December - January: Demolition B Wing

Open Night

Our annual Open Night is coming up on Thursday 25th March. This is a great opportunity for prospective families to tour our facilities, learn about our programs and speak to staff. Please pass on the details about our Open Night to families who you think might be interested:

Private Property & Accidents at School

The Department of Education & Training requires parents/guardians to be reminded each year that:

• they are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance/transport and any other transport costs; and
• parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers
• the Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Litter - We Need Your Help

Since the return from remote learning, we have experienced an increase in the amount of litter in the school grounds. Given that our school is located in an environmentally sensitive location, we would appreciate if families could minimise the amount of food that comes to school in wrappers. This will help prevent birds grabbing wrappers from bins and minimise the chance that students will accidentally drop wrapper on the ground (e.g. when playing on the oval). 

The predominate south westerly winds mean that any litter often makes it way towards the wetlands and creek before we have a chance to collect it. 

We are in the process of installing some mesh to minimise the chance of this occurring, however would still appreciate if we could minimise any risk by not bringing any plastic wrappers etc to school. Not only will this keep our school and local community tidy, it will also reduce our school communities overall environmental impacts to a minimum. 

Cooperative Loan Finishes

A number of years ago, the College took out a loan through the Department of Education and Training in order to fund some of the contribution to the construction of our Stadium. This loan has now been fully paid. 

Due to the nature of the loan, the school required signatures from a range of community members to form what is called a cooperative to secure the loan. 

Now that the loan has been fully paid, our Board of Directors (school council) intends to pass a special resolution to wind up the cooperative at our next meeting.  

Mr Daniel Dew

College Principal