Principals Report

News from the Principal

- Mr. Tristan Lanarus

Welcome back for Term 3. I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing 2 week break and that we are all ready to tackle Semester Two with energy, effort and enthusiasm.

We have a number of new staff who have commenced this term. Welcome to: Kyla Alexander (Wellbeing Leader), Freda Gatsios (VCAL Leader), Teri Collingwood (EAL), Pinya Senevirathne (Maths/Science), Stephanie Andjelkov (PE/Psychology) and Leena Sharma (WELC).

We had a very successful 2019 Course Information night for current Year 8, 9 and 10 families on Tuesday 24th July. Course information guides are available on Compass and students will be involved with interviews and selecting subjects for 2019 over the next 3 weeks. Please discuss this with your child and make sure you are involved in the process of what they are selecting to study for next year. What students enjoy, what they are good at and where they want to go after Westall (workplace, apprenticeship, University, TAFE), all play a big role in making these decisions.

In Term 4 this year, our school will undergo a standard 4 year review and planning process. There is information in this newsletter about the annual parent opinion survey. I urge all parents to login and complete this survey. I also urge parents to get involved as much as possible later this year, when we review our last 4 years of performance, and plan our next 4 years. As a school, we are all about moving from good to great in what we do and how we personalise the learning for every student.

Personalising is about meeting the need and want for every student, but what complements this at a school level, is a layer of consistency. This all comes under the umbrella of the Westall Way which you will start hearing referenced more and more. Consistent standards around uniform, student learning behaviours, teachers using EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction), and how we assess and support literacy/EAL learners, are the pillars of this. To phrase this another way, if students consistently bring maximum effort and positive learning behaviours, and teachers consistently implement our agreed teaching approaches, then student outcomes will continue to improve. This is the essence of the Westall Way.

We have engaged a Building Project Manager to oversee our new Wellbeing and International Student facilities. This will be two brand new buildings including office spaces, conference and student passive areas, classrooms and kitchenette. We are hoping these 2 new buildings will be completed and ready for Day 1, 2019.

Remember our annual Athletics Day, Tuesday 7th August.

Until next time!

Mr. Tristan Lanarus

2018 Parent Opinion Survey