From our Principal

Dear Parents, Students and Friends,

Resumption of Face-to-Face Learning

The end is in sight and there is a great sense of anticipation as we prepare to welcome back the first wave of students next Tuesday. In my time in education there has never been a stranger time. As I look back and we commenced preparation for remote schooling there was enormous preparation which occurred. The end result was worth it as students began to engage successfully in this mode of delivery. The next stage was the bedding down of practice until we were greeted with the news from the Premier that school was to resume again. Since that announcement the College has been working tirelessly to ensure new health and hygiene practices are implemented ahead of a return of both staff and students. There have been significant challenges for all as we shift from one status to another. We must look at some positives and I reflect mostly about the versatility, and adaptability of both our educators and students. This must give us confidence to tackle learning face-to-face again with renewed energy and a sense of hope and purpose. I express my sincere thanks to school staff both teaching and non-teaching for being prepared to embrace our program of learning over the past months.

Thanks to Parents

My thanks is also extended to our parents for firstly entrusting your child or children to our care and trusting in our ability to nurture their academic and social-emotional development, not to mention their faith. Over this challenging time your support has been significant and appreciated and I’d like to acknowledge that publicly. You will recall we asked for parent feedback on Remote Schooling. Some of the results are presented below and reflect a very positive trend

Prevent, Keep, Enrich 

Whilst Remote schooling is effective nothing replaces face-to-face teaching. 

We know, because research tells us, that the most effective and influential factor in maximising student outcomes is the efficacy of the teacher in the classroom. We have a unique opportunity as educators and students to reflect on our experience of remote schooling and face to face teaching and ask three simple questions when students return:

1. What do we want to prevent? - What were the bad habits in face-to-face teaching/learning and remote schooling that we want never repeated.
2. What do we want to keep? - What were the learnings and practices which enhance the learning and teaching experience and could continue beyond remote schooling?
3. What do we want to enrich? – What are the learning and teaching practices that have really assisted in student understanding and that we want not only to retain but develop further?

The opportunity to re-think and re-calibrate how we learn and teach is afforded to us in the coming weeks and we should and I hope will grab with both hands this opportunity to reflect and where necessary change as we continue to commit to developing excellence in learning and teaching

Enjoy the week ahead and stay well.

Mr Chris Black

Principal