From the Principal

Newsletter February 2022

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2022. This year, the newsletters will continue to be published every four weeks (approximately one a month) with an additional ‘from the Principal’s Desk’ memo published in between. Details regarding the dates for these publications are provided later in this newsletter. 

It has been a very busy start to the year and there has already been a lot that has occurred. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and considerations, it has largely been a very positive start to term and to the year. Many of the events that have occurred are covered in this newsletter so I won’t go into great details here but I would like to take the opportunity to thank all staff, students and families who have helped in whatever way to get these events and experiences up and running. So far this year we have experienced our School Swimming Carnival, the Year 7 Transition Camp, Interschool sports (I was privileged to be able to supervise and support the senior volleyball teams this week!), Mr Whippy ice cream and School Council meeting number 1. 

COVID-19 restrictions and operations

We are expecting the new School Operations guide to land some time today or over the weekend, outlining the new settings for secondary schools as of Monday 28 February. Whilst I don’t yet know for sure what is in it, it has been fairly widely publicised that masks will no longer be required indoors and visitors to the college will not be required to sign in with the QR codes. We know, however, that vaccine mandates for staff and for visitors will remain and that anyone entering school buildings will be required to show evidence of vaccination. What this means for events like parent teacher interviews and Open Night, I am not yet sure. I will communicate all changes to families once I know more via Compass as per usual. 

We are also hoping that there will be further support to help schools get camps and excursions up and running for 2022. With so many students having missed these experiences in 2020 and 2021, we are really wanting to provide as many of these as we can. Current settings do hold a level of risk, however, we are happy to work around these as much as is possible and knowing what the parameters are will very much help with this. In order to run activities like camps we will be needing to gain accurate and timely information from families around viability of these. I apologise if you are asked to complete multiple expression of interests in the coming months but knowing who is interested and in what, helps us enormously with planning. Thank you to those families who have already provided us with such information. 

New uniform items

As discussed last year, we have a few new uniform items set to ‘hit the shelves’ this year. The new design Sports Academy uniform has already been made available and, I am told, our general ‘Hoodie’ sports tops will also be available for Term 2. Klad Sports are also working on beanies and scarves for the winter months as well as a new style of girls short and sports leggings. I have not yet had confirmation as to when we can expect these to be available, but I will continue to work with KLAD to bring you these details. 

School Council elections 

There will be information published via Compass next week regarding elections for school council. Parents/guardians can contribute to the school and their children’s education in a range of ways. A place on the Heathmont College School Council, the governing body of the school and its community, is one way in which you can be a part of this agenda. I encourage you to give this opportunity due consideration and to keep an eye out for further information next week.