Principal Report

Hi all,

 

To begin this report, it gives me much pleasure to announce that Trevor McClure will be assuming the role of Acting Principal for the remainder of 2020. Congratulations Trevor, and thank you for your support as Assistant Principal over the past three years. 

 

The Edenhope College School Council will begin the process of choosing a new substantive principal over the course of Term 4. I wish them the best of luck in their search, and am confident that they will find the right leader for our school. 

 

Return to Onsite Learning

Finally, its looks like the end to the current period of Remote and Flexible Learning is nearly here. According to our current information, we will continue remote learning until the end of the first week of Term 4. After that, onsite learning returns for all students. This is great news, and I hope that this arrangement stays in place until the end of the year.

 

However, we should not become complacent. I would expect that 2021 may see more periods of onsite, and then offsite, learning. I hope I am wrong, of course, but I think we should all expect that our world has not yet returned to ‘normal’. Thankfully, we have processes in place to ensure some level of continuity of learning. I suspect that our students, as always, will adapt better to it than some of us will!

 

Parent Teacher Interviews – 15 September

I would like to remind you that Parent, Student and Teacher Interviews are scheduled for Tuesday, 15 September. You will have already received information on booking your interviews via XUNO. 

I would like to remind parents that we hope that the students participate in the interview also. This is a valuable time for the College to connect with each of you to ensure that your concerns are being addressed as best as possible.

 

Please also be reminded that, given the difficulty of implementing our normal teaching and learning programs during the period of remote learning, that our staff will be limited in how much they can comment of student learning progress. I have asked staff to instead let you, as the parent, to take the lead for the most part, and let us know of your observations (and concerns if relevant) in regards to your child’s learning. 

 

This gives our teachers some valuable information to guide student learning in Term 4, when onsite face-to-face learning resumes. 

Lastly, don't forget that there will be NO onsite supervision available on 15 September. 

 

Staff Departures

The end of Term 3 also sees the departure of two staff members. 

 

Joy Irving has announced her retirement from the Food Technology assistant role that she has carried out for over twenty years. Joy has been a constant source of support in the Food Tech area for Mrs Hawkins and other Food Tech teachers over the years, and has always been available for a chat for other staff, and most importantly, many students. Her easy going nature, and wicked sense of humour, will be missed by many. We wish her well and hope to see her at the College from time to time. 

 

James Rowe has only been with us since the start of the year, however it is very likely that quite a few students will miss him very much. James and his family will be moving to Queensland over the September holidays, meaning that he will not return to the College in Term 4. In just a short time, James (as Student Wellbeing and Support Officer) has proved himself indispensable to a number of our secondary students. We wish him and his family the best of luck as they move to the next chapter of their lives. 

Goodbye from me…

This is my last Principal Report. I would like to restate my gratitude to students, staff and the wider Edenhope College community for their support, and for allowing me to lead this great school over the past four years. 

I would like to make special mention of the following people:

  • My Leadership Team over the past three years, Mr Trevor McClure and Ms Emma Wallace (and, of course, Ms Rachel Tiddy and Mrs Michelle Lowe, who have moved on to other employment). Working with this team of leaders has been very rewarding.
  • All of the staff of the College who have worked extremely hard at improving collegiality in the College, but specifically our three PLC leaders, Kara Shuttleworth, Kim Thornton and Jen Altmann, who will continue (I am sure) to expect the highest of standards in our teaching and learning program, and our administration team, Sarah Joubert, Kellie Jude, Lisa Oliver and Edwina Hare (without whom the job of principal would be virtually impossible).
  • A number of professional colleagues (past and present) who have been instrumental in shaping the education leader that I have become, including Ian Shaw, Dennis Pearson, Kathryn Duncan, Robyn Hollis, Ian Trigg, Jo Artz, Ron Cerbasi, Jim Sheridan, Norm Robinson, Liz Kealy and Carole Mulraney.
  • School Councillors, past and present, and the Council Presidents who have offered so much support and advice, Mr Shane Adams and Mrs Nikki Hollis.
  • The many hundreds of students (some of whom are now in their thirties!) that I have had the pleasure of teaching. I thank them for listening (or at least pretending to listen) to what I have had to say over the years.

Lastly, I would not have been able to carry out this job without the support, and patience, of my wife, Kat, and my children. They have often had to come second place, but they have always taken that in their stride. 

 

Thank you, Edenhope College. 

 

Jon Neall

Principal 

 

Principal