PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Carys Waetford State Champion (again!)

Carys Waetford once again gets gold in both the 100m (13.1 secs) and 200m (26.8 secs) at the recent State School Championships. Well done Carys, you truly are a champion! Carys has been a State Winner for the last five years. Outstanding effort. Next stop, nationals...

Starting early on absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism signals educational and developmental risk. Research shows that truancy at the start of the school year influences attendance later in the year too, with ramifications for educational outcomes. Schools should carefully monitor truancy in the early weeks of the school year, diagnose the reasons and work hard to change the pattern so that it doesn’t continue and lead to poor performance. Second, schools should also be on the lookout for student lateness early in the school year. Although lateness early in the year isn’t correlated with truancy later on, it is highly correlated with continued lateness, and being late for school has an impact on achievement and classroom environment. Third, the study suggests that educators should track truancy and lates throughout the school year, watching for patterns.

“Does Truancy Beget Truancy? Evidence from Elementary School” by Michael Gottfried in The Elementary School Journal, September 2017

As a school we put a lot of resources into ensuring that parents and carers are made aware of their students absences from school however we rely on your support in getting students to understand the importance of attending every day. The correlation between attendance, academic results and lifelong outcomes is very clear and underlines the importance of a positive attitude towards education in general. The leadership team and school council will focus on developing and implementing attendance strategies as a priority for 2018.

Drop off and pick ups

Frankston City Council has reviewed the safety around school drop offs and pick ups and has made a number of recommendations. One is that they have requested that we remind all members of the school community to adhere to local laws and remind members of the community about the impact of non-compliance. These range from the safety of students (including those from the primary school), neighbourhood consternation, rerouting council resources which results in additional cost to the community, as well as the possibility of being issued with an infringement notice.

The safety of our young people is our number one priority and all those who drop off and pick up students can assist by ensuring that they are very mindful of adhering to local laws and not parking in areas they should not as they wait for their student to meet them. Another recommendation from the Frankston City Council is that we take the notion of the “Kiss and Go Zone” to school council for discussion. I will provide an update after our November meeting.