Principal Team Editorial

Each term we encourage parents/carers, regardless of their child’s year level, to come along to a Parent/Carer Forum. The purpose of the forum is to provide parents/carers with the opportunity to meet other families, hear from the Principal team about what some of our key initiatives are and give feedback about what’s working well for their child and what improvements could be made. 

'when schools and families work together, students are more likely to achieve'

Last Tuesday, I started the forum with an overview of the Parent Opinion Survey results and highlighted some of the areas with high positive endorsement such as ‘general satisfaction,’ and ‘school pride and confidence,’ ‘school communication’ and ‘high expectations for success.’ We then looked at some areas for growth which was further reiterated in the parent feedback session. 

I shared some Term 3 Staff Pulse Check survey ‘word clouds’ which highlighted what teachers love most about coming to work, and we discussed the challenges that staff have reported feeling around general workload, staffing and time. 

Term 3 Staff Pulse Check: What do you like about coming to work? Here is a snapshot of responses from staff in Term 3, in answer to this question:

It was great to discuss with parents/carers the positive work we have been doing regarding our Rubbish Campaign, particularly in celebrating the impact it is having in raising awareness and challenging ‘habits’ as students and staff are collectively taking responsibility to ‘do the right thing’. 

During our feedback sessions, it was also useful to discuss the new measures we have in place to support students using the toilets in a safe and timely manner. 

A key focus for us this term has been the School Review and the formulation of our new strategic plan which will guide our school direction for the next four years. It was great to share some initial findings of the panel around the progressive work we are doing in learning and teaching and our collective focus on improving the consistency of teacher practice across all classes. I look forward to sharing what our strategic plan will be at our term four Parent/Carer forum. 

We ended our Parent Forum with a brief discussion about the exciting upcoming building projects, both planned and underway, before undertaking a short tour.  The tour incorporated the Inclusion spaces, Uniform Shop, Toilets, Pathways Hub and the new buildings.

Essentially our Parent/Carer Forums are a great way for us to strengthen connections between families and school which we know are a significant factor in improving student outcomes. Research has shown that when schools and families work together, students are more likely to achieve the following outcomes:

• stay in school longer
• are more engaged with their schoolwork 
• attend school more regularly
• behave better
• have better social skills
• are more engaged with positive pathways beyond school

We appreciate how busy families are, however, we’d love to have more parents/careers come along to our forum as we believe it’s a great way to get to know the school better and gain valuable insights into what we are doing and why we are doing it, as well as give feedback about whether it’s having an impact! 

Term 4 Parent/Carer Forum – Tue 19 Nov

*Save the Date*

Focus: our new four-year Strategic Plan. Come along and find out what our school goals and key improvement strategies are.

Carrie Wallis

Principal