From the Deputy Principal 

Have we come a long way, or do we still have a long way to go?

The opening line in an ABC news article on Thursday 6 September 2018 stated:

“All male and female surfers will be awarded the same prize money at all WSL events from 2019, the League said today”. The article went on to say what a proud day it was for the WSL (World Surf League) and included a comment from one of Australia’s own surfing champions, Stephanie Gilmore, who said: "I feel like the momentum in our society to have this conversation is incredible — because it’s not just in surfing, or in sport, that women are fighting for equality in the workplace. It’s everywhere.”

In reading that article, and many similar articles, my first thought is always, how come it has taken so long for there to be equality in sport or the workplace? Then I remind myself that at least it is happening, and we have come a long way. That we are getting to the stage of having all sexes participating (and being paid equitably!) in activities long since regarded as exclusive to a specific group, where people were discriminated solely because of their gender, is a change for the better. Thank goodness for our young people who are leading the way in this regard. 

Speaking of young people leading the way – we had our first student led Secondary Assembly on Wednesday that was completely organised and run by our student leaders. They proved themselves as young leaders of our future. Two of our Year 12’s, Holly and Niah gave an excellent speech on International Women’s Day – make sure you read them later in this Newsletter. Meanwhile, two of our current Year 6 students were honoured for the way they “led the way” here at MAG on “Give Back Day 2021” by winning the “Young Legend’s Award” from Keep Australia Beautiful NSW – Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns. As I have said in previous Newsletters – with students like ours at MAG, the future is looking bright!

Feedback from the whole MAG community is an important part of informing what we do here at school. Two years ago, our students, teachers, leaders, Board and parents/guardians participated in the AIS (Association of Independent Schools) Perspectives Surveys. The questions are specifically written for schools to gather important data to guide school improvement. In the period of May 2 to May 15 2022 we will be asking our MAG community to complete these surveys again. That way we will have 2022 data to compare to our 2020 data and will add to the value of information and assist in guiding us into the future. You will receive details in emails from both our Communications department and AIS, so keep an eye out for these.

SEQTA is our learning management system and contains three core parts; SEQTA Teach, SEQTA Learn and SEQTA Engage.

• SEQTA Teach, includes curriculum planning, mapping, assessment and reporting pastoral care and is used by teachers.
• SEQTA Learn, is the student online environment. This is currently mainly used by our Secondary students and is accessible on any device over the internet and at school. Thereby giving students access to everything they need to learn more effectively, and tools that allow them to stretch themselves, be more interactive with what they are learning and achieve better outcomes.
• SEQTA Engage, is the online environment for parents/guardians to access Reports and timetables and for Secondary parents/guardians to access timely feedback from teachers as well as details around future assessment and day to day learning activities.

Stay tuned for SEQTA updates in the Newsletter and for relevant SEQTA parent/guardian information sessions.

By now all parents/guardians should have logged into SEQTA Engage. This is where Primary families see their child’s timetable and access end of Semester Reports. With COR (Continuous Online Reporting) in the Secondary School, parents/guardians can also access grades and comments from teachers about formal and informal assessment only a few weeks after they occur. If you have any issues getting into SEQTA Engage, please email help@moamagrammar.nsw.edu.au 

Enjoy this long weekend with family and friends and as always, thank you for all your support in working with us to provide the best education and care for your child here at Moama Anglican Grammar.

Mrs Kathleen Kemp

Deputy Principal