Principal's Report

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” Benjamin Franklin

Students who are healthy and active have more energy and demonstrate persistence in their learning. We encourage our students to be physically active throughout their school day. We encouraged all student to participate in the 3km cross country run and hope that as parents you ask your child about how they approached this physical challenge. Young people must expend energy to gain energy for their learning. Please take a look at the link below which provides additional insights on how to encourage persistence in young people.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Staffing Update

We would like to introduce our new team members:

Tim Jones - Maths/PE
Emily Papadimitriou - Humanities/Communicate and Relate
Karlie Arnold - Food Technology

Open Night

Open Night was a huge success with lots of positive energy from all. Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who assisted with the tours. It was wonderful to have over 60 student ambassadors across learning areas and leading tours of their college. We had over 500 people through the school. Each year our culture grows and this year it was felt by all those who walked through the school.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN went well last week. All students did the online NAPLAN and catch up is happening this week. We used our new spaces for the Year 9s to complete the NAPLAN together. Our Year 7 students approached the NAPLAN with a positive attitude. They exhibited persistence with the new online version which was terrific to see.

Buildings & Grounds Update

You may notice that some cladding has been removed on the Balcombe Road side of Stage 2 extension. The new school sign will make the name of the school more visible from Balcombe Road. We have had another 50 air purifiers delivered. These will mean that we won’t need to purge the windows as often as we move into the colder months. We now have our vape sensors in all the toilets. These sensors should discourage the use of vapes.

Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs)

RATs will continue to be distributed to you as they have been throughout this school year for the remainder of this term. However, from Monday 23 May 2022, students will no longer be recommended to undertake either twice weekly RATs in mainstream schools or 5 days a week in specialist schools. RATs however will continue to be required by students who are household contacts to attend school (5 negative tests over a 7 day period) or who have symptoms.

The ongoing supply of RATs to families in our school will ensure that parents and carers will have them should they need them if their child is a household contact or has symptoms.

Families must continue to notify the Department of Health and the school if their child returns a positive RAT result. Additionally, you should inform us if any of your children are household contacts.

Thank you also to all families who has got their child vaccinated. Vaccination continues to remain the best way to protect students and staff in our school. Getting vaccinated is easy and bookings can be done via the coronavirus website. If you have any questions about the vaccines, I encourage you to speak to your GP or a health practitioner.

Many parents have been asking about the rules for close contacts. Please read the following:

A student or staff member is a household contact or household-like contact*.

You have spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID-19 inside a house, accommodation, or care facility.

Contact at school is not included in this definition

Notify the school that they are a household or household-like contact.

Follow the Checklist for COVID contacts.

Household contacts are no longer required to quarantine as long as they take additional safety measures, but are required to:

notify the school if returning during their 7 day period;
undertake daily rapid antigen testing five times within the 7 days;
wear a face covering when indoors (if aged 8 years and above or unless they have a valid exemption);
are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies.

They are recommended to avoid interaction with people at higher risk of severe disease from COVID-19.

If symptomatic, all students/staff must stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test if a rapid antigen testing kit unavailable.

Thank you again for your ongoing cooperation and support during this time.

Professional Practice Day - 16 June 2022

Please note that all staff will be participating in a Professional Practice Day on Thursday 16 June. Students are not required at school on this day.

Debby Chaves

Principal