From the Principal Team 

Life on the secondary campus has begun to feel more “normal” with the staggered return of students. Students have been overwhelmingly happy to return and catch up with friends, teachers and reboot into the routines of school life. Thank you to families for their efforts on reminding their children about the importance of wearing masks throughout the day and to respect the physical distancing towards others during this period. We have had very little issue with this which is a credit to all involved. We are working with a range of complexities around the transition back to onsite learning and have been providing significant wellbeing resources to meet individual student needs. I would like to add that the peer support that has been evident amongst students has been very inspiring. Staff have focused on maintaining routines, providing encouraging and positive acknowledgements of student interactions, and acting with calm, care and understanding when students have experienced difficulties in completion of tasks - especially whilst in remote learning. Our staff and students have managed a hybrid model of learning while onsite at school. In between, there has been strong emphasis on effectively completing studies for assessment and reporting in Semester Two which is only a few weeks away.

Returning to onsite learning is not a simple exercise, so we have re-allocated office spaces to provide quiet spaces conducive to online learning over the last few weeks. We have implemented our Covid-19 safety plan which has divided cohorts so that we can trace primary and secondary close contacts in the event of a positive case. This includes the division of spaces during recess and lunch times. Once again, our students have adhered to the conditions with no fuss or fanfare. Thank you to parents/families for their efforts on preparing their children with information on Covid-19 and by maintaining Covid-safe practices and social distancing at the beginning and end of the day.

We are looking forward to a number of activities and important events leading into the last part of the year. The Year 11 students will have exams and the Year 10 and 11 students will participate in Step Up Week for 2022. Both programs are very important preparation for next year which will be exciting for our College as we embark on our inaugural Year 12 group! We have finalised our Year 7 VIA (Veritas, Innovate, Accelerate) selections, so prospective families will receive offers to the program over the next few days. The VIA program is another exciting addition to our teaching & learning program introduced with tremendous success in 2021. The Year 7 & 8 Activity Week looks like it will be able to proceed as pandemic restrictions ease later in the year. This will finally give our students the chance to participate in a fun range of activities to conclude the year and finish on a high note. At the time of writing, we are planning a revised Awards Day ceremony to celebrate student achievement across the college and our goal is to provide all students with positivity and reinforcement of self throughout the remainder of the school year.

I hope you have the opportunity for some quality family time and escape for the long weekend. 

Once again, thank you for your support and efforts through this time. 

Bill & Bonnie.