Principal's Message

Good afternoon and welcome back to school!

I hope that everyone managed to relax a little and stay away from stinky COVID!

We have walked back into routine, structure and predictability pretty well across these two weeks. Classes have been settled and overall the students have been very responsible and just 'into it' again.

OK ... now for a grumble. Let’s reflect on the idea of setting yourself up for a successful day. As I stood in the yard this morning, my mood became pretty grumpy.

I want to focus on 2 things:

1. I am not sure how to make it any clearer - students are expected to be at school on time:

• That means being in the school at 8:40 am.
• The warning bell goes at 8:45 am.
• Classes START at 8:50 am.
• Wandering into the grounds at 8:55 am is simply not OK.

2. Grey tracksuit pants are NOT school uniform:

• So when your children are challenged about being in uniform no one should be surprised.
• This is a negative start to the day and truthfully totally unnecessary and a waste of valuable time.
• What a surprise that we seem to have a small numbers of friendship groups who 'all' happen to not have blue pants and all happen to be in 'grey trackies' for the day.

Both of these points are fundamental to expectations and the values of the College.

I would very much appreciate your support in this, plus if you would like to discuss this further, I am very happy to do so

Yes, I openly admit, this has made me cross, as it is so unnecessary. 

Another challenge is again staffing and sickness. I know that we are in the same situation as most schools in the area, in fact in the state – but having said that 'we are very much stretched super thin'. During week one, we averaged 12 staff away due to illness. I absolutely acknowledge that this is not the desirable start to the term and that students having substitute teachers is not what we want. But, truly little else can be done at this time, please be patient with us. The staff really can not do anymore than they are, and so many are going way above and beyond!

Now for the positives.....

Earlier this week, we ran a process to appoint an Assistant Principal for the next 5 years. It is my great pleasure to announce that Kylie Greenaway has been successful in attaining this position.

It was a delight to see a large number of people applying to work at BSC and show an interest in our College. The quality of the field was exceptionally high. Kylie has worked at the College for over 10 years. (Taking into account some family leave.) Kylie has always displayed a high degree of professionalism and her capacity to support student growth, lead staff and support the College goals and vision is exceptional. I look forward to continuing to work with Kylie, as we strive for constant improvement.

One of the great pleasures of this job, is when we meet and discuss programs and courses with our 'Top 20' students from each year level. Week 1, we chatted with the Year 12 students and today we chatted with the Year 11 students. This work is just a joy! We have students who are just incredible, they are driven to do well, they have set personal goals, they are achieving at the highest standards and are just fantastic young people to boot! I was so proud of them all, as I hope they are of themselves. 

The frightening things is for our Year 12 students, (and their teachers) they only have 15 weeks until the English exam!

So that’s me signing off until the next fortnight.

I hope you stay warm and well. 

As is always the case, I am happy to chat anytime and if you are looking for a 'sniff test' around the College – I would be happy to escort you! 😊

Thanks  😊

Trudie Nagle

Principal