SCHOOL LEADERSHIP MESSAGE

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

This week, our Senior Education Improvement Leader asked me to continue in the Acting Principal role for 2026. It is a great honour to serve the Korumburra Secondary School community as Principal. I am looking forward to continuing to lead our dedicated staff to support our students in aiming high and thriving in their learning and well-being. Ellen Sorrell will continue in the Acting Assistant Principal – Teaching and Learning role.

It was with great excitement that our CrossFit Stations opened last week. I have enjoyed seeing students using the equipment safely and having fun. Feedback from students suggests that the level of challenge suits them, though perhaps a couple more footholds on the climbing wall would be helpful. As the week has gone on, more students are rising to the challenge and finding they can get over the 3m wall.

We farewelled our Class of 2025 last week with several traditions that have become a hallmark of a respectful end to their school life. The Sentinel Times featured a double-page spread of these students this week. We wish them all the best for their future pathways.

Attendance

A focus for our school is to reduce the number of unexplained absences. Currently over 20% of our student absences are not explained. The goal for our Network of schools is under 10%, and I have seen some schools reduce it to below 1%. We will be increasing our focus over the next 6 months to reduce the number of unexplained absences.

The Department policy is clear. Parents/Carers have a responsibility to inform the school if their child is absent. It is an obligation. The following is from the Department attendance policy, which we have adopted at KSC:

Policy

Korumburra Secondary College parents/carers are committed to ensuring their child/children attend school on time every day when instruction is offered, to communicating openly with the school and providing valid explanations for any absence.
Parents/Carers will communicate with the relevant staff at Korumburra Secondary College about any issues affecting their child’s attendance and work in partnership with the school to address any concerns.
Parents/Carers will provide a reasonable explanation for their child’s absence from school and endeavour to schedule family holidays, appointments and other activities outside of school hours.

Please contact the school reception on 56551566 to report a student's absence or log in to Compass to explain an absence. If you need help logging in to Compass, please ask for the IT Department; they are happy to help.

Updated Policies

A lot of work has gone into updating our school policies over the last two terms, and some of these have been included in the newsletter today. These have also been added to our website.

Revised policies are on the bright and colourful new template and include:

Student Wellbeing and Engagement
Bullying Prevention
Visitors
Volunteers
Complaints
First Aid
Anaphylaxis
Camps and Excursions
Yard Duty and Supervision
Acceptable User Agreement (replaces Digital Technologies)
Child Safety
Child Safety Code of Conduct
Aboriginal Learning Wellbeing and Safety Action Plan
Child Safety Induction Pack, Volunteers
Child Safe Standards Risk Register
Child Safety Responding and Reporting Obligations
Communications Policy
Statement of Values and School Philosophy

The Policy subcommittee has worked solidly to review and update these policies, and all are compliant with Department of Education Guidelines. Thanks to Julie Johnstone for her work in editing and formatting these, and to Amy Gallagher, Brendan Kellow, Holly Fowler, Kim Fowles and Brad Beach for their work on the Policy Subcommittee.