DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Now that we have settled into Term 2 we are no longer ‘just back from holidays’ and the focus is well and truly on the business and busyness of being at school. At the beginning of the year, we shifted to a new timetable structure which meant we moved to having five lessons a day. Students and staff have adapted well to this and while it hasn’t been without challenges we have found many benefits of this new daily schedule. Unfortunately one of the challenges that some students are still struggling with is getting to class on time and also, for some, getting to Homeroom on time. We have five College Community Expectations and one of these is that “We are on time and ready to learn”. It is each person’s responsibility to make sure they are organised for the day and know where they need to be. We have bells and movement music to remind us throughout the day. When students are late to class it can have a big impact on the way the class starts. Punctuality is an important practice that applies not only at school but to many aspects of life and we certainly expect students to be on time for each lesson.

Winter Sports Day is coming up on Wednesday next week. Many of our students will go out to participate in different sports and we wish them an enjoyable and successful day. For those students who are not participating we plan an alternate program for the day. The reason for providing an alternate program is to engage the students not involved in sporting teams in activities that are enjoyable and productive, giving them different opportunities to engage with their peers. A considerable amount of work goes into both preparing the alternate program and co-ordinating the sports for the day and so it is extremely disappointing when some students decide to have a day off. This is a school day for students, whether they are playing sports or participating in the alternate program. Senior classes will proceed as timetabled. 

We have been posting recently about our uniform as the change in weather is becoming more noticeable. Our updated uniform offers options for students to dress according to the climate. Students are encouraged to dress for warmth as the temperature will drop in the coming weeks of Term 2. Some reminders:

• Tights can be worn with the winter skirt however are not to be worn with the summer dress. The College ‘MacKillop’ tartan skirt is not to be rolled up and should be worn to mid-knee
• The old school jacket with white piping is no longer part of our uniform and should not be worn. Students may choose to wear the new school jacket either with or without the maroon jumper. 
• The PE jumper is only to be worn with the PE uniform, not as an alternate jumper. 

We appreciate that families have had to wait for school socks however they are back in stock at Clarks.  We also have plenty of school beanies for purchase in the Front Office should students like to wear a beanie.