Principal's Address
Year 7 Transition – Day 1
The first day of Year 6 into 7 transition is on Monday 30 June. I am looking forward to seeing all of our new ‘high school’ students on the day and enjoying being a part of their first transition day. A reminder to Year 6 students to wear their normal school uniform, bring a pencil case and lunch or money plus a positive ‘try anything’ attitude.
The new Year 7’s first lesson will be a problem solving scenario that only team work and critical thinking can overcome!
Semester 1 Reports
As I have mentioned in a previous newsletter article, all Kindergarten to Year 12 reports are now being shared with parents digitally, replacing the hard copy that was sent home with students. These reports will be available for viewing via the Compass Parent Portal on the last day of Term 2. If you have not yet logged into the Compass app, please follow the instructions below and contact the office for your unique username and password.
To download and use Compass as a parent:
Download the Compass School Manager app from your device's app store.
When first opening the app, select your child's school.
Sign in using your school-issued Compass username and password (not your email address). If this is your first login, you'll need to confirm your contact details and change your temporary password. (Please call the office if you do not have your login).
Once logged in, you'll see your home page with:• Your children's profiles at the top• Notifications requiring your action• School newsfeed• Shortcuts for quick actions• Navigation menu at the bottom
I take the time to read all student reports before they go home to parents to ensure mistakes are minimal but also to see how all students are progressing in their classes and subject areas. Whilst I am very pleased when I see students achieving highly academically, I am equally pleased when I can see that a student is trying their best in all areas. This sustained effort enables a student to achieve individual excellence and sets the platform for a successful post school pathway.
For those K-6 students who are achieving highly academically, or demonstrating sustained effort in all areas, or both, I send home a Principal’s Certificate. For the Year 7-11 students, I will send a personal letter to the student and their parents. These will be sent via the mail and may arrive a day or 2 after the reports are released to parents for viewing.
Please continue to encourage your child(ren) to try their very best in every class, everyday. By working in collaboration with students and their families, the school’s staff will have the greatest positive impact on the learning outcomes for all students.
Changes in Infants / Primary
Staff
Miss Friend has taken maternity leave for the remainder of 2026. We wish her the best of luck for the upcoming birth of her first child and hope to meet her new little person in the near future.
Replacing Miss Friend on the 1/2 class is Miss Phoebe Wood. Miss Wood has been at Boorowa Central School for 2 years and is very familiar with the students, the class structure and its processes. I am confident that the students in 1/2 will continue seamlessly on their learning journey through this transition.
Replacing Miss Wood as the Release from Face to Face Teacher / Intervention Teacher is Ms Laura Ewan. Ms Ewan joins us from Balgowlah Public School in the Northern Beaches of Sydney and brings with her 13 years of teaching experience. Ms Ewan has been at Boorowa Central School for 3 weeks now and is already having a positive impact in the classroom.
Additional Class
Boorowa Central School will be establishing an additional class in semester 2 – a Year 3/4 class. This class will be taught by Mr Matthew Rowley. Mr Rowley has taught at Boorowa Central School for 4 years and is a popular teacher among the primary students.
This establishment means that many students will change classes and teachers which will be unsettling initially. However, the benefit of this change is that all classes will reduce in size, enabling a stronger focus on learning and enhanced 1 on 1 support for all students.
Playground structure
In weeks 9 and 10, Infants and Primary students have a modified playground routine and structure.
Rather than all students eating and playing at the same time, the school has made the decision to split K-6 in half for eating and play. Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 4 and Year 5 will eat first, and then play. Year 2, Year 3 and Year 6 will play first then eat. This structure is applied to both the lunch break and the recess break.
To accommodate this, the recess break has been extended by 10 minutes and additional teacher duties have been introduced.
By implementing this strategy, we hope to achieve the goal of maximising fun play in the playground and calm transitions to and from class.
The playground structure change will be evaluated at the end of the term.
Secondary staff changes
Mrs Claire Cosgrove went on Maternity leave 2 weeks ago, for the rest of 2026. We wish her the best of luck for her journey into parenthood. Unfortunately, the school was unable to recruit a replacement PDHPE Teacher for the remainder of Term 2 so some internal changes were made to accommodate this. This means that the teacher for some classes were changed but overall, the impact was minimal. On a personal level, it means I am in classroom for an additional 10 periods a fortnight which I am enjoying.
The Learning Hub Teacher position is still yet to be permanently filled but recruitment processes are underway. In the meantime, I would like to thank Ms Annabelle Scott and Mrs Heather Shore for sharing this position. I would also like to thank Mrs Julia Corcoran for continuing to run the very popular K-6 Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Program and for working an additional day per week, teaching Stage 4 Technology Mandatory and assisting with Stage 5 Food Technology.
Attendance and behaviour tracking in secondary
At our 3-weekly assembly this week I presented the secondary students with their cohort attendance and behaviour data for the previous 3 weeks. I have been doing this at every assembly this year to raise a sense of collective efficacy and promote a positive culture of attending everyday and making pro-learning choices.
Attendance
Year 10 had the highest attendance over the last 3 weeks in Secondary with 82%, with Year 8 being the biggest improvers.
Behaviour
Year 12 continued their dominance in the behaviour domain with yet another perfect score of 0 negative entries. Year 7 significantly improved their behaviour over the past 2 weeks going from an average of 9 negative entries a week to 3!
Congratulations to all the students who make positive choices everyday – keep up the good work. Boorowa Central School is a better place to be because of you.
NSW Public Schools Survey
In Term 2, our students are participating in the NSW Public Schools Student Survey. The survey gives students the chance to share their thoughts and feelings about life at school, including questions about their engagement, learning experiences and wellbeing at school.
Hearing directly from our students will help us understand what’s working well and where improvements can be made to our school. The survey is confidential, takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and will be conducted online during school hours.
Participation is voluntary. If you prefer your child not to participate, please complete the opt-out consent form, which will be sent home, and return it to the school. Further information about the survey is available at https://education.nsw.gov.au/about-us/education-data-and-research/nsw-public-schools-surveys.
End of the Term
This is the final edition of the school’s newsletter for Term 2 with only 1 week remaining before the July School Holidays. I wish to thank the staff at Boorowa Central School for their ongoing dedication to their roles and hope that they have a restful and rejuvenating break.
I would also like to thank the parents and families of our great little central school. Without your ongoing support, our roles would become very challenging indeed.
Have a happy and restful break. School returns for all students on 22 July.