Some words from the Principal

Student Transition Sessions for 2025

A reminder that students will find out their 2025 class teacher and class mates on Tuesday 10th December.  Classes (as outlined in Issue 16 Newsletter) will be communicated to students on this day. Students also participated in a Step up day today where they were excited to learn about the their upcoming year level activities!

2025 Student Leadership 

Over the past few weeks, the Year 5 students, teachers, specialist and leadership teams have worked with our current student captains to work through the process to help us identify next year’s school leaders. The aim is to create a process that provides students with a realistic experience of an application scenario. This began in the Year 5 Writing sessions, where students worked to create a speech for their preferred role. Students then delivered School Captain and Student Voice speeches to the entire Year 5 cohort. From there, students were shortlisted by teachers and current School Captains to progress to the interview stage. 

In their interview, students that had been shortlisted were asked the questions like: 

• What do you think are some characteristics that an effective leader has?
• What are your current strengths as a leader and what do you believe you need to enhance? 
• What are some of the Actions you would like to do as a Captain? 
• If you were to take someone on a tour of Karoo, what would you show them and talk about?

Below are some of the key highlights of the student interview process: 

• Students overcame their nerves 
• All students mentioned the school values and how they display them 
• Students came prepared (notes, portfolios, resumes etc) 
• Many students spoke about the fact that they are 'still a leader' regardless of whether they get the role or not 
• All students brought their different personalities to the table 

Student leaders will be presented their Badges at the ceremony on 

Friday 13th December. 

Note:  Students will then engage in a handover process between the 2024 and 2025 Student Leaders.

Curriculum Days for 2025 - Lock these dates in your diary now!

1. Tuesday 28th January - no OSHC
2. Tuesday 11th March (after the Labour day Public Holiday) - No OSHC
3. Monday May 19th - OSHC provided

Please note there will also also be a reporting days with dates TBC in 2025 

End of Year Extravaganza and Christmas Raffle

Our traditional Christmas Raffle Stocking is beginning to fill up and raffle tickets came home last week.  Thankyou to those that have donated or already bought Raffle Tickets.  We will be drawing the raffle at the end of our Award Ceremony on Wednesday 18th Dec so there is still plenty of time to donate or buy tickets.  All money raised is going toward upgrading our Science building! 

School Council 2024

A big thank you to our School Council members and all the work they do behind the scenes to support the running of our school. Next week we will have our final meeting for the year and acknowledge all that we have achieved. I'd specifically like to make a special mention of Serryn Bryant, our School Council President and Tony Khouri, our Vice President. Serryn and Tony have been a voice for the community and it has been a pleasure to work with them both throughout 2024.  

If you are interested in being on Council, new positions will be advertised early in 2025, so keep an eye out for the information and nominations.

School Review 2025 – A Collaborative Journey Toward Growth and Excellence

Every four years, all schools participate in a review process designed to align with the aspirations of their community and measure success against planned outcomes. This process is led by an external team from the Department of Education and includes a Reviewer, our School Education Improvement Leader (SEIL), two Principals acting as Challenge Partners, as well as our own School Council President, Serryn Bryant, and School Councillor Jess Thompson.

Throughout Terms 3 and 4 this year, the leadership team has been working closely with staff to review our data and practices from the past four years. As part of this process, we have prepared a PRSE (Pre-Review Self-Evaluation), which assesses whether we met the targets set in our previous strategic plan. This report, alongside key documentation, will be submitted to the review team before the review begins in Term 1, 2025.

Our review is scheduled to start on Wednesday March 5th, 2025, and will span over three weeks. During this time, the review team will conduct whole-school observations, hold in-depth conversations with students and staff, and gather insights from parents through a Parent Focus Group. These discussions and observations, combined with school documentation, will form a comprehensive evidence base.

The findings will be summarised into key insights, providing an invaluable opportunity for the leadership team to reflect on our achievements and set an ambitious strategic plan for the next four years.

We are excited about this process as it allows us to celebrate our successes and identify areas for growth. More information will be shared at the start of next year, including how parents can participate in focus groups.

Leadership looks forward to engaging with the school community throughout this process and continuing our journey toward excellence together.

Enjoy your week and keep reading Compass as the weeks are very busy as we head into the last few weeks of the school year. 

Danielle Heatley

Principal