Intensive English Centre

Term 2 has been a vibrant and eventful time in the Intensive English Centre, full of growth, change, and celebration for both students and staff!

We began the term by farewelling two valued team members. Mrs Harrison has begun maternity leave to welcome baby number two — congratulations! We also bid farewell to Mr Basharyaar, who has taken an exciting new position at Service NSW. Well done, Mr Basharyaar! At the same time, we were thrilled to welcome back Mrs Deen from maternity leave.

A big thank you to Mr Morgan and Mrs Harrison, who both stepped up as acting Head Teachers for Stage 5 and Stage 4, respectively — your leadership has been greatly appreciated. In Term 3, we look forward to welcoming Mrs Fernando as the new Head Teacher for Stage 4 and a new staff member, Ms Lee, who will be teaching History. This term, we also had the pleasure of hosting Ms Batool, Ms Mahmood, and Ms Guan — all training to be SLSOs. It was a joy to have you learning with us.

We hit the ground running with our SLT elections, coordinated by Ms Southern. We now have an incredible team of 21 student leaders who’ve brought energy and initiative to the team. They’ve focused on student voice, uniform, and bus expectations, and have been full of fresh ideas. Well done, SLT!

Our Wellbeing Team grew stronger too, with the addition of Ms Ngo and Ms Alfaraon. Ms Ngo introduced the Drop In Space, a safe and welcoming place for students needing support. Meanwhile, Ms Alfaraon launched Class Dojo, and students have loved earning points in their classrooms.

This term saw the continuation of a wide range of powerful wellbeing programs: Settling In, Bold Brave and Beautiful, Journeys, Blacktown Women’s and Girls Health Centre, Girls Groups, Boys Group, Transitions, Transitions Drama, Drumming and Haka. Over 200 students participated — an amazing commitment to personal growth. A special thanks to Karen File from STARTTS, whose work continues to enrich many of these programs.

Weeks 4 and 5 were particularly action-packed. Our students shone at the Athletics Carnival, with many qualifying for Zone — an incredible achievement. We also held our very first Evans IEC Open Night, organised by Mrs Harrison and her team. It was a fantastic evening connecting with families, showcasing classrooms and student projects, and engaging in hands-on Maths, Music and Art activities. We continued to support student wellbeing with vaccinations (thank you, Mrs Butt — enjoy your overseas holiday), and held important conversations with our senior boys, led by Charmaine Lai and Senior Constable Alan Franklin, about rights and responsibilities in Australian society. These sessions sparked great interest — some students even expressed a desire to pursue policing careers. Students completed their Unassisted Writing with impressive improvements in spelling, grammar, and expression. Class 52M also attended Fusion, a dynamic resilience program building emotional regulation and coping strategies.

The term was packed with exciting enrichment activities:

Special Religious Education led by Mrs Fernando and Mrs Leung
A TAFE Visit with Mr Morgan and Ms Ngo
Multiple transition conversations with Ms Lau
AVISTA Science Program organised by Mrs Bautista
A Police Storytelling Session hosted by Charmaine and Alan

Among the many highlights was the Boys Group Library Interviews, where students suited up and practised real-life job interviews — thank you, Mr Vargas.

Another standout was World Refugee Day, a celebration of culture, identity, and community. Students proudly wore traditional dress and shared moving cultural performances — a big thank you to Mrs Alfaraon, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Raj, Mrs Pather, and our SLSO team for making the day so special.

World of Maths Day was a hands-on success, with students rotating through 17 exciting and challenging maths stations — expertly run by Mrs Chopra.

We also celebrated artistic excellence! A huge congratulations to Ali Rahimi and Mahnaz Zawarzada, who received Refugee Week Art Awards as part of the Borders, Bonds and Belonging exhibition. Their beautiful artwork has earned them recognition at Parramatta Town Hall on June 26. We are so proud of you both.

We must acknowledge the following students who received the Student of the Week Award in Term 2, 2025. Milad Hassan Zada, Salwa Atal, Jamshid Hakmati, Eden Gher, Karish Haritharshan and Hara Kwon. Congratulations to these Respectful, Trustworthy and Motivated students.

Finally, we farewell 80 students as they graduate from the IEC and move on to their new high schools. You’ve each worked incredibly hard and grown so much — we wish you all the best for this next exciting chapter in your education.

Thank you to our staff, students, and families for making Term 2 such a rewarding and memorable one. We can’t wait to see what Term 3 brings.

Miss Kavanagh