Principal's Report

Production

We are almost half way through our production run of The Addams Family with opening night last Wednesday and sell out performances since.  I made no secret in the last newsletter that based on what I had seen in rehearsal, that this was a show you couldn’t afford to miss!!  Now that I have actually seen the show in full, I couldn’t have been more right! For me, it’s the sum of all the parts that makes our productions a standout from the rest.  From the moment you walk in the door you become immersed in the show, from our front of house team to our backstage team, all of our cast and crew, the sets, the music, the lights, the sounds, rarely will you find better.  The production is an example of why we are a great school.  It’s our people, staff, students and volunteers: they are outstanding.  It’s as simple and as complex as that. 

Well done to the whole Addams Family team!

Compass

Parents may have noticed changes to the Compass portal and app since the start of term. These enhancements, done by Compass for all schools, happened to coincide with a review we were already undertaking of how we use Compass school-wide, particularly relating to student attendance.  Over the next month, we will be communicating changes to some processes. At any stage, we welcome feedback from parents on Compass and any such changes, and should you like to know more about what Compass can provide you, regarding your children and the school, please drop in or get in touch with the General Office.

Attendance Processes

As is stated above, recent changes to Compass have forced us to evaluate the processes we used to check and communicate attendance issues with students, teachers and parents. This week, as an example, we emailed home a communication that listed unexplained absences asking parents to assist us in reconciling them so that they could become explained absences. The feedback from parents has largely been positive and as a result, many have been able to go into Compass and add record reasons for unexplained absences. This helps our teachers and leaders by providing more accurate data and information and allows them to greater support students and parents.  

Buses

Thanks to one of our diligent Year 9 students Jason Henderson who proactively contacted Ventura Bus Lines about a consistently late bus. We now have details about the Ventura App that allows you to track school buses in real time. The app is available here: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/ventura-tracker/id1218261347