Principals Welcome

Dear Families,

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2025 school year. I hope that you have all had the chance to have a great break over the Christmas and New Year period and are feeling refreshed and energised for the year ahead.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our new families to the College, whether that be in our 2025 Year 7 cohort, or new families across Years 8-12. We are thrilled to have you joining us in 2025 and thank you for trusting Gisborne Secondary College with your child's education.

I would also like to welcome a number of new and returning staff to the College in 2025. I have no doubt our school community will make them feel very welcome: Samantha Egberts (Maths/Humanities), Emily Ezzy (Languages), Renae King (Humanities), Meg Lee (Performing Arts), Jarrod Race (Technology), Kristina Diaz (Humanities), Ashley Troutman (Art), and Kerry Krywula (Inclusion). We move into 2025 in a stronger staffing position than in 2024, with only one teaching position unfilled (PE/Health) at the time of writing. I am confident this will allow increased stability and consistency for both staff and students, and a really positive year for all.

This welcome newsletter contains some important information for all families, both new and continuing, so please take the time to read carefully and inform yourselves of all relevant information.

We are thrilled to have finally completed work on our new Administration and Wellbeing building which is now fully operational. Stage 2 of our Capital Works journey has just gotten underway, which will see the development of a brand new state of the art Trades Hub, and a refurbishment of several of our current art and technology spaces. Whilst there have been challenges along the way with use of our resources and facilities, it is so wonderful to see our school upgraded to ensure that our staff and students have access to an outstanding education experience. 

Access to the school

We are still waiting on our signage to be upgraded, so please note that entry to our Reception is around the right-hand side of the building as you enter from the front car park (where the red arrow is on the image below). It is a requirement that all visitors to the school, including parents, sign in at Reception before entering the school grounds, so please ensure you make yourself known to reception when you arrive at the school.

Communication

There are a number of ways that the school will communicate with you, depending on the nature of the communication. 

A school newsletter is sent out every 3 weeks, and includes important 'need to know' information, such as staff contact details, college calendar, and finance and admin information, as well as updates on all the great things happening in our College Community.

Important Information for specific groups/individuals, or that is time sensitive will be sent out via email, and Compass push notifications, and of course phone calls made when required. It is essential that you have the Compass app downloaded to receive the push notifications which will alert you to an email having been sent to your inbox. You can access a plethora of information on our school website (including an archive of recent newsletters). Additionally, we endeavour to provide as much information as possible via our Facebook page, but please do not rely on Facebook as your sole source of information.

Parking

As you would already be aware, at the beginning and end of day, schools are incredibly busy hectic places, and I respectfully ask that all road rules and school signage are followed in regard to parking in and around the school vicinity. There is absolutely no parking allowed at the beginning or end of the school day in our bus loop (Outside the Stadium) as we have 18 buses who need to be able to access and navigate safe entry and exit of the school. Additionally, there is no entry at the top car park into the bus loop for any vehicles (other than buses and emergency vehicles) between 3:00pm and 3:30pm. I appreciate your support in keeping all students and staff at GSC safe.

I look forward to working in partnership with our families in 2025, to support our students to be happy, successful and engaged members of our school community. If you have any questions, queries, concerns or feedback (we always love positive feedback!), please don't hesitate to reach out to the relevant staff members. All contact details can be found at the end of this newsletter.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

College Principal