Principals Report

Welcome to our last newsletter of the term! It was lovely to see so many families at our Presentation Day on Friday. Congratulations to all our award recipients and also to the students who performed so well in the musical and drama performances. A huge thank you to Mrs Karen Cooper and Mrs Kelly Butler for their hard work organising the ceremony and to Mr Ben Ryan and Mr James Kelly for coordinating the student performances. 

One of the awards which was presented on Friday was The Secretary's Award for School Achievement. This was presented to the school from the Director of Educational Leadership, Mr Chris Bice, in recognition of our outstanding improvement in HSC results and our outstanding growth in Yr 7 - 9 reading and numeracy. As I said in my speech, a school is only as good as their staff, and this incredible achievement is testament to their hard work and dedication. Mrs Amanda Jones also received a NSW Government School Sport Award, for her 27-year commitment to facilitating sporting events for students in the North West Region. This is a tremendous achievement, and we are all very proud to have someone of her commitment and experience at THS!

Last Tuesday we welcomed Sue Larkey to the school to present a free information session on making school a success for neurodiverse students. This was open to staff from other schools as well as community members. The next day Sue ran a workshop which went into more detail on strategies to support success at school. For those of us who have neurodiverse children or who teach them, Sue is a celebrity! She has been writing a number of successful books, hosting podcasts and running professional development for a number of years and has helped many families and educators successfully support neurodiverse children. Sue was a wonderfully energetic and engaging presenter and I'm sure everyone came away with strategies to further support our students. Thank you to Ms Zoe Olive for organisng this incredible opportunity for our school and the community.

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and we look forward to welcoming all our students back on the 6th February!