Principal's Report

I would like to thank everyone for gathering around the school on Wednesday, 20th November, for our Community Engagement/Consultation evening. Our hall was bulging with attendees.  Your thoughts, ideas and constructive feedback around how we should move forward and plan as a school are greatly appreciated. I had a great time, and I hope that everyone else did as well. We are very proud of our student executives for their confident contributions.  

We will now take your feedback and collate it into a series of documents that will be distributed across the school community. A timeline of actions will then be proposed, and invitations will be extended to students, parents and carers, staff and community organisations to contribute to action. 

 One question that was raised at the community meeting on Wednesday night referred to access to the Year 12 study area after hours. We have consulted with the Department's Legal Department, and they have agreed that students shouldn't be provided access to any area of the school without active supervision, particularly outside school hours. 

 "The department has a non-delegable duty of care to students in government schools. In exercising that duty, teachers at schools are required to provide supervision to students at school or out of school when engaged in a school endorsed activity. " 

 Staff may volunteer to supervise outside of school hours to provide access to a study space. If this is the case, the times/details that this will occur could be shared in the communication with parents. Please be assured that our Homework Centres continue to be available during these hours:

Years 7 & 8 – every Tuesday & Thursday, 3pm-4pm in NR0002,

Years 9 to 12 - every Thursday, 4-6 pm.

Another question was about the current situation with the parent portal access. Our previous access rights were breaching confidentiality. We are working with the Sentral team and others to provide parents access to information. For the time being, we will do a manual, weekly send-out of “What’s Happening in the School This Week” so that parents can access this information. We are looking to employ a Communications Officer 2025-26 with the NSW Department of School increased allocation for office staff. This position will be advertised across the NSW Department of Education staff noticeboard. 

It was great to also meet up with our transitioning Year 6 into Year 7 2025 students. The group had some thoughtful questions about their journey and were generally very excited about their new adventure. Thank you to our partnership schools' staff who attended and to our Year 7 2025 advisors, Holly Day and Freya Bartlett, for all their efforts. Welcome to the school to all new students and their families. 

Thanks for making me feel so welcome into the school everyone. 

Michelle Nicholson 

Relieving GIHS Principal