Acting Principal Update

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

The implementation of our new Compass platform continues, and I hope parents and carers are already experiencing increased visibility of their children’s teaching and learning at Gisborne Secondary College. 

NAPLAN is rapidly approaching for Year 7 and Year 9 students, which will mean that not only are pupils being prepared through understanding the nature of the questions and process of undertaking the assessments, also a great deal of operational work is going into ensuring their electronic devices have the appropriate lockdown browsers installed. More information regarding NAPLAN is contained within this Newsletter. 

A friendly reminder that an important way to support your child's learning is to ensure you have all items listed on the relevant year level booklist.  This may include the digital platforms Education Perfect and Edrolo which require annual subscription.  All booklists and resource lists including payment options are available on the College website.

Friday 28th February 2025 is Census Day, where the Department of Education gauges the enrolment of the College to allocate appropriate funding. It is therefore important that attendance records are accurate in reflecting the applicable reason for absence, so I urge all parents / carers to review their child’s attendance and ensure reasons for absence are provided where required.

On Wednesday 26th February 2025 we celebrated our first whole school assembly of 2025, which welcomed the new Year 7 students into the College and focused on the themes of celebrating success and being part of a community within the college and beyond the school gates. 

Heading out this week we also had 70 students competing at our annual Swim Sports Carnival, and will no doubt have some of the successful students going on to represent Gisborne Secondary College at the regional competition in the coming weeks. 

Over the past weeks I have worked in collaboration with staff to review the Camps, Excursions and Incursions processes considering the introduction of Compass and the effective use of the EVENTS module. Parent permissions and payment for Events need to be completed at least 3 days prior to the event going out without exception due to staffing needs and legal ratios. Please find a link to the Camps and Excursions Policy, which is available on the College website.

Regarding camps and excursions, many of the community will be aware that I made the decision acting on the best advice provided to us by Rose Gap Recreation Park to postpone the Year 7 Camp in Week 4. I am aware that one of our neighbouring schools had to abandon their camp plans midway due to the fire danger from the hot weather so believe we made the right call. I would as ever like to acknowledge the hard work and competence of the Junior School team in getting this camp to the place it was with the new Year 7 cohort. I am happy to announce that we have been able to secure a new date for the Yr 7 camp at Roses Gap Recreation Centre, 1st to 5th December 2025.   The camp will become part of the students’ Step-Up program at the end of the year, and the grouping of classes will be decided closer to the date.   Although it may be disappointing that the camp is not earlier than this, we hope it gives Yr 7 students something to look forward to in Term 4 and I'm sure it will be an outstanding success.

In the space of staff professional development, we held our first Professional Learning Communities (PLC) meeting on Monday 17th February 2025, where we are exploring Area 1 of the High Impact Wellbeing Strategies (HIWS) which focuses on Building Relationships with Students on which we will continue working throughout Term 1.

The Junior School and Senior School Information Evenings which ran earlier this month were very positive and allowed a face-to-face connection between parents and staff to share important information for the coming year. An additional opportunity for parents and carers to connect in person with staff is Parent Teacher Interviews, which will take place on Thursday 3rd April 2025. 

Another area we can work in partnership is around reminding students about the fact that staff are enforcing our newly drawn boundary lines especially on the oval with regards to the ditch. I have displayed signage in the yard areas and students have been educated around the boundaries for clarity around this matter. It is important as members of the community that we are always respectful of our neighbours and remain safe by adhereing to the supervised yard areas.

With regards to school access for Parents and Carers, 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. 

Reminder, as ever, I respectfully ask that all road rules and school signage are followed regarding 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 Gisborne Secondary College safe.

Kind Regards,

Russell Wigginton

Acting Principal