Principal's Message

Dear Parents & Friends,

Welcome to new families and welcome back to everyone else.

It’s wonderful to see over one hundred new students on our beautiful grounds and I’m especially grateful to the Year 12s for their care and attention of our new Year 7s on Wednesday. By the end of the first week, we had our full complement of students at all year levels.

We have seven new teachers and three teachers returning from Long Service Leave. All teaching staff and ISAs completed a one-day Restorative Practices professional development so we can be fair and consistent in our interpersonal relationships. Our strategies will hold students accountable for their actions through repairing harm and making amends. We utilize restorative conversations separating the person from the behaviour and allowing students to reflect on their actions and what they can do to make things right. We’ve utilized this practice for many years and find it an extremely useful tool for our student body.

The term calendar is already out and our Homework Centre and individual subject help is underway. The Extra-curricular activities have also begun, so if you haven’t signed up yet, please do so through Operoo. There are lots of activities for your child to enjoy and I encourage every student to expand their friendship group and improve their skills in some area. Please keep a close eye on the many different events that come up each week.

This week we held our Commencement Service and welcomed new staff formally to our community. The All Houses Welcome Breakfast on Thursday was well attended by students and their families. I truly enjoy meeting new parents and catching up with already established families in our midst.

The extreme weather makes wearing a hat very important. Bike riders will have their helmets but everyone else should be wearing a hat before they go through the school gates. Tutor Group teachers have been instructed to be very strict with the uniform (especially jewelry), please support them in this task.

Phones, headphones and AirPods should not be visible during school hours. I was pleased to see that most of the Year 7s did not bring or have a phone with them on the first day of school. With the new Federal Social Media restrictions coming into effect this year, it is important that students and parents are aware of the dangers of young people under the age of 16 on these apps. Please keep your children safe.

I’d like to offer my gratitude to you all for entrusting your young person’s learning and development to St Philip’s College.

Kind regards,

Leslie