Principals Welcome

Dear Families,

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2024 school year. I hope that you have all had a great break over the Christmas and New Year period, and are all feeling refreshed and energised for the year ahead. I'm excited to be getting back into another school year, and I hope our students are all looking forward to their return as well.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our new families to the college, whether that be in our 2024 Year 7 cohort, or new families across Year 8-12, we are very pleased to have your children joining us in 2024.

In this introductory newsletter, we have included some 'nuts and bolts' information about the school, as well as important dates for the term and staff contact details.

A school newsletter is sent out several times a term, and includes important 'need to know' information, as well updating our college community on all the great things happening at GSC. Important information will also be sent out to families via email, as well as updated on our school website and facebook page. 

In 2024, we are thrilled to welcome a number of new and returning staff to the college. I'm sure you will all make them feel very welcome:

Adriana Tavares Green (Technology); Jordan Wilkins (Humanities); Finn Sparrow (Maths/Science); Joanne Jesser (Instrumental Music); Dana Schulz (Instrumental Music); Carolyn Thomas (Maths/English); Shaoli Li (Humanities); Domenyk Eades (Art); Farran King (Maths/Science); Wendy Evans (Food Tech Assistant); Ruby Street (Inclusion Support); Madeline Arnephy (Inclusion Support); Sam Hunt (Health/PE); Georgia Gordon (Health/PE); Laura O'Meara (Health PE), Kat Stewart (Humanities).

Despite the number of new and returning staff to the college in 2024, we continue to be impacted by the widespread teacher shortage, which no doubt you are all aware of through the extensive media coverage. We are working closely with the Department of Education to try and resolve these shortages, but it is likely that we will begin the school year with a number of classes uncovered. Information about the short and medium term management of these issue will be communicated in more detail to families affected next week. Please be assured that we are doing our utmost to not only recruit teachers to these positions, but ensure that students still have access to quality teaching and learning programs in the interim.

At the end of 2023, we were advised by our canteen operators, Chalkboard Catering, that they would no longer be able to provide a canteen service to the College. We are pleased to have been able to secure the services of a local catering company for canteen operation in 2024. We are in the midst of finalising the requirements of this process, and as such, will not have an operational canteen for week 1 of school, but are confident that they will be up and running very soon. We will notify the school community as soon as our new canteen is operational.

Over the holidays, exciting progress has been made on our capital works program. We are on track to have the refurbished Year 7 Learning Centre open and in action very early into the term. Additionally, several of our older relocatable classrooms have been removed, and 6 new relocatable classrooms will be arriving by crane in the next fortnight. 

All important dates for the term can be found in the calendar section of this newsletter, but as a reminder, student return dates for next week are as follows:

I look forward to working in partnership with families in 2024, to support our students to be happy, successful and engaged members of our school community. If you have any questions prior to the beginning of the school year, please don't hesitate to reach out - key contact details are available at the end of this newsletter.

Kind Regards,

Sarah Rose

College Principal