Principal's Report
Term 1 in Review
It is hard to believe that Term 1 is already over. Our Year 7 students have finished their first term of high school and our Year 12’s are already halfway through the HSC course. Life at EHS is always busy as we aim to provide a host of experiences for our students. As parents would know, there an opportunity for everyone to get involved in and here are just a few highlights:
Sporting Opportunities – we had a great day at the School Swimming Carnival. Some new sporting superstars made themselves known and many other students who have had success before cemented their places in the EHS record books.
Creative and Performing Arts – the CAPA faculty is in full swing as they work toward the opening night of Mary Poppins the musical. Our students have been attending extended musical rehearsals and are certainly dedicated to their craft!
Agriculture – as always, its been wonderful to see our Year 7 students working in teams to raise their chicks. I have never seen so many students keen to visit the Ag Plot at lunchtime to check on their babies! Our students also scooped the pool at Camden Show and at the time of writing, were well positioned at a state level for the Sydney Royal Easter Show too.
Wellbeing – our Thrive program is still the cornerstone of teaching students social-emotional skills. We have explicitly led lessons on International Women’s Day and Harmony Day alongside promoting belonging and acceptance. We’ve run workshops for specific year groups such as “Smashed” for Year 8 and “Walk the Talk” for Year 9 which deal with issues specific to these age groups and we have provided vaccination opportunities for students in many year groups.
Careers – Year 10 have recommenced having explicit Careers lessons once per fortnight. As always, our White Card courses are extremely popular and show the commitment of our future tradies to focus in on career skills that they know they will need in WHS.
Leadership – I have loved watching our switched on student leaders engage with their counterparts from other local high schools in the Greater Macarthur Secondary Education Network (GMSEN) Student Leadership Forum. Ten of our wonderful student leaders across a range of year groups participated in this cross-school challenge alongside students from Picton, Camden, Elizabeth Macarthur, Mount Annan, Oran Park and Ambarvale High Schools.
I’ve also been super-proud of our Captaincy Team who ran Purple Day in support of Epilepsy Awareness. The Senior Leadership Team are also running our ever-popular Lip-Sync Battle in Week 11.
Finally, I would like to single out the work of our House Captains in running the Push Up Challenge in support of mental Health Awareness. What a fun week we had in Week 9 as students from each year group competed against each other.
As you can see, its been an action packed term for our students with something for everyone!
Student Successes
On Wednesday, March 13, I was privileged to attend the Macarthur Workplace Learning Program Awards evening. This is a regional event which is celebrated annually to shine a spotlight on students who excel in their workplacements which they undertake as a part of their Vocational Education Courses. The MWLP Awards feature students right across South Western Sydney whose employers nominate them if they are impressive during their week of workplacement. This year, Jasper Browne was nominated for Entertainment and Sebastian Brosius was nominated for Primary Industries. Much to our delight, both students won their category! Elderslie High School had a lot to be proud of that evening as not only did the boys do well, but our Music students also entertained the audience with their talents with fantastic performances by Jessica Furnari, Noah Douglas, Elliot Ronald, Kathy Gramelis, Angeline Buakao and Maxwell Buakao. The Music students were exceptional on the night. A big thank you to Mr Webb for supporting them to perform on the stage at The Cube in Campbelltown.
Communicating with Staff After Hours
Parents and carers are an important part of our school community. We know you play a crucial role in helping your child become a motivated learner. Communication between our school and our community is critical for us to partner together.
To give our teachers the opportunity to recharge, spend time with their families and bring their best creative selves to work, all public schools in NSW are now setting clear expectations for when and how they respond to communication outside school operating hours. This means teachers may not reply to non-emergency messages or emails outside of school operating hours.
Please use the school’s email address for non-emergencies in the first instance. Our staff will respond to your queries within two school days under normal circumstances. For longer discussions or complex matters, we ask parents and carers to make an appointment to speak to teachers directly, at a time that works best for everyone. For some emergencies, such as student safety and wellbeing issues, the Stymie website may still be good place to reach to us beyond school hours.
Our staff will always stay in touch because open communication is what’s best for your child and their education. We don’t want you to stop communicating with your teachers – we still want to hear from you if you have any questions or need to discuss a matter about your child. We know its often easier to send emails or messages after work. We will make sure we read and respond in school operating hours.
Our dedicated teachers want to help our students achieve their best – we’re on the same team. Thank you for treating our staff with kindness and respect.
Parents & Citizens Association Meetings
We would love to see more parents at our next P&C meeting on Tuesday, May 14 at 7pm in the school library. As always, there will be a faculty presenting and this time, it will be the Support Unit.
Kind regards,
Mrs Jenny Lawrence
Principal