Principal's Update

Reaching the Halfway Mark in the School Year

This week will be the final week for Semester One and the halfway mark for the year. Reaching the halfway mark of the school year is the perfect time to pause and celebrate milestones. It has been a stable and productive time for staff and students.

The reports being published over the week is a good time for parents to discuss the results and use this time to review and have a discussion. By evaluating your grades, students can reflect on their progress. As parents checking in, it is important to discuss the future and possibly reset a few targets and adjust goals.

For the few years students have at school compared to the rest of their lives in the workforce, these are valuable opportunities that can build confidence, understanding and resilience in students to chase their dreams.

For students, the holiday break should be one of rest and play, but the time should also be used for adjusting and realigning. Consider these three adjustments:

• Reflection: Look over assignments from the previous term. Identify your academic wins and areas where you struggled.
• Goal Setting: Revise the goals you set at the beginning of the year. If a study habit didn't work out, swap it for something more realistic.
• Read: Reading is one of our priorities for the next few years. Reading is fundamentally important for knowledge and improving literacy skills. It expands vocabulary, improves memory retention, and boosts critical thinking. Beyond academic and professional success, regular reading helps to reduce stress and promotes better mental health and emotional intelligence. Reading is also fun and takes away boredom. The best way to read is to get a BOOK!

As parents, you have a terrific role to play no matter the age of your child, as this mid‑point is a critical time to engage with your child’s academic and personal understanding of where they are and where they would like to be in the future.

The verbal check‑ins can be frank and supportive around grades, attitude to school and the importance of commitment to the year ahead. Rather than focusing on non‑specific issues, conversations should be broken down to which skills are difficult to master and which are working well.

Buy them a book and get them to read. It can be for 20 minutes a day to an hour, but it should be part of a mix of things that they can do in a day during the break. As a parent myself, I certainly followed this path over the holiday break, including adding a little to the list of chores.

Semester One Reports

You will notice that Semester One student reports include comprehensive grades and progression points but do not contain the traditional written comments.

As you may be aware, members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) are currently taking protected industrial action across the state in pursuit of fair workloads and improved school funding. As a part of this action, teachers are directed to withhold written comments on student reports.

While we are unable to provide our usual written feedback on the report itself, we remain fully committed to your child's educational journey. I am more than happy for you to discuss their academic progress, achievements, and areas for growth with your child’s subject teacher.

I invite you to email your child’s subject teacher if you require more detailed information, or book a time for a brief phone conversation so we can share specific feedback about your child's learning. You can schedule a time by contacting the teacher directly via Compass.

Our next Parent and Teacher Interviews will not be until Term 3. You could go through your child’s progress from the start of the year at that time as well.

While union‑led stop‑work actions were previously suspended to allow negotiations, the formal AEU vote rejecting the in‑principle agreement means all union actions are back on the table. I will keep you informed with department information on what Term 3 looks like as soon as possible to help in any planning that might be required to continue supporting your child’s learning.

Thank you for your ongoing support and understanding.