Headmaster's

Message

 

Welcome to 2021

I am so glad that the 2021 school year has begun. I enjoyed the rest and relaxation of the summer break: my week by the beach; my glorious bushwalks on many a Mountains trail; my numerous holes of golf; the precious time I spent with my wife and five gorgeous adult children, and the opportunity to reflect and refresh. However, like the students and parents I have spoken to so far this year, I am also very excited to be back.

I trust you and your family also enjoyed the summer break and are reading this fresh reinvention of our Newsletter, ready and raring for the 2021 school year. It is now called Pulse, because it describes the life of our School and, if you are going to know all that you need to as a parent and Senior School student, you need to keep your finger on the Pulse. On the topic of reinventions, I hope you also enjoyed exploring our new website. These two vibrant expressions of our School community are the work of Ms Van Uum and my thanks go to her.  I trust also, that you have already read my Start of Year letters dated 19th January and 25th January, the Term 1 COVID-19 Information Sheet and either or both of the Junior School Start of Year Letter and Senior School Start of Year Letter.

At the end of 2020 we celebrated the achievements of our students, of our teachers and of the School community as a whole. In summary, we celebrated what can be achieved when a community stands united in a challenge. I have adopted the theme of unity for the 2021 School year and have commenced the year speaking to staff and students in accordance with this theme. Many of you will be aware that the hard-working, passionate and committed staff of BMGS returned to the School more than a week before students. Prior to our teachers’ return at Springwood, our Property team moved classroom furniture around to surprise excited Kindergarten students on the first day. At Wentworth Falls, our Property team renovated our Early Learning foyer, painted railings in the Sports Centre, upgraded our parking and the adventure playground and reorganised many Senior School lockers. Our Registrar included new families to our School, administrators forged ahead with software upgrades, our Technology team installed new televisions in classrooms and our cleaners undertook a spring clean of both campuses. Finally, our teachers and Learning Enrichment educators prepared well for the year. Thanks go to all of them.

Our first day together as a whole staff team in 2021 began at the Fairmont on Tuesday 19th January 2021. We welcomed new staff and listened to each other’s holiday stories. For the rest of that week teachers and Learning Enrichment Educators spent many an hour learning, refreshing their memories, collaborating and strengthening the bonds of collegiality and friendship. We reviewed many existing policies and launched two very important, new policies: our Student Behaviour Management Policy and our Academic Assessment Policy. We collaborated around the topics of Student Awards, Enhancing Student Learning, HSC Analysis and Improvement Planning, Student Profiles, Best Practice in Literacy, Wellbeing Matters and Pedagogies for Growing Character and Capability. All staff undertook training in First Aid and are now the proud recipients of a First Aid Certificate. 

The highlight of the Conference was an enthralling presentation by our guest speaker, Mrs Jann Robinson, retired Principal of St Luke’s Grammar School, Dee Why. Mrs Robinson led her School from 146th in NSW to a very impressive 24th in the Sydney Morning Herald’s HSC School Rankings in 2020, her final year as Head. She spoke on the topic of “Making a Good School Great,” reinforced much of what we are already doing and inspired our teachers to continue to strive for excellence in their own practice as well as that of their students. Blue Mountains Grammar School is already great in so many ways, however with regards to academic outcomes we are on this same journey, from Good to Great. I am confident that 2021 will be yet another giant stride forward. 

Since you have chosen to go with us on this journey, I would encourage you to attend our first Ad Altiora Whole School Parent Workshop for 2021 (see second Pulse article of this Issue). These workshops explore in greater depth the School’s Educational Philosophy and the range of approaches we take to growing character and capability, as well as improving each students’ learning. Parents have an enormous impact on these very same life outcomes and so, these workshops explore the ways in which school and parents can work together. At the moment we are limited to indoor gatherings of thirty, so we will run these workshops each Tuesday from February 16th until the demand is met. Please RSVP as soon as possible by emailing feedback@bmgs.nsw.edu.au . Applying the principle of first in best dressed, each registration will receive a reply that specifies the date for which they have been registered. The preferred format for these workshops is face to face, however if you are unable to attend and would prefer a Zoom option, please mention this when you register. I hope to see you there.

Have a great term.

Mr Ian Maynard

Headmaster