SCHOOL LEADERSHIP MESSAGE

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

We are getting close to the end of Term One this year, in what is always a busy time for teachers and students. There are several key dates and events over the next few weeks, and the start of Term Two, which are a particularly important culmination of the fantastic teaching and learning that has been occurring in our school so far this year. There are many assessment tasks coming up, as well as some important feedback opportunities for parents and students.

Many classes are now starting to finalise large pieces of assessment based on work from this term. This may mean that students have several CATs or SACs due over the next couple of weeks. This can be a very stressful time for students. To help ensure that you are continuing to achieve your best results on these tasks, can I encourage students to plan their time so they can make sure they allocate enough time to get each task finished. Can I also encourage students to speak with their mentor or class teacher about how they are feeling about certain tasks, or about the workload in general. Sometimes we are able to make some adjustments to spread the work out a bit and ease the pressure on students.

GPA reports will be available on Wednesday of the last week of term (5th April). This is an opportunity for students to receive feedback from each of their teachers on their work habits in class. Each teacher provides a rating for our five school values – Respect, Resilience, Life Long Learning, Strive for Excellence and Productive Member of Community. To give a summary of this, scores are converted to an overall mark out of 4.

Parents and students can receive feedback on how students are performing on assessment tasks via Learning Tasks on Compass. These will be filled in as teachers mark CATs and SACs, and provide excellent feedback on the skills and knowledge for each subject that students are able to demonstrate. Parent-Teacher Interviews are an opportunity for further discussion between parents and teachers about student progress. In the past, we have typically held parent teacher interviews in the last week of Term One. This year, these interviews will be held in early Term Two. On Tuesday May 9th, all students will have the opportunity to complete a Student 360 with their mentor between 8:45am – 2pm. From 2pm – 5pm we will hold traditional parent teacher interviews for Year 11 and 12 students. More details on this will be provided early next term.

I just wanted to finally touch on the building program. We are getting very close to completing this project, and we are all looking forward to being able to use the new gym and classrooms in this building early next term. We are expecting our outside areas to be asphalted and landscaped over the weekend meaning that the fencing that has been providing paths through the construction site between buildings at the moment will finally be taken down. I’d like to thank all teachers and students for their incredible patience and co-operation while this has been taking place. I’m sure the fantastic new buildings and grounds will be all worth it in the end.