PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

The Importance of writing and literacy

“Kids are constantly creating text when they are at home. They tweet, they text, they Facebook. Each of those has its own rules, and one of the advantages is that students learn that you write in different registers in different situations. We can use that to our advantage, working with kids on how we’d put that writing in a more formal situation.”

Steve Graham in “What Parents Can Do To Nurture Good Writers” in The New York Times Education Life, August 2, 2017

Just last week NAPLAN results were released and whilst they are the best we have had in years we know we need to do more to help improve student outcomes. We have identified writing (across the curriculum) as a focus and already have teams of teacher leaders in the school working on strategies that we will begin to implement soon to better address this need. As a parent there are many things that you can do to support your child’s learning at home and one of them is to try and regularly engage with the Compass portal. Also when it comes to writing tasks they may be working on at home, encourage your son or daughter to always draft and edit. There are numerous websites with lots of handy hints for parents which I would encourage you to explore. Here is just one: https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/tips-to-support-writing-at-home/

Building Project Update

Our school building design phase in now almost over and we are preparing documentation for the tender process. We hope to commence building works by early next year and we are currently contributing school funds to the project to get some unfunded works completed. A while ago we established a School Building Fund to contribute money towards elements of the project that we as a school would like but the government had not funded. I wanted to remind parents that any voluntary contributions (over $2) to the school (bearing in mind we have not raised school fees for three years) are tax deductible. We are able to extend the gymnasium as well as make some refurbishments to the PAC with these funds so any contribution you can make helps.

Student Progress Meetings

On Tuesday 5th September, Student Progress Meetings will be held from 12pm to 8pm. As of this week, the Compass booking system for Student Progress Meetings have been opened and will close 5pm on Monday 4th September. This afternoon/evening is an excellent opportunity to hear from staff in regards to how your child is progressing in their subjects and how you may be able to further support with their learning.

No classes will be running on the 5th, however, if supervision for your son/daughter is required from 8.50am in the morning (as per a normal school day) please contact the office with the names of these students by Friday 1st of August. If you do take up this option please ensure your son/daughter brings school work to complete. All students are expected to be in full school uniform and attend their progress meeting.

To make bookings with your son/daughter’s teachers you need to:

1. Login to Compass

2. Click on the Community Icon on the top menu

3. Click on Parent /Student /Teacher Conferences

4. Click Student Progress Meeting

5. Select the time you wish to see each teacher

Please contact the College if you have any other queries.