Principal's Report

Dear families, 

Thank you to our school community for participating in our Sports Day. The students love dressing up in their house colours and participating in the various events which has been organised by our Senior Secondary staff and students. Thank you to our P&C for providing the catering for the event. The BBQ rolls and juice have been well received by everybody. 

Please pencil in our Parent Engagement Afternoon on Wednesday the 24th of August from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Please contact your child’s teacher if you are attending. Families are able to order hot or cold drinks from the Coffee Van which will be available for the duration of the afternoon. 

Over the past few weeks our students have been participating in a Queensland Department survey to hear students voice about their school experiences. In conversation with staff, the overall consensus is that students love attending and learning at school. In the coming months, we will be sharing the final outcome of the survey with our families as soon as the survey has been aggregated by the Education Department. 

We encourage families to be positive about school. Talk to your child about how important learning has been in your life. Tell them about your successes and also your mistakes and how you have used difficult experiences to do better next time. Let them know how much you use learning in your daily life and how staying curious and continuing to learn makes life much more interesting. A parent is a child’s first educator and as such, you can have an enormous impact on your child’s attitude to learning and to school. How you behave at home in your interactions with your child’s school can make a big difference to your child’s experience of their education. Try and talk positively about your child’s school and schooling in general. While it’s natural that there may be some aspects of schooling that you don’t agree with, it’s important to promote the value of education and how going to school can put a person on the right track for succeeding in life. Being supportive of your child’s teachers is one of the best things you can do to support your child’s experience at school. Think of your child’s teacher as your partner and work with them to support your child. Share insights about your child to help your teacher understand them better. Also talk to your child about what a great job their teacher is doing and the importance of teaching in helping to shape the lives of children. Children watch and copy what parents do and say. Be aware of how you talk about learning and school. Promote the many benefits of an education and the joy that can be gained from learning. Ask your child about what they are learning at school and help them explore what is interesting to them. Please use the Seesaw app as starting point to talk about their learning for the day or week. 

When your child is struggling at school or refusing to go to school, knowing you are on their side is what matters most. Every child has something to offer and deserves success, whatever that looks like for them. Keep believing in your child and work with them to find something that brings them joy – an activity or interest they want to spend time on. When your child does something they enjoy and can learn to do it well, it helps build their confidence. Over time, and with the right support, you can grow that spark inside your child. And as your child’s confidence grows, and with your help, they will feel ready to get their learning back on track so they can get the most out of going to school. 

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines. Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling

• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional

• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools 

• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools

• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability. The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

We welcome the following staff members to our school community: Simone Nolan (teacher), Eileen Maloney (teacher) , Barry Rogers (groundsman) and Helen (EA). We know they will add value to our school and work very hard to ensure every student is successful. 

Have a fabulous two weeks. 

Kind regards,

Dehlia