Principal

Susan Kerr

Susan.Kerr@education.wa.edu.au

M.Ed.Admin,B.Ed,Dip.Teach

I wish to acknowledge our parents, guardians and community for their ongoing support of the staff in our College during this complex and challenging time.

In a very short amount of time our teaching staff have had to reinvent our learning program delivery and College services for Term 2.  They have spent a considerable amount of energy putting Class, Trades and Farm resources and materials onto CONNECT. They have also been researching and providing guidance on how to use online programs and in some cases conducting Webex  lessons. I am sure, like me, you are all very grateful for the teaching staff’s commitment to supporting our students.

I also want to acknowledge all of our Farm staff for the work they are presently doing to ensure the farm continues to function and to thank all other staff including kitchen, cleaning, residential and office staff who are presently completing a huge range of different tasks so we meet the COVID requirements.

COVID-19 Update

The safety, health and well-being of our students, staff and their families have been our primary concern.  We have based our actions and decisions on advice from the Chief Health Officer and the Minister of Education. We understand that it has been a difficult time, particularly for our Year 10 Boarders whose return to boarding was delayed.  We are happy that we can now welcome these students back into boarding.

The College has put in lots of precautionary strategies, like social distancing rules where possible, extra cleaning including evenings and on the weekends.  Changes to our student expectations including having students using all their own personal protective equipment (PPE).  We have developed some very thorough emergency response and risk management plans and are doing whatever it takes to make the college environment as safe as possible.

Parent Supporting Us

I would like to thank our parents and guardians for assisting us by following guidelines we placed in our correspondence.  This has included ensuring parents and visitors don't attend the College unless it is for urgent matters, ensuring student drop of and pick up is from the College car park. We would also appreciate parents considering having their child vaccinated against the flu, particularly if they are boarding.

Curriculum

Most of the students’ work is up on CONNECT and we also have other software options and links to programs which we are encouraging students to use.  Students are reminded to log into the Department of Education Portal when trying to access CONNECT Communities. Students should use their user name as  firstname.surname@student.education.wa.edu.au,  followed by their usual password. Please consider only using Firefox or Chrome as the preferred browser.  As of Monday, 18th May 2020, all students returned to the College for face to face teaching.

Events

With the current situation, there has been a number of cancellations and postponements of College events, Open Day, Country Week and the College Dinner to name just a few. However, we are looking forward to running some of the events in the near future.

Welcome Back Boarding Students

It is wonderful to see the Boarding students return, under the guidance of residential staff coordinating in-house events, like camp fire evenings, movie nights, bingo and other games that can be played and that still allow for social distancing. These type of traditional activities can be lots of fun and create some great comradeship.

Year 12's

We now have a clearer position from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) in relation to our senior school, so we will be making adjustments to our calendar to reflect these changes. We do know that all students will have the opportunity to receive a WACE as long as they keep focused, handing in their work and passing in all three sections of their OLNA tests. Unfortunately at this stage, we cannot offer work experience but we are hopeful that by the end of the year, we will be able to offer some opportunities in workplaces that are abiding by COVID restrictions.

Change

It is likely some of the initiatives introduced during the pandemic will remain. This will include our rigid requirements with hand washing, the requirements of bringing your own water bottle and possibly coffee cup, the changes we have made to serving food in the dining room and the need for students to always use their own PPE. We are finding there is a lot more electronic information for our teaching programs being made available,  so these great resources will be incorporated into our future planning.

I would like to finish by saying, in these difficult times I acknowledge our students who are trying their best to adjust to the new COVID rules, our staff for their professional approach and dedication in supporting both the academic and health and well-being of our students.  Finally to our parents and community for being so supportive and understanding.

Year 11 Councillors

Congratulations to our newly elected 2020 Year 11 Councillors. Robert Pepall, Chakiah Craigie, Geoff Tozer and Joshua De Beer. 

I wish you all the very best, take care of your family and be kind to our community in what is a very stressful and anxious time.