Principal's Report

Sad News

Sadly, a member of the team from Bocca Foods who run the Orchard, passed away suddenly on Thursday evening.  Margaret Hampton was a much loved member of the Bocca team who had a strong commitment to providing an outstanding service.  Our staff and students will remember her as the smiling face early in the morning who provided the coffees and hot chocolates.  She always had a kind greeting for everyone, and made breakfasts in particular, a relaxed and friendly occasion.

Margaret leaves behind her husband and her two children.  We extend our deepest sympathies to them at this extremely sad time.

Term 3 Events

I returned to work after the holidays thankful of the break because term 3 is going to be hectic! This week we will be holding the two Presentation Balls, the College Production is held not long after, our athletics carnival is on in week 5 ... throw in other significant events such as the Curriculum Information night and Parent Teacher Interviews along with all the other usual day to day activities and we have a lot to look forward to! The reason we can do so much, so well, is because we have the best people! Our staff team and students our outstanding to work with and it is a credit to them that we have so many events that are highlights in our calendar.

Northern Territory Tour

At the end of last term and during the holidays, approx. 100 students and 11 staff journeyed from Melbourne to Darwin over two weeks on the trip of a lifetime! The experiences and memories gained during this trip will last a lifetime and the relationships built between students and staff will pay positive dividends for both groups back at school. I would like to congratulate all students and staff on their conduct and behaviour during the tour which I know as outstanding. I know this because I received this feedback:

“Kevin, this afternoon I took a call from a lady called Bev who identified herself as a secondary school teacher.  She has just returned from a family trip around Central Australia and she wanted to give us some feedback about our students.

Apparently her family kept bumping into the our group as they progressed on their own holiday. Initially when they saw the buses pull up they were rather concerned but she said that our students  'were a delightful bunch of kids'.  She went on to say 'they were extremely well behaved and delightful to speak with'.  'They appeared to be respectful of each other, other people and the environment.'  She was very impressed with them.

She asked me to pass on her feedback to the organisers and the students.”

On behalf of the students who attended, I would particularly like to thank the two teachers who organised and led the tour Emily Lewis and Elaine Nieva. These two very organised and committed teachers allowed us to deliver an experience, that many students may never otherwise have had the opportunity to do.

Houses are back!!!!

A campaign led by our student leaders, supported by our students and staff, has led to the re-introduction of students being aligned to, and competing against, houses. House assemblies will be held shortly to elect new house captains and the Athletics Carnival will be the first opportunity for a house based competition this year. Looking at both the staff lists and student list of each house I find it hard to believe that it will be possible for any other house other than Collier to triumph in the Athletics Carnival or any other significant event in the next 5 Years! Go Collier! The house based system will hopefully provide an opportunity to further improve the connectedness of students to school.

New College Jumpers

Recently I have spoken about undertaking a process to select an alternate to the traditional wool based College jumper. Our current school jumper will continue to be sold for years to come, however sales figures indicate that is not overly popular and often students prefer to wear jackets as their main layer instead of the school jumper. As a result we are consulting with students and staff to select and design an alternate. Options being discussed include windcheaters, rugby jumpers and polar fleece jumpers. Parents and students will have equal input in this process, with the Parents Association discussing the issue at their next meeting. Ideally a recommendation will be put to College Council in August and if supported, an alternate may be available as early as Term 4.

Writing Improvement

As I have mentioned on a number of occasions in past newsletters, writing improvement is something that we are heavily focused on. However, improvement is quicker when schools and families work together, so therefore this week’s tip on how you can help writing development at home is:

Start a vocabulary notebook.

Teach your child new words each week and encourage your child to use them. Make it into a game and give points for using the new words. Your child can keep a vocabulary notebook and get rewarded for the number of new words learned. The words will begin to appear like magic in their oral language and writing.

Kevin Murphy

Principal