Message from the

Head of Senior School

Term 1 Week 10

I trust that all families have had a restful Easter break. With its message of forgiveness, redemption and life beginning anew, Easter is a very special time. This is helped, of course, by the gorgeous early autumn weather. We all need rain, some of us desperately, but mild sunny days and cool nights do contribute to a sense of personal wellbeing!

The Senior School has been a busy place – Year 12 exams are being returned, the cross-country has been completed and preparations are well in hand for the upcoming Camps Week, which finishes Term 1 in a really positive way. It is a time of personal challenge and discovery, essential for young people in order for them to develop resilience and self-reliance. Year 7 students have some activities here at school, followed by several days at Burrendong, Years 8 and 9 and older rank will be on Cadet Camp, Year 10s will do Community Service, Year 11s complete work experience, and Year 12s will be away on a 3-day retreat. And prior to all this, music students will go away for their camp! Parents will have received very detailed information about all these activities; if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact Mr Rowe, Director of Co-Curricular, who oversees the week’s programs.

All Senior School staff will be involved one way or another with these Camps Week activities. Part of being a staff member here is a commitment to co-curricular and other school activities; it’s a wonderful way to interact with students away from the classroom and to discover other strengths and capacities that we didn’t know they had.

On Monday of last week, the Kids Lit regional heats were held. This involved teams from many schools in our region coming together in the DPA to do a sort of trivia day on steroids! All the questions related to reading, literature, books, film adaptations, cartoons etc. Students must be no older than 13 and they compete in teams of four. At the end of the day, a KWS secondary team won the competition. They now go on to the national final in Sydney, which will be held on the 4th of May. We wish them all the very best for this next exciting opportunity and congratulate them on winning their recent ‘sport of reading’ challenge.

This will be my last message for this term. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm for the school and for allowing us to bring out the best in your children. Teaching teenagers is such a privilege – they are a work in progress, which makes it all so rewarding. Next term will be winter uniform, which means blazers every day and long green socks for the girls.

I wish you a great fortnight and happy holidays. You may even wish to take advantage of Camps Week to have a couple of days to yourselves!

Bev West

Head of Senior School