From the Acting Principal 

Welcome to our last newsletter for the year. Thank you to everyone who has contributed throughout the year, it has been great to read about so much that was occuring in the school, even while we were in remote learning.

Our students have now been back on site for over a month and staff have been working hard to put on as many events as possible, to give the end of our year some sense of normality. I hope that your children are talking about their enjoyment of being back together.  The Connect classes that I work with are organising activities to celebrate the end of the year and selecting events to participate in together during Activities Week next week.

Over the last few weeks, our students have settled back into onsite learning and we have been able to complete end of year assessment tasks with minimal disruption. Our staff and families will be able to review the assessment feedback and end of year reports and be ready to establish new partnerships for learning for next year. The DET have confirmed that they are funding a number of programs for 2022, such as the literacy and numeracy support, as well as the tutoring program that has been very successful in assisting our students to catch up where required in their learning.

Masterplan

The planning and documentation of the second phase of the Masterplan has been completed. Please see the related article later in the newsletter. Thank you to the staff, parents and regional personnel for their involvement in this crucial stage of the development of the school. The fantastic outcome will create state of the art STEM facilities for our school and enrich our curriculum program. 

End of Year Music Concert

Last week was the first in-person event that I have been able to attend with our school community. It was a such a great event to hold for both our students and for our instrumental music staff. The students were so excited back stage and performed very professionally. Our Music Captains, Yianna and Chris, were fantastic comperes for the evening and showed the importance of student leadership in all areas of the school. Jackie Brogan gave an understandably emotional welcome to our families and shared her joy at the students having the opportunity to perform together. At the end of the evening it was lovely to see families; including siblings, parents and grandparents congratulating their family members and enjoying an evening together. Let’s look forward to many of these occurring next year.

Graduation

On Monday this week we were able to hold our ‘on again – off again’ graduation for the Class of 2021. The Grand Hyatt venue made the event even more prestigious, as at many times during the last 6 months we did not think we would even be able hold it in the school gym.

The guest speaker, Linh Do, shared with the students about her activism and environmental work and encouraged them to act to ensure equity for everyone. It was great to be able to celebrate this important rite of passage with our families as well, and I thank everyone for their work over the last 2 years to support our graduating class on their achievements. 

Grade 6 Orientation Day

While saying goodbye to our Year 12 cohort on the Monday evening, the staff were very aware that the very next day we would be welcoming our next cohort of Year 7s, as part of the statewide Orientation day. It is always a delight to welcome the current Grade 6s to our NHS school community for the start of their high school journey. The students were organised into the classes they will be part of next year and, with the assistance of our Year 10 Peer Support Leaders, the Grade 6s have already started to make some new friendships. Our transition program will continue into 2022 to ensure that our new cohort are welcomed and feel supported.

Peer Support Leaders

A big thank you to Ms Tait and Ms Lester for their work training the 2022 Peer Support leaders on Friday last week.  I was invited to speak to them at the end of their training day and had the pleasure of awarding them their peer support badges and watching them play a game of ‘pass the snort’! I was pleased to see the young leaders in our school that will make the commitment to supporting our 2022 Year 7 groups. Their leadership will extend beyond just one day, as they will continue to work with the groups they met during the start of next year to support the transition.

School Captains

Last week I was invited to participate in the interviews of our School Captain candidates. They all spoke about the leadership opportunities that the school has given them to be involved in so far in their schooling and their enthusiasm to lead the school and make improvements for our student community. Unfortunately, not all of the candidates will be able to be School Captains even though I believe all of them could undertake the role admirably. The candidates spoke about further opportunities and commitment to leadership outside of the captaincy role if unsuccessful. I look forward to announcing the four school captains for 2022 early next week.

Finally, I wish to thank all of the school community for working with the school throughout the year. With the continual changes to rules and situations it has required a committed partnership that will endure. The support of the community has been evidenced by the continuation of onsite learning for students during Term 4 that we have been able to provide. I particularly thank families who kept students home when unwell, or collected students from school immediately when symptoms became apparent. These actions have kept our community as safe as we could possibly be.

I look forward to 2022 with renewed enthusiasm. I hope 2022 does not have the same disruptions that the past 2 years have had and that we utilise the skills that we have developed to continue to grow as learners and reflect on the importance of our connections with each other.

Best wishes to everyone in our school community, I wish you a safe and happy break.

Chris Jones

Acting Principal