Principal Report

A message from the Principal

Ms Nerina Pretlove

There is much to reflect on as we evaluate the past ten weeks. We have faced the challenges presented to us by the Covid-19 viral pandemic and now that we have returned to full time face to face teaching it is time to evaluate how we navigated them and what we have learned.

We would like to acknowledge the varied impacts that this has had on our parents and carers.  Some of you have had to work from home, sharing spaces with your students whilst supervising their school work; some have continued to work as you have undertaken essential services to keep our community functioning; and some of you may have lost your jobs. All of that occurred in a time when you were unable to go out. We are also aware of the challenges that negotiating the online learning world, picking up paper copies of work and keeping your child or children on track have had on your families. Thank you for your support of teachers and for working with them to support our students’ learning.

I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of our teachers throughout this time who flipped their classrooms into the digital world in a remarkably short time so that their students could remotely access their learning, often managing their own children’s learning from home as well. It was challenging but in doing so we have learned new skills and new ways of doing things.

To our students: what a good job many of you have done in jumping into the online learning world! You have quickly learned the skills of Google classroom, Zoom and MS Teams as well as self-directed learning and managing your time. As we move forward, we will build on these skills and provide more opportunities for you to develop your expertise. 

Curriculum, assessment and reporting adjustments will be made in line with the Department of Education and NESA’s directions to support students’ progress following their return to school and especially for Year 12 and their post schooling destination options. Semester 1 reports for Years 7-11 will not have the usual A-E scales and will be distributed before the end of August. Year 12 reports were completed last term and were distributed at the beginning of this term.

As we move forward into face to face learning, we will be sending out links to surveys to evaluate parents, teachers and students’ experiences of our past ten weeks. Whilst we hope that we will not have to return to the past Covid-19 situation, we want to be prepared to do so if the necessity arises and will value you input.