Deputy Principal's Report

Intensive English Centre Deputy Principal

Mrs Mee Liau

2020 started like just another year. No, not quite; raging bushfires, lost lives and properties quickly faded from present memory as the world confronts an unprecedented formidable invisible foe - the unforgettable Coronavirus-19.

Evans IEC soldiers on, thanks to staff, students and our community resolved in solidarity to keep everyone safe. The worst seems over but we will always be vigilant and cautious in the full return to school on the 25th May 2020.

Enrolments are now at 226 and twenty classes with forty Term 1 leavers commencing on the transition to high schools. Everyone is eager to move on, both students and receiving schools who are starting to enrol. Students who have engaged and kept up with remote learning resources would find themselves ready for the next part of their educational journey in Australia.

Non-leavers will find the next 6 weeks of Term 2 filled with lesson catch-ups or perhaps more delighted with catching up with friends, teachers and school learning support officers! We are ready to meet your enthusiastic return and the challenges along with it.

On the 18th May, we were privileged to host a visit by the Executive Director, Cathy Brennan and the Director Educational Leadership, Toni Kember. Seven IEC students ranging from Foundation English to Level 3, spoke spontaneously about their feelings of COVID-19, remote learning and their migration experience. I am proud of their courage in speaking to unfamiliar important guests and thankful to teachers for preparing them mentally for the encounter via virtual classrooms.

Optus donated 200 SIM data cards to the IEC and an executive will be at school to assist students older than 14 years of age to activate their cards for future online learning. Thanks to the health pandemic crisis, newly arrived students and their teachers have developed their technological skills exponentially. That would be skills for life.