Principal

WorkSafe

Last week, the College was subject to a WorkSafe visit. WorkSafe inspected all of our agricultural areas including trades, machinery, plant and equipment with a focus on our Dairy and Abattoir operations. This visit was not in response to an event, but rather because of WorkSafe’s commitment to safety in agriculture. As most of you are aware, WorkSafe can attend a workplace anytime unannounced and they attended our site last week based on those grounds. 

As many families know, there has recently been a Commission into deaths in Agriculture in Western Australia. As a result of that Commission, recommendations were made that included Worksafe creating agricultural specific investigator roles within their organisation. The visit last week was in response to the Commission’s recommendations. The College is passionate about safety and acknowledges that as the educators of young people, we definitely have a role to play to support safe practices in agriculture. As an Agricultural College we take our role extremely seriously and see our responsibilities in not only creating a safe workplace for our students and staff, but also in our opportunities to provide our students with the knowledge to make good safety decisions. We hope that the education that we deliver empowers our students to advocate for their own safety when they leave us and move onto a work site. 

As educators, we are always eager to receive feedback. The five hour inspection affirmed for us that we are doing extremely well. The inspectors were impressed with our facilities, processes and obvious commitment to safety. Naturally, there are always areas of improvement, and we will address some minor matters identified, but it was really refreshing to hear some great affirmations from the WorkSafe inspectors.  A fantastic acknowledgement to all of our staff and students who support our commitment to safety in the workplace by engaging in safe practices each and every day. Thank you.

School Tours

This year has seen the introduction of school tours. These occur on the first Tuesday afternoon of the month at 3.15pm. I lead these experiences and take families and community members through different areas of the College. I have hosted three tours this year, with a fourth planned for June. Each time, I have engaged with interested people keen to learn a bit more about our school. All reported that the tours gave them a valuable insight into the workings of the College, with most impressed with the amazing opportunities available to our students. I encourage you to share these opportunities with your family and friends so that we can continue to celebrate the fantastic programme that we offer our students. 

Enrolments for 2024

Enrolments for next year are looking strong. Mr Mungioli and I are interviewing prospective families weekly and I must say I am really excited about the future of agriculture. We have some highly engaged and passionate young people coming through our ranks! I look forward to welcoming them to our College next year. We begin orientation activities with these families in Term 4. I encourage anyone who has not yet submitted enrolment documentation wishing to commence in either Year 10 or Year 11 in 2024, to lodge their paperwork as soon as possible.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Parent interviews are available on Friday 2nd June from 2pm – 4pm. These interviews will be face to face. Bookings can be made via the link below for a 10 minute discussion with your selected staff member. 

https://sobs.com.au/pt3/parent.php?schoolid=857

If a staff member is fully booked or you are unable to make it to the College for an interview next Friday and you wish to have a phone interview at a later date please email the staff member directly via compass. The staff member will then contact you the following week. If you have any problems please contact the College directly.

Rebecca Kirkwood

Principal

WACOA - Denmark