From the Principal
Dear Killara Families,
It has been a wonderful start to Term 3, with students demonstrating significant achievement across the school.
Boccia Success
Congratulations to Daniel, Sebastian and Wesley on their outstanding achievement in the NSW Schools Sports Unit Boccia competition. These students represented Killara High School in this competition involving 184 schools. Killara achieved an outstanding result of being 3rd place winners. I thank Mr Smith for his dedication towards ensuring our students had this wonderful experience. Our students featured on footage shown on Nine News on Wednesday evening 10 August.
Aerobics National Competition 20 - 22 August
Next week our dedicated aerobics team will compete at the School Aerobics National competition held on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Our entire school community wishes our students the very best. Our students have demonstrated excellent work ethic and skill to qualify for this national competition. I thank Ms Muller for her support and management of this team. Also Mr Currie, as he will assist the team on this trip.
Trial HSC Examinations
Our Year 12 students are completing their yearly examinations. I congratulate all of our Year 12 students for their dedication towards their studies. The camaraderie shown amongst this year group is inspiring, as students have shown care, diligence and teamwork in their approach towards their studies. Year 11 students will commence their yearly examinations in Week 5.
Leave Requests
From the beginning of 2015, family holidays and travel are no longer considered under the Exemption from School Procedures. Travel outside of vacation period is now counted as an absence for statistical purposes. I encourage all families to arrange holidays during the school vacation period, rather than during the school term.
High Expectations
Our teachers hold high expectations for all students, and this applies to all areas of school life. All students should arrive at school with the required stationery. This includes books for each subject, pens, highlighters, rulers and any other item to support learning. Laptops should be charged and ready to use throughout the day. Black leather shoes are part of the school uniform and they are required for students to complete work in labs, workshops and kitchens. We expect all students to arrive on time, and prepared to learn. Our teachers model high expectations and promote this through consistently challenging students with deep learning experiences that use high quality examples and exemplars, establishing clear and consistent learning intentions and success criteria, alongside aiming to unleash the high potential in each child.
Killara Academy Years 7 – 9
Killara Academy students participated in a lecture from Alison Estaugh, a former detective and current senior constable with the NSW Police Force. Alison shared her experiences as a detective and answered a range of questions relating to her career. Students learnt about crime prevention, the importance of community partnerships, managing difficult situations, legislative powers and training at Goulburn police academy. We also thank Senior Constable Lewis Peters for his lecture to our Killara Academy students. Our students were honoured to have this experience. Thank you, Alison and Lewis.
Killara Academy students will be attending a tour of the University of New South Wales on Saturday 27 August, as part of the university preparation aspect of this course. As part of the community service and volunteering aspect of this course, students will cook food for the homeless at Bondi’s Our Big Kitchen on Wednesday 28 September. I am very proud of the commitment that our Killara Academy students have shown towards their learning experiences.
Explicit Teaching
Explicit teaching drives the pedagogical framework across the school. This is a research-based approach to teaching, and it is experienced by students across the school in all disciplines. Here is an infographic that summarises the key aspects of our school’s explicit teaching approach.
Thank you to our broader school community, including our families, for your ongoing support of our school. The support from our community is incredible, and allows student success to manifest in many ways, through many experiences.
Robin Chand
Principal