Associate Principal, Operations Report

Parent/Teacher/Student Meetings

The third Senior Campus Parent/Teacher/Student meetings for the year, as previously notified in calendars, will be held for Years 6 – 12 in the late afternoon and early evening (4.00-7.00pm) of Monday 3 October in the Middle Years Positive Education Centre. 

Teachers who wish to see parents to discuss the progress of their children should provide notification of a time set aside through the student Record Book. 

In addition, parents are invited to make a booking to see teachers.  Bookings can be made on-line through the Parent Access Module (PAM).  The booking site will be opened for bookings on Friday 16 September and will close at 5.00pm on Friday 30 September.  Parents can respond to, and amend if necessary, the bookings made by teachers through PAM also.

There have been some issues for South Australian parents in that the times across the border do not seem to take into account the time difference.  Please check with the College reception if you have made some bookings to avoid any problem.

Please note that we expect that students will attend these interviews with their parents.

Staffing

Mrs Edwina Moutray has advised the College of her desire to resign from the staff at the end of this year.  Mrs Moutray has been a much loved teacher of English, History and Drama and her leadership of several School Productions, most recently Seussical, has been hugely admired.  She was Head of Laidlaw for a number of years until the end of 2015.  We will have the opportunity to thank Mrs Moutray formally at the end of the year but we are delighted to hear that she is expecting her first child in March.

The process to replace Mrs Moutray has already commenced.

Ms Victoria Burleigh will commence her Family leave early next term and her replacement for Term Four, Mr Stephen Mirtschin, has been previously advised.  Mrs Anli Zuo will be away in Term Four taking a period of Long Service Leave.  Her replacement will be Ms Yu Ling Tong who visited the school recently to meet with Mrs Zuo and to receive advice re curriculum and classes.

We wish Ms Burleigh and Mrs Zuo well for their time away.

We are grateful to Mrs Dona Hartwich for looking after Mrs Simkin’s responsibilities for the past 5 weeks.  Mrs Simkin returns from leave at the start of next term.

Finally, I can advise that we have made two appointments to the teaching staff for 2017.  Miss Georgina Hodge and Mrs Nerrida Prosser will join the English Faculty replacing Mrs Kay Leyshon and Mr Tim Statt, whose resignations have been recently advised.  Both Miss Hodge and Mrs Prosser have the credentials to teach EAL as well as mainstream English. 

Mrs Prosser is an experienced teacher who has also published text books for senior English students.  She has taught in Geelong, Shepparton and Warrnambool previously and we are looking forward to her joining us in the new year.  Miss Hodge impressed us with her preparation and ability to communicate to students on her visits here recently and we look forward to the contributions she will make to our students’ learning. 

Farewell

This week we have farewelled Mr Jin Da Fei (or David as we have come to know him), a teacher from Gaoyou Middle School who has spent the term here as part of the agreement between our schools.  David has been an important part of the boarding community and he has assisted many of our students of Chinese language during his time with us.  In addition, he has made many friends and, saying goodbye to the staff, he evoked an old Chinese saying:

“Although we may be miles apart, we share the same moon.”

We wish him well as he returns to his wife and young son.

Music Bookends

It seems appropriate, given we commenced the term with Orchestra Victoria here, that we finish with a musical week.  Friday’s House Music Festival is always a delightful way to end the term and I know all Houses have been rehearsing and preparing with great diligence.  It will be a fun afternoon!

In addition, this week we shared music with Ballarat Grammar School students and the concert on Wednesday night was most enjoyable, featuring our Concert Band and some individual musicians.  Further, last Sunday’s Hamilton Symphony Orchestra was again a wonderful afternoon and Tim and Amelia Gilling, Jing Jin and Natasha Jiang were all members of the orchestra while Mr Benjamin Hiscock, our Director of Music, performed a piano solo with orchestral backing and students in Years 3-5 sang two items during the afternoon’s performance, charming the large audience.

Well done to all! 

Mr Neil MacLean