Principal's Message

As we finish out the last few weeks of the school year I would like to look back and reflect upon some of the incredible success that we have shared as a school community over the past twelve months. I would also like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of so many of the teaching staff at KKHS who have driven these initiatives, projects and supported the students achieve some incredible things in 2022.

Let’s start with the launch of the school representative S.P.O.R.T. program which has taken a long time in the planning but has launched to some incredible success. With every team being sponsored by local businesses and our game day polo being donated by Tail Runners, the squads were selected and success followed. Who could forget our travelling supporter bus who cheered our U14 boys rugby league team to victory in the Bill Turner Cup. The boys of course were narrowly defeated in Mullumbimby, but bounced back to win the 9 aside Gidley Brothers Cup.

Our sporting squads enjoyed a team building day at the Treetop Adventure park and our squads in Netball, Touch and Soccer have all enjoyed coaching clinics from experts. This program goes from strength to strength so a huge thank you to Mrs Gavenlock, Mr Ollie, Mr Crocker, Mrs Cole, Heather and all of the other coaches in the rep S.P.O.R.T. program. 

Next up, of course, is the launch of our Clontarf Academy which had a nice slow launch in Term 2 and then kicked off with some amazing camps in Term 3 and 4. Clark has been an amazing Director for the Academy, kicking off the Clontarf values for over 80 boys who have signed up this year. In 2023, we welcome 2 more Clontarf support staff who will assist Clark in building upon the amazing start that Clontarf has made in KKHS. A HUGE thank you to Clark for his incredible dedication and commitment to the students at KKHS!

Moving on from this the launch of Dream Together Girls program. Heather, Mrs Edwards and Ms Da Silva have done an incredible job in establishing this stage based initiative to establish mentors and cultural activities. The program kicked off with the Dream Together Camp which was finalised 

with a visit from players from the NRL winning Newcastle Knights Team: Caitlin Johnston and Kayla Romaniuk.

We have also celebrated the opening of our brand new and state of the art CAPA facilities. These new spaces have been a huge success with Ms Bailey, Mr Browning, Ms Lewis and Ms Miller definitely making the most of the incredible, dance, drama and music rooms. We cannot wait to show it off in the upcoming MADD Night celebrations. 

We also celebrated student academic success with our Year 8 students winning the University of Newcastle Sustainavation Challenge, beating out competition from a wide range of other schools. Also, Grace Williams from year 10 was selected following an essay submission to attend NSW Parliament House to participate in a youth parliament with students from across Australia. Our talented artist Taleesha Murphy was also recognised for her paintings in our interschool challenge, and we have recognised our student STARS each week with our recognition program on our social media channels! Our annual presentation also recognised student commitment to leadership, academics and social achievements!  A big well done to all these students on their commitment to excellence! 

We have also launched our new Wellbeing Engagement and Learning and Support Centre (WELS) in the library. This dedicated space supported by SSO Megan, Ms Da Silva, Ms Weir, the LaSTs and our Librarian is proving to be a very positive and supportive space for our students to reset and refocus on their learning. This space will continue to grow in 2023 with new programs and initiatives coming including Drumbeat, Project Rockit and Rock and Water to name just a few! The WELS team have also kicked off our Fun Fridays including music and art in the quad and of course Wellbeing week. This is only the start of these positive initiatives so I cannot wait to see what this great team develop for 2023.

Our passion for all things sport was also ignited when Ms Merrett launch the amazing KKHS touch Comp. This weekly event has created the biggest buzz around the school with students and teachers competing on teams to take out the first ever Touch Cup. Music, costumes, videos and team uniforms have all been standard items for Thursday and Friday lunches. I know big things are planned for the Grand Final.. so watch this space. A massive thank you and well done to Ms Merrett and her organising team for such a positive school initiative.

We have also kept on the positive trend with a new partnership with the Tomorrow Man and Tomorrow Woman program which aims to support out students in years 10-12 in the form of positive workshops. This trend continued with the My Strengths partnership which aims to adopt a positive strength based approach for students and teachers. A team of our amazing Year Advisors were trained in this new initiative and our Year 10 group were the first to undertake the workshops to Discover their top 5 strengths and understand how these inform identity, esteem and future choices. All students will participate in these workshops throughout 2023 and parents and carers can be on the lookout for their take home packs! 

We also farewelled our amazing year 12 students with their graduation and formal. These students have been such a resilient year group and through all the struggles of the last few years, still managed to get all dressed up for their fun days and their formal! Some costume choices will definitely stay in our memories!! I would also like to congratulate many of these students who have already been accepted into university for some incredible programs including Law, Architecture, Criminology, Medical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Nursing and Information Technology to name just a few. This is an amazing achievement for a very well deserving group of students! Congratulations to all the graduates and their families. 

Finally we have been working hard on our teacher professional learning to create positive and engaging learning experience for all of our students. We have made some positive changes this year and have many more things planned for 2023! I would like to acknowledge the amazing Head Teachers, and the Deputy Principals; Mrs Somerville, Mr Brown, Ms Brady, Ms Wilson, Ms Edwards and Ms Cleaves for their incredible work, dedication and commitment to the students and community of KKHS! 

No wonder we are all ready for some holidays!

I would like to wish all the students, parents and carers, happy, peaceful and fun filled holidays. I hope everyone takes the time to rest and I cannot wait to see what 2023 brings! 

Happy holidays everyone!