Principal's Report

Welcome back Year 7-10 parents and students,

As we approach the day when 7-10 students will return back to school (Tuesday 9th June), I would like to again thank everyone for the cooperative way we have all worked together this term to ensure both our personal safety and the effective remote learning of our students. We have all learnt new skills, faced new challenges and in many cases gained some benefit from the experience.

As a society, we are now moving to the next pandemic stage of reduced restrictions (and return to school), which will become a new normal rather than a return to our pre-virus lives. Of course, this means we will have some more challenges but I am confident that we can continue to work together with the common goal of achieving the best possible outcomes as a school, a community, a nation and a world.

We have been impressed with how well our Year 11-12 students have adapted to being back at school since last week. We had almost 100% attendance last Tuesday with just a couple of students who were not well and did the right thing by staying at home. Students were pleased to be back and to catch up with friends and teachers. Most have indicated that they have managed the remote learning reasonably well (and in some cases extremely well) which was great for their teachers to hear. Teachers have been putting in a great deal of effort to provide detailed lesson plans, run Webex classes, respond to the students’ emailed questions and provide support where needed so it was good to hear that it was appreciated and was made of good use.

However, we have found that there are some students (fortunately not many) who have experienced, for one reason or another, significant difficulty with the restrictions and/or remote learning. We are currently organising interviews to help these students identify their particular concerns and put in place plans so they can constructively resolve them with staff and parental support.

Now it is the turn for our Year 7-10 students. As they return to Fairhills, they will find many things the same:

The same subjects, timetable and teachers
The same starting time (at school before the 8.30am locker bell with first class at 8.40am)
The canteen will re-open
Classroom management will continue to follow the 5Rs Positive Behaviour process
Parent drop off/pick up will still be in the parent car park but we do ask that each parent waits in their car until their student arrives
The phone policy remains the same. Phones are to remain in each student’s locker (with their school bag) for the whole day including breaks
All students are expected to be in full uniform and observe the normal school rules about un-natural hair colour, body piercing and jewellery. A reminder that hoodies should not be worn to school.

However, a number of changes need to be made at school to ensure that we minimise any health risks, provide extra assistance for any students who weren’t able to fully keep up with the learning tasks provided each day by their teachers and support any students who are having personal difficulties adjusting to a world that is different. The Education Department has provided schools with a set of return to school guidelines within which each school is expected to develop school specific advice. A Return to School Policy has been endorsed by school council and has been placed on our Fairhills website for your information.

Advice is included in this newsletter to help students to return to school well prepared for the new/changed arrangements. We will inform you later of any further information as it is received from the Education Department.

Harvey Wood

Principal