Dear Killara Families,

I thank all students, staff members and families for their commitment to learning in 2021. As a school community, we have navigated many challenges and achieved outstanding results. I thank our teachers who role modelled agility, resilience, and adaptability throughout the year. Our students and families showcased their resourcefulness, tremendous work ethic and dedication to the transformative power of education through learning from home. Together, students, families and staff produced meaningful learning experiences that ensured high-quality lessons endured throughout the lockdown period.

The last few weeks of this year have been filled with exciting learning events. Summit-21, surf awareness, successful seniors and the Year 12 formal, are just some of the events involving our students over the last few weeks. Our school will be very busy, right up to the final bell on Thursday afternoon.

Excelling value added across Years 7-9 at Killara High School

At Killara High School, we have a strong heritage of academic excellence, and we will continue to strive towards consolidating and improving this element of our school. We carry with us a growth mindset that fuels our energy to never stand still when it comes to providing the best in education to our students. Our aim is to enhance the learning experiences for every student, every day, so that all students, regardless of ability levels, experience growth and attainment. This philosophy of unleashing the potential in all students has been reflected through our school’s recent outstanding achievements in value-add scores. This has been another challenging year, and through the various obstacles, our school has been unified in our focus on excellence in teaching and learning using the pedagogical framework of explicit teaching. Across the school, teachers are explicitly unpacking learning intentions and showcasing success criteria, and modelling excellence in the classroom, and I am pleased to report an outstanding achievement by our school. Our NAPLAN Value Added Across Years 7-9 was determined to be at the Excelling level for 2021. This is a significant achievement. This measure displays the growth of student scores at our school between Years 7 and 9. The Value-Added report displays information about learning growth of students in schools, after adjusting for the characteristics of the students, referred to as value-added. We will use this information to identify the learning needs of students moving forward.

2021 surf awareness program at Bilgola beach

Years 7 and 9 have been busy learning about water safety at Bilgola beach. During this important program students have learnt about many water safety skills including rip identification, safety calls and signs, first aid/CPR and land rescues. Our students have been taught important life skills by trained specialists. In a country where water sports and water-based recreation programs form significant components of our lifestyle, this program is very important, and I thank our students and families for their support of this initiative. I thank all the teachers who have attended this program to support our Year 7 and 9 students.

Summit-21: respectful relationships and wellbeing program

Summit 2021 is a 2-day Killara High School wellbeing and respectful relationships program for students in Year 9. Summit-21 involved both KHS and external presenters. During this program, students explored various themes primarily focused on respectful relationships. Students participated in a range of workshops and activities. Sessions included a question-and-answer session with former students, a workshop on inner strength with The Business Education Network (BEN), cyber safety with PCYC Senior Constable Lisa Brown, and safety around parties and holidays with our student support officer Lucy Dahill. Workshop presenters included former students, The BEN, PCYC and Ku-ring-gai Council Youth Services. I thank all teachers involved in this innovative and highly effective program. A special thank you goes to Mr David Browne for his oversight of this program.

Year 10 successful seniors

Ms Bouchier, our Stage 5 Head Teacher organised a range of practical workshops and events for Year 10 students in preparation for their transition to the Preliminary HSC course in Year 11. A variety of workshops, presentations and courses were offered, and these included:  

Art of Smart career preparation workshops
the completion of NESA’s compulsory All My Own Work modules
the Life Lessons conference with Brett Sanders
the Consent Labs program
the RYDA Safe Driving Program

Students found all sessions useful, and I thank all staff for their dedication towards making this experience a success.

Year 7, 2022 orientation school tours

Year 7, 2022 students completed an online orientation program this year. This was coupled with on-site school tours which were very well attended. We look forward to welcoming our new Year 7, 2022 cohort next year. The year will commence with two orientation days for our Year 7 cohort.

Key dates for 2022

Friday 28th & Monday 31st January are school development days.
Tuesday 1st February students in Years 7, 11 and 12 commence.
Wednesday 2nd February we have all students return to school.
Year 10 camp commences on Tuesday 1st February and concludes on the afternoon of Wednesday 2nd February.

I wish all our students, staff and families a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Please take time to recharge those batteries, relax with family and friends, and get ready for a wonderful year of learning in 2022.

Kindest regards,

Robin Chand

Principal

TAS - Design Technology

Year 9's Ultimate House