Principal's Report

All Systems Go!

I have been so pleased to see the hard work of our staff and students result in some fabulous achievements and milestones during Term 3, including:

• Best ever NAPLAN results
• New Year 8 Centre complete
• New Gymnasium 
• Strong Survey Results
• Lacrosse State Champions
• First Spring Concert in 2 years
• Energy Project Launch

NAPLAN Results

NAPLAN results have been published for secondary school students in Year 7 and Year 9. Pleasingly, we have once again achieved our best ever results, which is reassuring for our school community given concerns about the potential impacts of remote learning and a general trend across the state of declining results, particularly in the area of numeracy . 

Year 7

Our Year 7s overall achieved results generally comparable to previous Year 7s cohorts over the last 5 years. 

Year 9

Although our Year 9 students did not complete NAPLAN assessments as Year 7s students in 2020, it appears that once again, our Year 9 students have achieved significant learning growth since beginning at the College. Some of the achievements include:

• Highest ever % of students in the Top 2 Bands for Numeracy, Reading, Writing, Grammar & Punctuation. 
• Lowest ever % of students in the Bottom 2 Bands in Numeracy, Reading and Writing. 
• Since 2017 we have doubled the % of students achieving results in the highest 2 bands of of NAPLAN for Reading and Numeracy. 

While the NAPLAN assessments are only a small snapshot of student learning at the College, it has been rewarding to see the the range of initiatives and interventions that have been put in place in recent years pay dividends. 

Professional Learning Communities 2.0

This year, our teachers have been engaged in an initiative from Department of Education and Training called Professional Learning Communities (PLC). 

The initiative involves teachers coming together in small groups on a weekly basis, identifying a gap in skills or knowledge of their students and then designing and implementing an intervention to address the issues. 

Our teachers have enjoyed having the time to focus on a relatively small issue in student learning progress and to make quick in roads. When undertaking training last year, our leadership team focused on address particular skills in the Reading Comprehension of our Year 9 students. After designing student data analysis and goal setting activities, our Year 9 students ended up achieving some of the best learning growth in the state (Patterson River almost doubled the state mean). 

Building Works Update

Our current $8 Million Capital Works funded by the state government is now complete. Beginning in 2020, this project has resulted in the construction of:

• 2 x Food Rooms 
• Canteen 
• STEM Building
• Year 8 Centre 

Next week we will officially opening the buildings with the assistance of Education Minister, Hon Natalie Hutchins and local member Sonya Kilkenny. 

Key Contacts

Our College is structured around Mentor Teachers being the primary point of contact for families, particularly within the junior school. If you are unsure of who is your child's mentor teacher, then you can see this via your child's Compass Schedule (Form Assembly). 

While you can contact your child's mentor teacher to inquire about a range of topics, you can also contact a range of staff about specific topics. 

Mr Daniel Dew 

College Principal