Principal's Report 

 

We come to the end of Term 3 with our students and staff not having been on-site for most of it.  Many families have had to balance the demands of parents working from home alongside students doing remote learning. Teachers and education support staff have had the same challenges as they navigate teaching online ensuring continuity of learning while maintaining their own family commitments.  This is an unknown landscape that has taxed our physical, psychological and emotional resilience to limits many have not experienced before.  It is important to recognise the value that we need to place on relationships and the care we put into maintaining them.  We believe that the 3 way partnership of students, parents and staff provides the human connections necessary for our community to not only survive but thrive during these challenging times.  This is evident in the continuity of care, learning and collaboration that has continued throughout the school term.  We now need to find a space to rest from this term. We hope that our students and families take a clear break from the screen time during these upcoming holidays.

Today, we had our first assemblies on Teams.  These were Year level based and highly successful.  Our student leaders were excellent and shared how to tackle the ongoing nature of remote and flexible learning and provided some useful hints of how to stay positive during this current pandemic.  It was wonderful to have students gather for the assemblies.  Next goal-get students to have their cameras on during sessions.

This year's College play "The Internet is Distract- OH LOOK A KITTEN' by Ian McWethy is coming up in Term 4.  We know that this will be delivered under new and different performance conditions.  We are very excited to have our talented students put on a very funny and interesting play.  Please look out for regular updates on performances.

 

We wish everyone a relaxing and safe holiday break.  Take time to reset, reconnect and recharge for the start of Term 4.  We will begin the term continuing our remote and flexible learning.  We will also be sending out invites for another virtual School Update Evening to share the designs of Stage 2 development.

 

We have had a number of Year 9 students participate in a Farms to School incursion as part of their specialism.  Here is an article link sharing what they have learned:

Red Hill beef producer backs Farms2Schools program

 

These are unusual times for leadership in all areas of life including education.  I was recently interviewed about the role of leaders in school.  Here is the link to the article:

Changing School Leadership during Covid 19