College Principal’s Report
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A big welcome back to all members of our school community. Our school year has been busy so far, but from our perspective, the start has also been a smooth one.
I would especially like to welcome our new students, families and staff. Our new Middle Years Campus Principal Ms Vittoria Saliba has commenced the year with a large cohort of excited Year 7s. As a school we could not be more pleased with how our new students and staff have settled in. I look forward to watching them grow in confidence and become more and more active within our fantastic school community as the year progresses.
We started the school year with two student free days and a staggered start for our Middle Years students. This additional time has meant that as a staff we have been able to ensure that the start for all students has been calm, consistent and has ‘set the tone’ in the right way. I would like to congratulate all our students on the way that they have risen to the challenge – being on time, ready to learn and in full school uniform. It has been great to see the way that students have managed themselves in this regard and the support from families is much appreciated. A key goal in our School Strategic Plan is to ensure a positive learning environment and the routines that have been a focus for all staff have certainly made a noticeable difference around the college.
Another key factor in the return to school has been the introduction of the Compass platform. It has certainly been a learning curve and there have been teething issues as we fine-tune our use of the core modules such as Events and Attendance which allow us to work in partnership with parents. We have shifted to using Compass Pay to allow families to pay and consent online earlier than anticipated as this was the most efficient way to go, however, the school will continue to use Qkr to allow families to pay school contributions for the remainder of 2023.
Compass has a host of other features to build partnership with families, including ways to make teaching and learning more visible, and to ensure that students are provided with the information and feedback they need. We will progressively adopt these features across the school. Building a stronger Home / School partnership is a core pillar of our strategy for improvement going forwards: Thanks for your patience with Compass and we look forward to your feedback going forwards.
After a long wait I am pleased to say that ‘at last’, work has commenced on our new 400-seat Performing Arts Centre based at the Middle Years campus. While it is mostly preliminary construction at this point, it will begin in earnest in March / April and the completion date is February 2024. When you next visit the school, I encourage you to drop into the General Office and view images of what the PAC will look like when completed. It will be an asset to our community and a fantastic resource for our many talented and creative students!
Finally, I would like to encourage all parents and carers to consider how they might get involved in our school community this year. Whether you consider nominating to join School Council, attend a Working Bee (our first one will be during Term 2), attend a concert or school forum, or engage with our Student Agency Conferences, we encourage you to get involved. A key goal for us in 2023 is to develop the strongest possible home / school partnerships and I hope you will join us in this enterprise.