I hope your family had a refreshing and relaxing break with some quality time spent together. Our Year 12 students will no doubt have been preparing in earnest over the break for their upcoming Trial HSC examinations. For families with Year 12 students in their household, it can really be a stressful time for the whole family as they try to support them, encourage them, provide them with opportunities for quiet study and help them balance all the competing interests in their life. Thanks so much for all you are doing! Many Year 12 students made use of the invitation to come into school at the times on offer to undertake study or work on their major works. It is so pleasing to see students take agency over their learning and push themselves towards achieving the goals they have set to help them achieve their post school plans.
Our teachers and staff were on site for several days of the holiday break preparing for new curriculum and taking part in tailored workshops together. Thanks to families of Year 7 and 8 for partnering with teachers for Parent Teacher night this week. I hope there were some meaningful conversations about your child’s progress and areas of strength and for improvement to be working towards this term.
The second semester of the year provides a great opportunity to reinforce expectations with your young adult to maintain high standards in terms of their personal responsibility for class equipment. Many workbooks will have been filled up by this time and new ones will need to be bought for classes. Checking that calculators, visual arts diaries and all other necessary stationary is still in good working order for the term ahead is important. Thanks also for your assistance in ensuring your Senior School students come to College in the correct and well fitted uniforms. It is definitely an area where we have seen improvement because of the popularity of College uniform. Consistency around items which students find challenging such as jewellery, fake nails and facial hair is an area the College continues to work on and ask teachers to be vigilant around. This encourages a sense of unity and safety for students because they know where the boundaries are.
Next week we look forward to the Senior Ensembles evening and hosting one of our visiting Japanese sister schools. Thanks to any families who will be hosting an overseas student for a night or two to give them a sense of Australian culture like our students got to experience when they visited Japan earlier this year.