This term is one where we are working hard to both finalise the year well while preparing for next year. Earlier in the year we announced the retirement of Mr and Mrs Wheadon and plans are well underway to make sure we have many opportunities to thank them for their dedicated service to the College and especially to so many students in their care.
I am pleased to announce that Mr Luke Sale from William Clarke College will be joining the team next year as Deputy Head of Junior School and Mrs Narelle Lawler will be taking on the role of Learning Support Coordinator. I congratulate them both and look forward to working with them in these roles next year.
Our Year 6 students are getting ready for the transition to Year 7. They are involved in a range of activities that will help them adjust to the next phase of their schooling. They are meeting and working with a range of secondary staff, getting to know the routines and expectations of Senior School. To mark this milestone the College and the Class Parents are working together to plan a Year 6 Dinner that will be held in Mrs Riitano's Kitchen on Wednesday 29 November. The invitations and more information will be sent next week.
We are always planning ways to enhance the learning of our students and one area that we are investigating is how to introduce languages in the Junior School. It is an area that I am passionate about and after travelling both in Japan and in the French-speaking areas of Canada I see such benefits in exposing our children to other languages very early in their schooling.
In Quebec all children are taught in French until Year 3 and then their lessons become bilingual, English and French, after that. Many schools in Japan are teaching an English program to their students to equip them for life. The College is in the planning stages of developing how we can best achieve this and we are looking at introducing Spanish in the early years as the first stage, with a possibility of expanding the program to include French and Japanese later. This will expose the children to a range of languages and cultures as well as prepare them for languages in Senior School.