The term is flying by so quickly that we can almost taste the holidays but here is still so much to get through before we break for a well-earned rest. Last week we welcomed the Kinder 2022 parents into the school for the belated Kinder Information session. It was extremely well supported and the Kinder staff did an exceptional job of presenting all the important and useful information for the first year of school. Thank you to Miss McDonnell, Mrs Chesworth and Mrs Fry for their dedicated efforts in ensuring a smooth and exciting start for our littlest people. This coming week Tuesday 22 March we will be conducting the Year 10 ROSA session at 6pm in Rooms 7/8 and joining with the Hennessy staff for the traditional BBQ meal at the conclusion of the presentation.  Then we host the Year 7 2022 Information Session on Thursday 24 March for our new Year 7 cohort and their parents to officially welcome them to our school and to present all the important and valuable details about life in Secondary. 

We are continuing to manage the COVID space as well as we can and have had virtually no cases reported over the past weeks. We will maintain an instance on hand sanitiser and adequate ventilation whilst we will also support anyone who would like to continue wearing masks despite the restriction being lifted. All families should have received enough tests for the past weeks and there will be no additional tests sent home at this stage. Please monitor for symptoms and report any cases to NSW Health and the school at the first positive test. We will continue to monitor students for symptoms and they will be required to be collected if they exhibit any of the COVID symptoms to maintain COVID safe standards. A reminder that there are still expectations that students and staff take a COVID test if they display any symptoms and that parents can only transport their own child/ren to sporting or extra-curricular events.

Of late we have had a few too many incidents of children flushing the ‘wrong’ things down the toilet. We have had to have the ‘toilet talk’ about what is appropriate and expected in the toilet space. Most of our students respect school facilities and use them responsibly but some of our students have taken to being silly and playing in the toilets. If they speak about this at home please reinforce that the toilets are only to be used for the purpose for which they are intended. This also applies to our older students who think that they need to continually check their phones in the toilets or are breaking school rules by vaping in the toilet space. We have very clear rules around expectations.

A reminder that uniform expectations have not changed and we are trying to maintain an equitable and fair approach. The uniform expectations are laid out in the uniform policy in regards to haircuts, jewellery, nail polish, socks, hats, facial hair and all other aspects of our policy. Students who struggle to follow school rules around uniform have already been warned about possible repercussions for continuing to ignore the uniform policy. We are very proud of our uniform and the way our students present themselves to the community. Please support us with this standard.

The value of being kind never gets old! We encourage all our students and staff to always treat others as they would like to be treated.  

Sometimes kindness can take many forms and it doesn’t have to be a chore. Being nice to someone and thinking about the tone in your voice, or the look that you cast, or the gossip that you spread can be interpreted as being unkind.

Kind regards,

Ms Nicky Trinder

Principal