A new term signals the end of holidays and a return to routines for our school community. These routines also bring us some normality in what has been a very abnormal year. Students have received feedback on their first semester and will be setting goals for Term 3. Please encourage your child to read their report card and engage in the goal setting with them. In the coming weeks we will have OPTIMA assemblies to celebrate successes from this period. Maximising learning time is very important so can I ask you, where possible, to make all appointments out of school time with the exception of specialist appointments. Maximising your student’s learning time will allow us as a school to maximise their success. I would encourage you where you have concerns to make a time to connect with your child’s teacher through our parent teacher interview process.

I can also advise that we will be hosting two options for the General Enrolment Information for Year 7’s beginning 2021. These are Wednesday 29 July at 6:00pm and Thursday 30 July at 9:30am. Both will be held in the Theatre. The two sessions enables us to adhere more easily to social distancing but I would still ask you to limit to one family member attending and to stay away if you are unwell. I will post the information slides on our school website after the event for those unable to attend. Could I ask, if you have family or neighbours that these sessions may be relevant to, if you could pass on this information and we will also promote through the primary schools and our social media.

Laptop One to One Program. The laptop program is looking its best ever with teachers and students fully utilising devices for learning in many subject areas. We can thank COVID-19 for providing a steep learning curve but the end result is fabulous. Can I remind families this is a three year contract as the cost of the laptop and software is spread to reduce impact on family budgets in Year 7 when there are so many other costs associated with starting at a new school. I have had a handful of families in Year 8 want to switch to bring their own device. This is very problematic for the student and costly for the school. There are also associated costs to the family with BYOD so I would ask you to contact our IT department to discuss this if this is something you are considering. If there are issues with your child’s laptop then please bring it to IT in the library. All devices are under a three year warranty and swaps are available on the spot. So putting up with something not working does not have to be tolerated.