Welcome to Week 6 – a very busy and exciting time in junior secondary with assessments and many extra-curricular opportunities also occurring.

With the borders now open to the world, many families are taking the opportunity to travel to visit family or for holidays. We encourage families to schedule this travel during school holidays wherever possible. If you do need to travel during the school term, please know that the school cannot grant an exemption from compulsory schooling for this reason. If you are choosing to travel during the school term, please notify the school of the absence period and inform classroom teachers. To continue their learning and assessment, students are to access their Class OneNote. They are also welcome to communicate any questions about the content to their teacher via email. Teachers are not required to supply individual or different work to the student when they are absent due to travel, nor will exemptions for assessment be granted. If your travel is overseas, students will need to see our tech department to ensure they will still have access to the network.

As we are approaching the half-way mark for Term 3, this is a great opportunity to check in with your children to see how they are going with their assessments and time management. What do they have coming up? Are they allocating time after school to keep up with the demands? It is important to get students into good study habits in junior secondary so that they are ready for the demands of senior secondary and time management is something that our young people often need help with. For some it comes naturally, but for most it is a habit that needs support to form. Monday afternoon tutorials, held in the Library during Period 4, are a wonderful way to keep on top of homework and assessments with additional support. Also, Thursday tutoring after school.

At PBC, after school detentions are often issued for a variety of reasons when students have breached the Optima Code. The success of these detentions in terms of changing behaviour and future choices, is hinged on the student attending the detention. Students who fail to attend the detention without an approved reason, may progress to an external suspension. We are encouraging families to facilitate their child’s attendance at the afternoon detention to avoid further consequences.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have had so many successful outcomes with our students representing PBC in a variety of sports and cultural events. Well done to all of the students and teachers who put in the additional hours that lead to this excellence and success.

The Track & Field Carnival was a wonderful success with so many students engaged and participating in both sporting and non-sporting events to represent and earn house points. The fun had by all students was evident; a lot of organisation and planning goes into large whole-school events such as these and all staff involved are to be commended.

Don’t miss out on the Junior School House Camps, spaces are filling quickly. Permission slips are available from D Block and need to be returned ASAP as spaces are limited. This is a wonderful opportunity for students create lifelong memories with their friends and build house culture and team spirit – essential aspects of positive psychology and creating a sense of belonging.

The 2023 Year 8 Student Leader process is currently underway. Last week, short-listed students participated in a group interview and the final leadership decision will be announced this week. Thank you to all students who applied, it was marvellous to see such a large number of students as aspiring future leaders.