With Term 4 well under way, there has been lots to celebrate at the College. The major event of the term has been the departure of our Year 12’s. Their final days with us were celebrated in style starting with an amazing community breakfast, attended by many of our parents and staff. The event was catered for by our Home Economics team and hospitality students, who did an amazing job. We then moved into our Year 12 assembly, which was a celebration of these wonderful students. With such kind and hopeful words spoken by our staff and student counsellors, it was a pleasure to be a part of such a lovely assembly. This was followed by the Year 12’s taking part in the “Big Day Out” excursion down at the beach to round off the day.

Our formal Graduation ceremony took place on Thursday 29 October at Kingsway Christian College Auditorium. Again, what an amazing night. It was great to see the achievements of all students at Belridge SC and Belridge Secondary Education Support Centre. The venue was perfect and although we had a reduced capacity we were still able to do those students proud.

Our Year 6 half day Transition Program, involving students from our local intake primary schools, have also started this term. These have been a great success so far, with lots of happy faces seen around the school as they prepare for their move to the College. The college staff are looking forward to building a strong relationship with our new families over the coming months.

The Belridge Dance Company shared the amazing work of its students to the community during its Annual showcase, this year called Meliora. The performances were to a very high standard, reflecting the hard work and dedication of their teacher, Heather Currie.

With a clear focus on developing our students for the future, I would like to acknowledge Steve O’Neil who has been recognised by Adobe for his work in ICT education and awarded ‘Adobe Education Leader’ status. Well done Steve, you are a credit to the College!

We also celebrated book week this term, finishing the week with our annual dress up day. This year we saw the addition of a photo booth, which was a huge hit with the students. Big thanks to Jo Baker and her team, along with Lisa Manning and those who assisted throughout the week.

As part of our focus on improving mental health and wellbeing, our students and staff participated in Mental Health Week activities along with the Year 11’s taking part in their annual river cruise event. Thank you to all of those involved in providing such great initiatives for our staff and students.

On the sporting field we have seen further achievements this term with our interschool Athletics team winning the Year 7-10 Carnival. Our Cricket team were also crowned champions of the Kim Hughes Shield Cup for 2020 – WA’s top tier secondary school competition. Thank you to Scott Ogilvie and Brent Jarvis-Spinks for their work in developing our young cricketers.

Planning for next year is well underway with staffing positions secured for 2021. We are getting ready for the launch of our new Academic Enrichment Programs in STEM and Humanities and can’t wait to get started. Our student council for 2021 has now been selected, further details can be found in the newsletter.

The progression of the PAC is ahead of schedule, with a proposed handover date of 18 December. The College cannot wait to welcome this fantastic build into our daily life. Staff and students have made many sacrifices to work around the building works, but I’m sure the end result will be worth it.

To finish, I would like to thank the staff and students involved in Remembrance Day, in particular, Virginia Linto, Chloe Ironmonger, Nicola Harris and Lisa Manning. The displays, including our photo acknowledgments looked amazing and I know meant a great deal to our families.

Lest we forget.

Sharon Lyon
Principal