Welcome to the first newsletter of the 2024 school year. One of my favourite times of the year is welcoming our new Year 7 students into the College as well as welcoming back some familiar faces. After a well-deserved break, both staff and students have returned refreshed ready for the year ahead.

As you can imagine, the first few weeks back can be a challenge for our students. Especially for our new Year 7’s. Adjusting to a new routine, making new friends, and finding their place can be exhausting. However, the Year 7’s seem to be coping well with the transition, settling into their new classes and finding their way around the campus with ease.  A change to our transition program saw us trial a new process for Week 1 of this year. Student timetables were suspended during Periods 3-5 and transition activities took place instead; this included ICT inductions, a Library guided tour and team building. Hopefully, all of these things have helped them settle into the College and have a smooth start.

Our departing Year 12 cohort did the College proud achieving some great results in their WACE.

As a College, 94% of students achieved the WACE – higher than like schools and Public schools. We also saw an increase in the percentage of students achieving Certificate III qualifications with 58% of VET enrolled students achieving a Certificate III compared to 42% in 2022. Our strong OLNA results saw 96% of our WACE-eligible cohort achieve the minimum standard in both literacy and numeracy.

Elevate Education Revision Seminars took place for our senior school students, supported with an after-school Seminar for parents. These sessions have focused on getting good study habits in place early and forming a sustainable routine, assisting students in being successful in the future.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome our new staff to the College, Mr Louis Cheeseman – Deputy Principal (backfilling for Mr Pisano), Annemarie Verschoor – L3 HOLA Arts, Adam Smith – L3 Program Coordinator Senior School Pathways and Shannon McNamara – Science Teacher. We also have several support staff joining us Nicole Miller and Craig Walker – Education Assistants, Catherine Byrne – Lab Technician, Michelle Dragicevich - Nurse, Iona Hughes –School Psychologist and Leon Durrant – Chaplain.

This term also sees our annual beach carnival Belsurf event take place. I would like to thank our HPE Team in advance for their efforts in the planning and preparation for such a huge event. 

NAPLAN and OLNA are also scheduled this term. Our Year 12 Ball at Frasers in Kings Park is on the horizon. I look forward to seeing our wonderful Year 12 students shine and can't wait to share the event with you in our next newsletter.

A change to our Student Services structure sees the removal of the Year Coordinator roles and the addition of three 2IC Head of Student Services. This hopes to give greater continuity to students and a stronger pastoral care structure. 

If you need to reach out and contact the College, please see the Talking With Your College document that can be found on our website to guide your inquiry. Other useful tools include the Parent/Student Handbook and our College Connect page. I also encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram so that we can share our successes and events with you in real time.

School tours and Meet the Teacher sausage sizzle are taking place on Wednesday, 27 March 2024, along with a Enrolment Information Evening for future students wanting to enrol in one of our specialist programs.  Please see our website and flyers for further details. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Sharon Lyon
Principal