As Semester One draws to an end, I would like to take the time to thank the staff and school community for their time and effort over the last Semester.

Our efforts are being noticed in the community with strong enrolments being seen in our specialist programs and mainstream for 2025. There are small numbers of places available in some programs, please contact the college ASAP if you are interested in enrolling in these courses.

The Year 8 Camp occurred earlier this term, I would like to say a massive thank you to all staff who attended and gave up their time, but in particular, Mrs Hall, Mr Richardson and Ms Edmonds for their time and effort in the planning and coordination of the event. The students had a fantastic time and I know for sure that some core memories would have been made. This is why we do it and what makes it all worthwhile. See article later in this newsletter.

This term sees the start of our subject selection process.  This will take place online using the platform SSO (Subject Selection Online). Over the last few years, the college has introduced several new courses for our students, with a strong focus on the inclusion of STEM capabilities, ensuring our students are prepared and ready for the careers of the future.  Our Year 11 2025 subject selection process starts this term. This is a very important decision for many of our students, some of whom may need a little guidance. A parent Information Evening will be held on Tuesday, 25 June 2024 to assist with the selection process. For students who are unsure or just require some general career advice, counselling sessions are available to book.  This is a really important decision as we want to ensure our students are on the best possible pathways for them to achieve individual success.

On Friday, 31 May 2024, the College was host to our annual Joondalup Learning Community (JLC) Conference Event. This is the time of the year when our network schools can come together and share a full day of professional learning. This year the conference was designed around Teaching For Impact. The keynote sessions were delivered by the amazing Adam Voigt who spoke to us about school culture and impact on student learning. Staff then had the option to choose from 12 bespoke sessions focusing on different aspects of Teaching & Learning (T&L). This ranged from supporting students with imputed disabilities to engaging students with higher-order thinking. On behalf of the JLC Principals, I would like to thank our JLC Executive Officer Marie Earley (Joondalup Primary School) for her time, passion and commitment in organising the conference.  An event like this takes an extraordinary amount of organisation to come to fruition. The day was a huge success and has received a wealth of positive feedback from attendees.

On Monday, 17 June 2024 the College was lucky to have a special visit from the Minister of Education – Dr Tony Buti and our local MLA Caitlin Collins. The purpose of the visit was to launch the Minister's Innovation Challenge for 2024.  Whilst here the Minister visited our Year 7 AEP class, a group of Year 9 and 10 students taking part in the Hydrogen Car Challenge and our Certificate III Netball class. He then visited the site of our new STEM build and spoke with our Student Council. I look forward to sharing some of the photos with you in this newsletter.

Our Year 10-12 exams for Semester One are now complete along with ESTs for Year 12. Exams were well attended and went very smoothly due to thorough planning and preparation from our Senior School Deputy Principal, Mr Cheeseman.

Workplace Learning for Year 11 and 12 took place during Weeks 7 and 8. I had the pleasure of visiting three students at one of our local primary schools – Springfield Primary School. Feedback from mentors was very positive, saying our students have been a great asset to the classroom and hoping to have them back in the near future. Mr Adam Smith, our Pathways Coordinator has done an amazing job promoting and coordinating these placements ensuring students have gained the best experiences possible.

On the sporting front, we saw lots of action with our Year 8 and 9 Lightning Carnivals taking place. There was great uptake from the students all taking the opportunity to compete in their chosen sports. Thank you to all the HPE staff for their efforts and organisation.

A reminder that reports for Year 11 and 12 have already been emailed this week and Years 7 to 10 are due out next Friday, 28 June 2024. Reports are also available on Connect. If you do not receive your child’s report, please contact the College. To discuss your child's progress, parent/teacher interviews will take place during Week 1 next term (Wednesday, 17 July). Please make a booking through the School Interviews platform. Instructions on how to do this will be on the school website, in this newsletter and also via a Connect notice, together with the event code.

During Week 11 we will hold our annual NAIDOC BBQ. Students will be treated to some yummy food along with a special dance performance from our Follow the Dream students.

To finish off, I have some staffing updates. I would like to acknowledge our long-standing Deputy Principal, Mr Carlos Notarpietro who is going on leave for Semester Two. I hope he enjoys his time off and look forward to seeing him back next year and hearing about his adventures. I would also like to wish Mr Kasun Tennakoon all the best as he takes on his new promotion as Deputy Principal at Dianella Secondary College.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support this Semester and wish you all a restful school break. Term 3 is always a big one, watch this space!

Sharon Lyon
Principal