I had the privilege of attending the Year 8 camp. The group of girls I supervised and their ability to work collaboratively, solve problems and encourage each other through some of the more difficult challenges greatly impressed me.

This week, parents will have had an opportunity to meet with the teachers of their children at the Parent Teacher conferences. We have encouraged parents to bring their child along to these interviews so that there are genuine discussions that are helpful to the student’s learning journey and so that they can hear first hand the strategies discussed to help improve and the encouraging comments about what is going well.

Students will be creating e-portfolios this term. This will  become an online record of their work from 2014 or, as one teacher put it, ‘his or her own personal yearbook!’ These will be used in the next round of conferences in Term 3, which will be led by the student.

Student Achievement Certificates

At our first assembly for this term, students were recognised for working hard and those who achieved ‘A’ grades in more than half of their subjects. The specific criteria was:

• Students who work hard and got Very Good for Effort in all or all but one of their subjects; and
• Students achieved an A for overall achievement in at least half their subjects.

Anzac Parade

Thanks families for supporting our students in last Friday’s local march. This speaks volumes to this young generation of our gratefulness to those who have served our country, defending our freedom and fighting for peace.

Homework and assessments:

With progress reports made available and from the conversations had with teachers, please remember that it is expected that all students will have regular weekly homework for their Core subjects and assessment homework for Elective subjects. Please refer to Term 1 newsletter for more details on this.

iPads are primarily an educational device. Please, as parents, know that you have permission to place restrictions on them, put them away if not needed for homework, have your child work with them in full view of you at all times, check through their histories, enforce that certain apps are not allowed to be on your child’s iPad, and even change the app store password if needed. Our school rules are:

No games to be played at school, iPads only allowed to be used in classrooms or the library. No social networking apps to be used at school. Restrictions will be placed on iPads if your child is found to be doing these things and will remain in place until the end of the term.

After school Detentions:

Receiving an After School Detention is a significant consequence and representative of an issue that has either been ongoing and has not seen change or a moderate breach of respect to our school values. It is important that the detention is served promptly. We understand that this can impose difficulties on families and are happy to work out a mutually agreeable time if it doesn’t suit. However, failure to attend without a reasonable excuse will result in internal suspension. Please refer to the parent handbook for a table that outlines our guidelines for behaviour and general consequences.

Clean up Event:

It was a real pleasure to work alongside students cleaning our school on Monday. The pride in their school was evident and their great desire to work together as a team. It is an ongoing pleasure to work with your children.

On that note: Here is a poem/song that one of our Year 7 students wrote on dealing with adversity:

I’ve been through hard times,
I’ve been through happy times,
I’ve been lonely,
I’ve been sad,
But I still stay strong

Chorus
I will persevere through anytime,
I will stand tall,
I will stay true to myself,
I just be me who I want to be

When I am in doubt I will always know,
That family is near and God is close,
I will always feel loved at home,
I will always know my bro is near,
Woo ooh,

Chorus
I will persevere through anytime,
I will stand tall,
I will stay true to myself,
I will just be me who I want to be

When I stare into the stars at night,
I see the Southern Cross shining so bright,
It makes me feel so alive,

Chorus
I will persevere through anytime,
I will stand tall,
I will stay true to myself,
I will just be me who I want to be

By Paige Martin

Jacqualina Vreeling, Head of Middle School