Friday saw another very successful day for our students and staff with our annual athletics carnival. It was great to see the sportsmanship of our students who eagerly participated in the many events available to support their house teams. Great students, lots of fun and fantastic weather, what more could be asked for! I would like to offer a huge thank you to parents who attended throughout the day, the staff for their commitment and effort and Mr McKenzie who organised the day’s events and activities.
Earlier this year our school applied for a grant from the Teachers Mutual Bank for the introduction of an environmentally sustainable project. Our project was for the establishment of some wicking beds to grow herbs to be used in our Hospitality and Food Technology area. The herbs are to be propagated, grown and harvested by students with any excess being donated to the local Food Basket. The maximum grant available was $2000 and last week we received notification that we had been successful with our application and will receive $1950. Our junior Agriculture and TAS students, under the guidance of Mr McLaughlan and Mr Edwards, will now oversee the construction and maintenance of these gardens.
Congratulations to all of our year 7 and 9 students on their excellent behaviour throughout the NAPLAN tests which were completed last week. Every student from both year groups completed all the tests so the results will provide our school with
extensive information on the literacy and numeracy levels of our students and thereby allow us to develop further strategies to support their learning outcomes. Thank you goes to Mrs Ruth Evans our Learning and Support teacher for her efforts in ensuring these tests ran smoothly.
This will be a very busy week for our students with Year 11 exams, Year 10 work experience, the Year 7 camp, the Bill Turner Cup in girls soccer and the Community Reading day all on our calendar but I would like to assure parents everything else in our school will proceed as normal with all students needing to be in attendance each day. Attendance and participation in class is essential to get the best from your education and as we are now in the semester one examination period (years 7, 8, 9 & 10 exams are next week) it is important that all students make the most of their time with their teachers and not miss out on important information and content.
Please don’t forget to support our P&C’s “Boot Sale” next Sunday from 9am to 1pm under the COLA on the basketball court. In addition to the surplus items from the school being available the front office has taken a lot of calls for the purchase of a stall site so it promises to be a great opportunity to pick up a bargain and barbecue lunch.
Neryle Smurthwaite
Principal