Dear Parents/Carers

As part of the DECYP’s commitment to support families with online learning at home, there are a range of online resources for families available on the Digital Skills for Families DECYP website. Resources include information videos and tips for supporting online learning at home. Late last year, many families should have received a printed copy of Supporting online learning: A guide for families. It might be worth a look at these resources.

You will note later in this Newsletter, the opportunity to provide recognition for our school health nurses. I encourage you to give this some consideration as our school health nurse, Danielle Seadon provides fantastic support to a number of our students and is a valued member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team.

You may recall seeing a new initiative launched at the end of last year and that is the Kings Meadows High School Hall of Fame. Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations in the inaugural year. It has been quite overwhelming which is fantastic.  The rationale of the Hall of Fame is to provide an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of past pupils and in doing so, inspire current students to strive for excellence. The Hall of Fame contributes to preserving the proud history of our school community and helps to build a positive culture. Very soon the selection panel will meet to determine initial inductees. In the first year, this will focus on sport but will be extended in future to professional achievements and community contributions. Thanks again to those who showed an interest and we hope this will continue strongly into the future. 

Recently we have had some staff changes. Last week, Lill (Lillian) Alexander finished her contract as part of our office administration team. Lill has been a valued addition to the team since last October and we wish her well going forward. In coming weeks, we also farewell our amazing Library Technician Rachel Hyland who will be taking on a different role with Libraries. We also welcome Leila Nori to our Teacher Assistant Team and she will be working with students where English is an Additional Language (EAL). Adam Smith also joins our Education Facility Team (EFA) as our new Groundsman. Adam joins us from the Launceston Golf Club. We also welcome Karen Eames to our Office Administration Team. She joins us from Newstead College. Our new Laboratory Technician will also be announced in coming weeks. I thank and acknowledge departing staff for the great service they have provided and am sure everyone will make our new staff feel connected and valued in our school community.

Interim reports were sent home with students last Friday afternoon. These reports are really a ‘settling in’ report whereby teachers are indicating to students and their parents/carers, the work habits and learning dispositions that students are exhibiting during the early part of this year. I encourage parents and carers to examine these reports and celebrate with their child(ren) the successes and/or improvements they have made but also take the opportunity to discuss some areas where they could improve.  This could be a discussion about goal setting or some practical steps to help them in one or more areas. Afterall, students learn best when there is a meaningful partnership between school and home and parents and carers show a positive interest in their child(ren)’s learning. It is important that students get into good learning habits early in the year and that these are sustained throughout the year. If you did not receive the report then please let us know.

The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) has concluded for another year and this has gone very smoothly. As such, I commend students for engaging with the tests responsibly and thank staff for administering the tests in a diligent manner. Thanks to our Instructional Specialist, Emily Lovegrove for her co-ordination of NAPLAN. NAPLAN reports will be provided to families later in the year.

With a few cooler mornings starting to occur, it is important that students are not using this as an excuse to wear non-uniform items to school. Our uniform provides a number of options and layers for students, so there should be no reason why students need to wear hoodies or other jackets to school.  As always, if your family is experiencing financial hardship, we will endeavour to assist you where we can. In addition, now that all grades have lockers once again, there is no reason why students need to bring bags to class apart from the obvious classes (e.g. Health and Physical Education) where students need to get changed.  Bags should be left in lockers throughout the school day.

The majority of students have adapted to the staged implementation of not using mobile phones to pay for food and drink in the canteen. Thank you to parents and carers for supporting this. However, we have had a minority of students using their phone to transfer money or check balances whilst at school. This is a breach of the Mobile Phone Policy, so students and their families need to be organised by undertaking these tasks before school rather than at school. Your support in this regard is appreciated.

Next week, on Tuesday evening at 5pm we have school tours operating for families of prospective students. I encourage you to share this information with friends and families who may not already be members of the school community but may be wanting to enrol their child at our school in 2026. We also have our Student Leaders running the World’s Greatest Shave next Wednesday, 2 April and I encourage everyone to get behind this worthy cause. Best wishes to our swimming team who will represent our school at the Interhigh Swimming Carnival on Thursday, 3 April.

In the last few weeks of the term, it is important that students keep working to the best of their ability and we don’t let standards slip with learning, behaviour and attendance.

Regards

Cary Stocks
Principal