Dear Parents/Carers

As we get toward the middle part of the year, I hope everyone is staying warm, dry and healthy. Our thoughts are certainly with people in other communities around Australia where this hasn’t been the case recently.

I’m happy to advise that we have been selected as part of round 3 of the Department for Education, Children and Young People’s (DECYP) Renewable Energy Program. This will see old, small solar systems removed and new appropriately sized systems installed.  We have recently had contractors visiting our site to provide submissions for the project. Hopefully, this will be installed later in the year and enable cost savings by making our site more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly.

Project Lifesaver is an initiative to equip eligible DECYP sites with Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to enhance emergency response capabilities and improve safety. St John Ambulance Tasmania has been secured as our supplier of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs). This initiative is part of DECYP’s ongoing commitment to enhancing safety and wellbeing across sites by ensuring that more locations are equipped to handle cardiac emergencies effectively. This project demonstrates DECYP’s dedication to providing timely and effective emergency response capabilities across the state, ultimately saving lives and fostering a safer environment for everyone. While we already have an AED on our site, an additional device will be most welcome, particularly for out of hours user groups. The new AED will likely be located either outside our gym or outside our administration block once installed later this year.

As part of meeting our requirements under DECYP’s Communicating Learning Progress with Families Procedures, very soon teachers will commence preparing mid-year reports. Reports will be sent home in late June and there will be opportunities for conversations with staff on the Monday and Tuesday afternoon of the final week of this term. More specific information about reports and progress conferences has been emailed to all parents/carers. Meaningful communication is integral to supporting the partnerships between families and schools that effectively promote student learning progress and wellbeing. As part of quality teaching practice, teachers regularly elicit evidence of student learning through assessment. This evidence is used to:

• assess where learners are in their learning, at a point in time
• adjust teaching practice to progress learning
• communicate learning progress with learners and families to support learning.

Regular attendance at school is important. The recommended minimum attendance rate over the course of the year is 90%. To put this in different terms, with 192 student attendance days in 2025, this means that a student must attend 173 days (i.e. no more than 19 days absent for the year) to achieve this threshold. Nevertheless, the higher the attendance rate the better. Please also note that arriving late to school or leaving early also contributes to overall attendance rates. 

To ensure our records are accurate and we exercise our duty of care, we do require direct contact from a parent or carer to authorise a student departure. Direct contact between a child and their parent/carer is not legally sufficient. We would really appreciate the co-operation of parents and carers in this regard. Similarly, utilising a mobile phone during the school day between 8.35am and 2.50pm is not permitted for students, so parents can also support us and their child by refraining from this communication platform during school hours.

Respectful Relationships and Consent Education (RRCE) is an important part or our work with young people across all schools and age groups. The cycle of violence begins with disrespectful behaviour and RRCE is critical to our efforts to stop family and gender-based violence. RRCE aims to build the skills and knowledge needed from an early age to have safe and violence-free futures. It takes a whole-school and community effort to challenge harmful gender stereotypes, support protective behaviours and foster help-seeking skills. To learn how you can play your part, view the Australian Government’s Conversation Guide for practical advice and support on how to talk about respect at home.  Together, let’s all model and promote respectful behaviours for long-term change. Let’s shape a brighter, violence-free future for our children. If you, or someone you know is impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence and needs help, contact 1800RESPECT for free confidential support, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Please note that this Friday, 6 June is a student free day (i.e. students are not required at school). This day is granted to schools for the purpose of moderation. The process of moderation helps to ensure that students across all schools are being assessed against the same benchmarks and that student assessments are comparable across schools. These days are important for school staff, so I appreciate your flexibility and understanding in managing your child(ren) not being at school on this day. Please note that Monday 9 June is a public holiday. I hope that everyone enjoys the long weekend and you can find some time to do things that you enjoy, find relaxing and help you recharge.

Regards

Cary Stocks
Principal