I hope that all the fathers and grandfathers enjoyed a special day with families on Sunday. Wishing you all a belated Happy Father’s Day. To be able to spend time with family is certainly precious and given the situation our neighbours in Victoria are going through it makes it even more special.

School has been incredibly busy over the past two weeks. During this time, I had a colleague who is undertaking the Shadowing Principal Program which involves working alongside a Principal to gauge more about what the role entails. I asked her for some feedback as well about our school and some of her reflections are shared below and were certainly lovely to receive.

• The high school context is very layered in comparison to primary schools eg AP, Grade AST, Grade Leaders.
• Your learning environment is calm and orderly allowing for teaching and learning to occur.
• Your staff work collaboratively and have a collective responsibility for all students.
• Your school is inclusive and equitable - providing support to students and staff based on need and context.
• The wellbeing of your staff and students is of paramount importance. 
• Authentic PLC process.
• Intervention for struggling readers – Macqlit program impressive.
• Technology used effectively across school for accessing school documents, learning scope and sequence and communication.

Thank you to those parents who have also taken the time to complete the DoE Satisfaction Survey. Whilst we did not have to undertake this in 2020, we chose to continue to gather parent feedback and voice about our school.

The School Association is another fabulous way to be able to have a voice and gather a better understanding of what happens at Kings Meadows High Sschool and to be involved. The Association, in a secondary school setting, involves supporting the school in ratifying budgets, understanding the school annual improvement plan and approving the Annual Review Report. It is quite different from what many may have experienced on Primary School Associations and P&F Committees. The Committee meet once a month for approximately an hour. Last month's meeting was due to be the Annual General Meeting but unfortunately, we did not have enough members present for a quorum, so this has been deferred until this month's meeting later in September. The elected office holders’ positions do not require a huge amount of work and our meetings are always friendly, fun and focussed. If you think you would like to be involved, please contact either myself or the main office for more details.

We have had our second My Education Day for the term last week and again this was a very full day of activities across all grades. Notable, was the Beacon programs of Polish and My Road. Polish is a program that aims to look at how to present yourself in different situations, communicate effectively and be “polished” ready for interviews or meetings. Ebony Bridle form the Beacon Foundation assisted Mrs Belinda Selby (our school Beacon Coordinator) and the Beacon Student Ambassadors in preparing these programs for our students. The My Road program was the last of a series of these throughout the year which enables Grade 10 students to hook in live to mentors across Australia and learn more about career pathways and opportunities, skills and abilities needed for these roles of the mentors. Thank you to Mrs Sellby and Ebony and the Beacon Foundation and our wonderful BSA’s for all your work in coordinating these programs.

We also had transition events last week. Grade 10 students attended their college transition day at Newstead College on Thursday 3rd September and then to Launceston College this Monday 7th September. I know these days are incredibly valuable for students to continue to develop their understandings of colleges and what they offer. Once again, I remind our community of the ability for our students to remain at Kings Meadows High School to complete their 11/12 education either in a full-time capacity or as a dual enrolled student undertaking courses across 2 campuses. The Building and Construction Vet course specialising in bricklaying and tiling we are offering in 2021 is very exciting opportunity for all students in the north to access and a potential career pathway as is the continued offering of Agricultural  Enterprise with a Viticulture focus. Both growth industry areas and both unique to our school campus. Please see the links below for more information or contact Miss Kate Blaubaum, Mr James Guy or the main office for more information.

Whilst the Grade 10 students were off campus undertaking their transition visits we also hosted 2 days of primary transition to high school. During these days we held our annual “Challenge Days” for Grade 5 & 6 students from our associated primary schools (Glen Dhu, Youngtown, Perth, Longford and Evandale) and some students from Norwood and Punchbowl. These days are a fabulous way for our incoming students to get a taste of the school and the programs on offer. They also provided an opportunity for us to condense an information session for students around Canvas (our main Learning Management System for curriculum delivery) as we did not have the opportunity to visit schools last term to undertake the normal induction session. The Canvas Transition Course provides valuable information for students and families and to understand how to navigate this course is very important.

Our Grade 7 Transition Leaders worked very hard during these days to support all the Grade 5 & 6 students who visited us. A huge thank you to the staff who assisted with the program and ran sessions and well done and thank you to Miss Williams (Grade Leader for 2021) and Mrs Wightman (Assistant Principal) for all their work in planning and coordinating these days at such short notice once the College Transition days were permitted allowing us to coordinate our Challenge Days. Transition periods are a very stressful time and the more familiar students are with the setting and programs the more at ease they will be into the future. Thank you also to all the families who joined our live Teams Event Information Evening on Monday 7th. This information can be re-viewed in the Transition Canvas Course for incoming students and families.

Attendance

A reminder to all families about the importance of regular attendance at school. In order to give your child the very best opportunity to receive positive outcomes they need to be attending regularly. Research supports this and the chart below is a reminder about how significant an impact on learning it can be if students are missing time from learning and school.

We have very tight processes around attendance and the DoE guidelines and policy indicate schools require a medical certificate for absences of more than 5 days a year (not concurrent).

Please advise the school via email, schoolzine communication links or phone if your child is away and the reason for the absence as we are required to process this through our system with explanations. Not all explanations are authorised (For example, being away to help with family, celebrating a birthday or attending a haircut). Mrs Debbie Rigby in our Administration Team regularly calls and communicates with families around absenteeism as part of her portfolio of work. Thank you to families for your co-operation with attendance and understanding the importance of this for your child.

Maree Pinnington

Principal