Principal's Pen
Staffing Update
We welcome Mr Aaron Aislabie to the College community as our new teacher of Chemistry, Year 7 Maths and Science as well as Year 9 Maths and Science. He comes to us from Nerang SHS and Miami SHS at the Gold Coast, and we are very impressed with his work in his short time here. We look forward to having Mr Aislabie in our community for many years to come. In addition we have recently confirmed the appointment of Miss Anastasia Belogonoff as our new Agricultural Science, Biology, Year 8 Maths and Science and Year 10 Science teacher, as well as Middle Leader – Senior Years. Miss Belogonoff has come to us from Rockhampton and we are very excited for her commencement in Week 4 of Term 2.
It is with great sadness that we farewell Mr Paffey from the staff at the end of this term as he focusses on his family and other commitments. Mr Paffey will be dearly missed by staff and students alike, though we are sure he won’t be a stranger. We are currently advertising for an English teacher to fill this position and hope to have an answer prior to the holidays.
Academic Reports
Our staff have again been very diligent in completing academic assessment, moderating and writing report cards for our 559 students from Prep to Year 12. This is a critical document in many ways for us as a College, your child, and of course, you, the family. It communicates your child’s social learnings, effort and academic achievement for the first semester and allows the College, students and families to make goals around student learning and wellbeing moving toward the end of the year. Please take the time to sit down and discuss their report, no matter its contents, so that you may continue to support your child in their progress. John Hattie’s research indicates that Parental Involvement (rated 51st highest impact) actually has more impact on a child’s learning than the introduction of Writing Programs (rated 61st) and the Principal (rated 73rd)!
Reports for Early Years (Prep – Year 4) and Middle Years (Years 5-8) will be sent home with students early next week, whilst Senior Years will be posted home towards the end of the week.
School Renewal and Improvement Procedure – School Review next term!
As part of the Toowoomba Catholic Schools, our College will partake in a school review in Week 4 of Term 3 (August 5-9). During this time, the panel will undertake approximately 100 interviews with staff, students and community members and listen for common themes regarding what is working well at the College and what needs improvement. Thereafter the panel will document their findings and improvement strategies, which will inform our 4 year strategic plan and our future direction.
This process is very valuable, as our current direction was established based on the feedback of the 2017 review, which was conducted in much the same way. If you are interested in being involved in the process, please contact the College office and add your name to the list. Early next term I will schedule the interviews and you will be given a time and venue with plenty of notice. Linked below is the information for parents if you would like some more information.
Student Absences
In the reading of Academic Reports there are some very noticeable trends which are consistent with all previous reports I have read. These are simply:
- High results in Social Learnings are indicative of students with high results in Effort.
- High results in Effort (over time) are indicative of high results in Achievement.
- High levels of attendance (98-100% attendance) strongly correlate to High results in everything – Social Learnings, Effort and Achievement
- Attendance under 90% is consistent with poor results in all areas
Essentially, students who arrive at the College prepared to learn with a positive mindset every day, tend to put in far greater effort, are better socially adapted and in the long run, achieve far greater results. Please be mindful that students missing the “odd day” may result in an accumulation of much missed learning.
Peter Cuskelly
Principal