Welcome back to the 2024 school year! I am looking forward to getting to know all of our Year 9 students and their families as well as continuing to work with our Year 10 students and their families after a wonderful Year 9 experience last year.
It is my great pleasure to introduce you to our Year Level Teams for Years 9 and 10 in 2024.
As we commence the year, it is timely that we revisit some of the procedures that are in place at our College to ensure we can maximise the partnerships between parents/carers, teachers and students.
Transport
We understand our families are experiencing issues with school buses due to an increase in enrolments. The College has been in contact with Westside Bus Company and Translink who operate these services. If you would like further information or to raise your individual concerns please make contact directly with Westside Bus Company on 07 3288 1333 or email
customers@busqld.com.au.We have included maps of the Bus Routes on our website and I encourage you to review this information with your student, there have been no changes to bus routes from 2023. Please be aware that there are different bus routes in the morning and the afternoon, and review this information carefully.
Arriving at School
The College does not provide supervision of students prior to 8:45am.
Due to ongoing construction works there are often tradespeople engaged in work in various buildings before school commences to ensure minimal disruptions to learning.
Parents/carers are reminded to not drop students at school prior to 8:00am.
Homework is issued by classroom teachers, students in Years 7-9 can expect to receive 5-10 hours of homework to complete each week. Year 10-12 students are commencing their Senior Schooling journey and may receive up to 10 hours of homework each week. It may consist of revising work learnt that day, completing activities through STILE or Education Perfect on the student laptop or working on assessment tasks as they are issued across the term.
The amount of homework issued often increases across the term as students work independently at home towards the completion of assessment tasks and study for exams.
Homework will be recorded in your child's diary and can also be found on Daymap. I encourage all parents/carers to check their child's diary to familiarise yourself with the layout, important calendar dates and see how many RV stamps your child has collected for displaying the College Values. When homework is issued via Daymap, it is accessible to parents/carers through their Parent Portal accounts. Information about how to sign up to your account has been emailed to all parents/carers and is also available on our website.
It's important to set healthy habits and routines around homework completion in Junior Secondary, to ensure your child has their study skills well developed before commencing Senior Secondary studies.
I recommend setting aside one hour each day, to spend 15 minutes completing homework or revising for each of their four lessons that day. This ensures a routine is established early in the term, and your child is set up for success.
Communication
Our College uses a variety of modes to communicate with our parents/carers and we encourage you to contact your child's teachers about their progress. Our first parent/teacher interviews will be held in early Term 2. Our Communication Policy sets out our modes of communication between parents/carers and teachers. It's important to keep in mind that our teaching staff's priority is to be in the classroom with your children and it may take them up to 48 hours to follow up on any communication that is received. Our website, social media pages, Daymap and Schoolzine are frequently updated and used to distribute general information.
Assessment Planner
All students will receive a hard copy of their Assessment Planner during Week 4. The Assessment Planner outlines all assignments and exams that are to be completed during Semester One. A new assessment planner is issued each Semester, when students are completing new elective subjects.
I encourage you to put this on the fridge when it comes home and help your child organise themselves during the busy assessment period at the end of Term. Information about individual assessment tasks is available to parents/carers and students via Daymap.
NAPLAN is now in Term 1!
The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has consulted with the States and Territories and decided to move NAPLAN to Term 1 from 2023.
This means that all students in Years 7 and 9 will be undertaking preparation activities for NAPLAN during Week 4 prior to the NAPLAN tests in Weeks 8 and 9.
Our College's NAPLAN schedule is included in the image below.
If you do not wish for your student to participate in NAPLAN, please contact me at epren3@eq.edu.au or Ms Taletha Champs at tcham22@eq.edu.au
Uniform Expectations
