Principal’s Blog – 22 July 2021

Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Staff

Welcome to Term 3! I hope that you and your family enjoyed some quality time together over the break.

The COVID-19 situation continues to be problematic as you know. The various strains of the virus are keeping medical experts busy in advising us on how to manage this as a community. Whilst we have been quite lucky with the situation in the ACT, we must remain vigilant in terms of hygiene and be aware that things can change very quickly. The main reminder is for staff and students not to attend school if they have cold or flu symptoms. We also ask for your cooperation in collecting your child from the college if they develop symptoms whilst at school.

All the Catholic Schools participated in a professional learning day on Monday 12 July’s Pupil Free Day. Thank you for the support of this. The two key workshops were on ‘The Science of Reading’ and ‘High Impact Teaching Strategies’. Both these focus areas support one of our SFX Improvement Goals which is ‘Every student will demonstrate improvement in their learning’. Teachers are constantly looking at ways to ensure each of our students is maximising their learning outcomes. Obviously, the better learning outcomes for each student, the better post-school options!

Get ready to see the Addams Family Musical! Tickets are now on sale with the showtime dates being from 9 August to 14 August.

Thank you to those parents who have addressed their school fees account. We will begin contacting families where there has been an oversight in meeting regular commitments.

Thank you to the parents of Year 10 students who have been involved in the course counselling process as Year 10 prepare to transition into Year 11. We will now begin the next step on creating timetable lines based on the student’s choices so far. This is a vital step to capture student’s first choice of subjects and hopefully there will not be too many clashes. We will be in touch with the students to let them know how the process is going and this information will be passed on to parents.

We have been blessed to have attracted a number of new staff to SFX following retirements, transfers and leave. Welcome to Fred Clark (English), Brett Seaman (STEM), Joanne McAllister (InEd), Amanda Barnes (Maths/Science), Peter Birrell (Maths), Cameron Major (DTech), Allison Sweeney (HPE), Jaime Reppion-Smith (HPE) and Jenny Missen (Maths). We also welcome Kristie McFarlane (Communications), Sandy Gulati (Finance), Georgia  Huppatz (Records) and Rachel Hav (Hospitality).  I trust our new staff members will have a productive and enjoyable role in the education of the students at SFX.

Kind regards

Paul Carroll
Principal