Principal’s Report

Dear Fortians, Parents and Carers,

We find ourselves at the end of another term at Fort Street. Congratulations to our students for showing resilience and striving to achieve their best this term. Thank you to all our wonderful staff for their hard work and their dedication to our students. Although we continue to operate with some restrictions in place, we have enjoyed a settled term 3 with most activities continuing, even if slightly modified.
The Department of Education will release new COVID-19 guidelines at the beginning of next term. The term 4 guidelines will include information about the protocols schools will need to follow to ensure teaching and learning activities and end of year celebrations are conducted in a safe manner. As soon as we know what restrictions will be in place for Term 4, we will release dates and information about Term 4 events.

Congratulations
2020 HSC Encore Nominations were announced on the last day of term. A huge congratulations to our talented musicians – Jamie Kwon (Yr 12), Emily Miers (Yr 12), Max Tosello (Yr 12) and Jaden White (Yr 12) for their nominations.
The 2020 Minister’s and Secretary’s Awards for Excellence have also just been released. Congratulations to Bridget Gard (Yr 12) and Anson Lee (Yr 12) – due to COVID-19 the annual ceremony held at Town Hall in which these awards are usually presented was unable to take place. This does not diminish the quality or significance of these awards. Both Bridget and Anson were recipients this year of the Minister’s Award for excellence in Student Achievement recognising that they have both excelled in their secondary years across academic excellence, sports, cultural and community leadership.

World’s Greatest Shave – despite all the restrictions Year 12 persevered with this event and raised an impressive $22 728.22 for the Leukaemia Foundation.

RSPCA NSW – Year 11 also enjoyed there day of fund raising recently raising over $400 to help the RSPCA keep animals who end up on their doorstep warm, fed, entertained, content and in many cases providing them with life-saving treatments they require.

Year 11
Year 11 students have completed their final exams and will hopefully be able to enjoy a truly restful break these holidays before officially commencing Year 12 courses in term 4. I would like to sincerely thank the executive members of the SRC for their leadership throughout this difficult year. They have remained dedicated and enthusiastic despite almost every event they had looked forward to planning and executing being cancelled – many thanks to Eleanor McLeod, Meg Raven, Tom Cannane, Ava Corey, Jennifer Dang, Oscar Iwas, Jordan Mai and Martin Vu.

Year 12 Farewell
On Friday 25 September Year 12 had their final farewell assembly to the school. The morning began with a Year 12 student and teacher’s brunch in the Fountain Quad with individually packed brunch bags containing either pastries, yoghurt and fruit or banh mi and fruit (pork, chicken and vegetarian). The assembly which followed was livestreamed to the rest of the school during periods 3 and 4 with all the traditional speeches and FLOP videos. Eventually, with many tears of joy and sadness Year 12 made their way out of the old school gates on Fort Street.

Year 12 Graduation
This will take place in the school hall on the evening of Thursday 12 September. Invitations will be sent to year 12 and their families next term. We are still waiting on specific guidelines around how many guests each student will be able to invite and there will be further details provided closer to the event around registering attendance of both students and guests.

HSC student advice
We know our students and staff have worked hard for the HSC. The safety of our students and staff remains of utmost importance. This year extra arrangements are in place to ensure that any disruption due to COVID-19 will have minimal impact on HSC exams.
Our school has put in place a number of contingencies to help ensure exams run as smoothly as possible. Part of this planning includes keeping exam cohorts to under 75 students. To implement this guideline we will require additional examination spaces this year for 4 of our larger exams. For this reason the library and school gym will be closed to all students and staff on four occasions early in the HSC examination period – in week 2, Tuesday 20 October and Wednesday 21 October and in week 3, Monday 26 October (before lunch only) and Friday 30 October (from lunch onwards).
The exams have been scheduled and our school has arrangements in place for exams to proceed as planned. It is important that students review their timetable and plan well so they turn up for their exams on time, healthy and rested.
Any student with a pre-existing condition, that presents similarly to flu-like symptoms, should be planning now and speak to their doctor/GP. The GP can provide a medical certificate ahead of the exams to ensure they are not sent home.
If on the day of the exam your child feels unwell with flu-like symptoms, they should stay home and get tested. HSC students are prioritised for COVID-19 test results.

It’s important to note that all students will be asked if they are well before entering exam rooms.
We want all our students to sit their exams but sometimes things happen. If your child is unwell and misses their exam, contact the school. Students who are unwell will be eligible for the illness and misadventure provision with NESA.
If there are any changes to exam arrangements we will communicate with HSC students through their Department email addresses. This will be the only source of communication for these types of notifications. If in doubt, please call the school.
We wish all our students well in the upcoming exams.