Congratulations on the Great Start

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate your daughters on the great start they have made to the 2017 school year. The College celebrated it’s first 25 years in 2016 and now we move into the next chapter of the growth of our great College. This year has seen some changes to structures, policies and procedures.

Below is a summary for parents/carers:

 New College Diaries

No doubt your daughter has come home excited about her new College Diary which is the centre of all learning organisation and communication with home. Years 7-10 students have been given a Junior version diary whilst our Year 11 and 12 students have been allocated a Senior Diary.

Timetable

From 2017, we are now running a six (6) period day timetable with (50) minute lessons.  This ensures your daughters have more consistent access to their teachers by increasing the amount of face to face lessons for each subject area across years 7-12, whilst reducing lesson time by 10 minutes per lesson ensuring lessons are focused and allow students to have more breaks between lessons to recover their concentration levels.

Pastoral Structures and Connected Learning Circles (CLC)

As parents were made aware last year, our Year 11 and 12 students have now moved into their own separate CLC classes. Whilst Years 7-10 students have remained in vertical CLC classes. CLC now runs four times a week first thing in the morning ensuring students are prepared for learning as soon as the 8:50am bell rings for the beginning of the school day. Students will be provided with a focus on literacy reading and writing activities through a growth mindset approach.

Mobile Phone Policy Update

After careful review of our updated 2016 mobile phone policy, we have made some further amendments to ensure continued safety for students in regard to mobile phones during the school day. We also remind parents and students that the purpose of this policy is to promote appropriate and safe use of mobile phones within College grounds and encourage interaction and communication without distractions.

On the following page are the amendments:

• If students have persistent confiscations, the following will apply:

– 2nd confiscation – Phone Call to parents by CoL (Year)

– 3rd Confiscation – Wednesday Afternoon RAP and parent pick up of phone

• Any further confiscations will require that the student register the phone with the College daily or for more serious issues, being banned from bringing a phone into the College

• Continued abuse of this policy or ICT policy can result in further consequences.

Commendations and Matters of Concern

The College is committed to communicating with parents on a constant basis. As part of our updated student learning management processes, parents will have faster access to information on how your daughters are progressing on a week-by-week basis. Teachers will be giving students Commendations or Matters of Concern and recording these at the back of the diary (Communications TAB) at the back of the diary. Parents are required to sign this page on a weekly basis.

Commendations: Students can earn a commendation at any time both in and out of class, based on the listed criteria. Based on the number of commendations received at the end of the term, CLC teachers will nominate students to receive specific College merits.

Matters of Concern: Students can receive these at any time, in and out of class and indicate that a change of behaviour or attitude are required. When students receive 5 matters of concern, a phone call will be made to the parent by the CoL (Year) or CoL (KLA) to alert you of the fact that if they receive any further matters of concern will result in a Wednesday Afternoon RAP detention.

College Dress Code

To continue our commitment to high standards in presentation, updates to our College Dress Code are below:

• Henna tattoos are not acceptable
• Hair must be one natural colour and must not be shaved or step cut. All instances will result in the student being sent home to rectify the situation.
• If a student has extra piercings these cannot be covered by “clears”

Growth Mindset

Mrs Archer has been introducing the Growth Mindset approach with all students, below is an inspirational summary of this approach we are taking with your daughters this year. Take some time to discuss this approach with your daughter and use the language below when discussing challenges they may be facing outside of school.

May we continue in our partnership of “Forming young women called to life to make a difference in the world.”

Mr Pablo Grana, Assistant Principal