Head of Senior School

A warm welcome back to the Oxley Community for Term 2. We should all be grateful for the break and the wonderful Autumn weather we had that will help us to return energised for the next nine weeks!

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher once said, “Change is the only constant in life” and we continue to do our best to manage change as it occurs in our community. The continued infrastructure changes have been highlighted by Em Cassin, our Business Manager, and we had some staffing changes that were outlined in the newsletter last term, leading to the following adjustments:

• Mr Andrew Young will return to full time capacity in Performing Arts and Mrs Alison Bunyan will increase her load in the Senior School to cover the departure of Mrs Melissa Lamrock (who has moved to a promotion position at another school).
• Ms Sara Aitken has moved into Art to replace Mr Andrew Jones (who has returned to Canberra) and we will welcome Mr Nicholas Elliott in Week 5 into Design and Technology. Mr Elliott is an enthusiastic and dedicated educator who has a real love of Design and Technology, he joins us from the Government sector.
• Over the break Mr Miguel Nunes made the decision to resign from the College and, in Week 5, we will welcome Mrs Deanna Bernados. Mrs Bernados is a wonderful Mathematics educator and is currently working at another independent school in the local area. 
• Having farewelled Mrs Tahren Hicks, we have some wonderful applicants for the Head of English role and interviews are continuing this week, we will be able to announce the appointment of this position shortly.

In the interim we are thankful to have experienced staff assisting in maintaining the quality education for all students.

Senior School: Winter Sport Pick Up – Tuesday & Thursday afternoons

Given the number of students being picked up in the Senior School Pick Up Zone, the Traffic Management Plan will be in operation on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 5.00pm-5.15pm from the start of Term 2. Please do not wait in the pick up bays or attempt to overtake vehicles waiting in the pick up bays. From 5.00pm, drivers who are waiting for students who have not yet arrived will be asked to exit the campus and re-enter.

Over the holidays, a number of our students were involved in the Community Cooking School. The students were excellent ambassadors, and all involved enjoyed the experience.

I have a small but important request as we move to the new term. In our Strategic Plan we have a focus on Sustainability. Whilst the Executive and the Environment Group take the lead on this, there are things that we can all do to minimise waste, often in a way that is financially beneficial for parents.
Please can you ensure that all uniform, sports bags, Tupperware, drink bottles and other equipment belonging to students is labelled. We have a large amount of lost property collected each term. Whilst the labelled items will find their way back to their owners (unfortunately, often to be lost again) the unlabelled items make their way to landfill only to be replaced at cost to families. This is a win-win in tidying up our College and for families.

Another of the focus areas of the Oxley College Wellbeing Framework is ‘Keep Fit’. I will be running in the City2Surf in August, and we have entered Oxley College as a team. Whilst this is an individual event for students to participate in, they can select Oxley College as their team in the registration section. Students can also log their training hours in Strava and request to be a part of the Oxley College Running and Cycling Club if they are not already signed up. We are excited and looking forward to a constructive term working with students and parents over the next term.

Warm regards

Mr Tristan Bevan
Head of Senior School