From the Principal

Bonjour à tous, and Wanju

It is a lovely time of year. Warm sunny days and cool nights. Perfect for sleeping. Which I did lots of on the weekend trying to catch up. I hope that you took time to enjoy the many local activities across the weekend; Mandurah Crab Fest, The Irish festival, the long table lunch, along with the many events in the Donnybrook, Ballingup, Nannup region.

We are one week closer to the Easter holidays and have one week less to get things done before the holidays arrive. I will be away for the holidays and the first two weeks of Term 2 on LSL. Kelly Anderson will be filling in for me as Acting Principal.

There are Harmony Week activities all week. Please support the activities and get involved where you can. If you have a cultural heritage and like to share it, I encourage you to do so this week. It really is a time to encourage unity for peace and harmony.

The Parent Teacher afternoon/evening is coming up next week. Be well prepared to have meaningful conversations with parents about student learning. It is time to look at the Learning Area grade predictions for the school and compare them to the potential of the student. Reviewing and analysing the data means nothing if it doesn’t turn into action that produces a positive outcome for the students. This is why student feedback and involving parents as partners is so important. 

The Maggie Dent presentation was well attended by the community and many staff. I attended for about 30 minutes after the Board Meeting.  Maggie has a lot of practical things to say about not just raising boys but working with them too. It is clear in her mind that schools are not a male construct and therefore it can be a difficult place for them to be successful. There were many useful strategies and understanding that we can apply in working with some of our disengaged boys.

I made a presentation to the Bunbury Geographe Economic Alliance about the wonderful work in robotics in our school and the future spending on STEM. Our conversation moved to our philosophy of having our students work with business to solve real-world problems. They were very excited by this prospect and offered their facilities, infrastructure, and personnel to help facilitate such a paradigm for education.  Let’s see how that works out.

Have a great week.

En Avant

Mike Sinagra