I am confident that there is genuine and collective relief that we have made it to the end of Term 2. A 10 Week term to end the semester is long and it has certainly been busy. I want to encourage families with a few messages I shared with students this week at Assembly.

With so many big events in recent weeks, I have been encouraged and challenged to think about our school as a community. A community is really a group of people who come together with a common understanding or cause. The Musical, Athletics Carnival, PAC’s Got Talent, wellbeing seminars, Ridley House Charity Day and tug-o-war all stand out for me as community-based events that have filled our calendar this term.

The coming together of people brings so many wonderful opportunities and I commend students for how they made the most of these events to build culture. I see events like this not just as things that we tick off, but examples of where our culture and values are display. Hearing people support others who they don’t know shows compassion, seeing students celebrate someone else’s achievement or success highlights humility and watching people refuse to yield in tug-o-war showed perseverance. I challenged students this week in Assembly about the fact that values are nice on a page, but actually mean more and matter then they become influential in your actions.

We work hard at school to make the most of opportunities to encourage our students about their character; who they are becoming and how they might be perceived. For me, this is important in so many ways, but I believe with genuine conviction that someone’s character will be of greater value in life than a mark, grade or lists of achievement.

Thank you for trusting us with helping develop your child’s character. We hope you continue to join us in this partnership and being part of this community. Have a wonderful holiday break and we look forward to seeing you all next term.

Mr Leighton Corr
Deputy Principal (Secondary)