Welcome back to 2010.  It certainly seems at this stage with the busyness of the beginning of the school year that barely a week has passed since the end of last year.  I am sure all parents were glad to see their students return to some form of structure with school resuming. 

We have been delighted and very impressed with the manner in which all students have returned to school this year.  This year’s start to the year has probably been the most positive and focussed for our students in the last five years.  Almost all students returned to school in the correct school uniform and student behaviour on group gatherings and classrooms is impeccable at present.  Our students are willingly working towards resolving all organisational issues quickly and moving into a structured classroom.  It was incredibly pleasing to hear from my staff that learning on the second day of school was taking place in classrooms and students were focussed and classrooms were intensely productive.  I’d like to pass on a huge thanks to both staff and students for such a positive start to the year.

This year we have many new staff including two new Heads of Department to our school.  Our new Heads of Department are Mrs Angela Ross (HOD English & Humanities) and Mr Eddie Leeon (HOD - Acting Performing and Visual Arts).  Special welcome also goes to our new Acting Business Services Manager – Wendy Hawkins who is replacing Cass Peck whilst on maternity leave.  Cass had a baby girl – Saphira over Christmas holidays.  Huge welcome to all our other new staff – Mrs Marilyn Morris, Ms Linda Wilson, Mr Cameron Ross and Mr Chris Luckett.

Over the holidays we received the fabulous news that three of our students had received an OP 1.  This is the top result that can be achieved towards entry to university.  Congratulations go to Charlotte Piesse, Maddy Dale and Ella Kuskoff for these amazing and

outstanding results.  Best wishes to all our graduating students with 90% of students who applied receiving offers from University.  Well done to all parents and students, the 2009 cohort was certainly outstanding.  In addition feedback on overall school OP’s was exceptional again.   This year we achieved 91% of students in the 1-15 range of OP’s with over 30% of students achieving in the 1-5 range of OP’s.  This is a phenomenal achievement.  More surprising and more impressive was the fact that this achievement was once again consistent with last year’s achievement.  It is always pleasing as a school to have good results and to see cohorts achieving well, but it is more pleasing to see consistency of high achievement from year to year as the school grows.  In addition our  students achieved very well in their focus on vocational education with 98% of students achieving a VET (Vocational Education Qualification) in 2009 and fifty-one students either completed a traineeship or are in the   process of completing an apprenticeship.  Congratulations go to our 2009 cohort who worked hard to achieve these incredible results.  As Principal, although proud and pleased with the results for 2009, I am more impressed with the consistency of the results over the year.