Welcome to Term 3 2021

Dear Families,

Welcome to Term 3! It was yet another strange end to a term with lockdown in place as we moved into the holiday break. Attendance at school during the last week of Term 2 was impacted by the lockdown. Our College community is appreciative of your support during that week to ensure that everyone in our community was doing the right thing and helping everyone to stay safe. I trust that you were able to enjoy the holiday period despite the restrictions, and the inclement weather that kept things cold and damp for a while. I trust too, that for those of you who have family and friends interstate or overseas, that they are all safe and well too.

Thank you to all our families who participated in our Parent Teacher Interviews on June 30. While the format for the day changed significantly, overall, the feedback that I have had from staff was the format was viewed positively and that they were able to speak to many more families. Some staff had interviews booked for every available timeslot. Those staff who didn’t have full schedules called home to provide positive feedback anyway and time was used productively.

Date Card

Please find below a link to this term’s date card. The card is up to date as of today, and is a handy ready reckoner to stick to the fridge or somewhere easy to read. This term there are some key dates for our Year 12s, in particular. Mr Muir has asked me to highlight the following:

23 September – Year 12 General/VET Students last day of classes (ATAR return next term for the Week One and Two)

24 September – Year 12 School Ball (Year 12 students not required to attend school on this day)

25 September – Year 12 SCSA Practical Examinations begin

https://bit.ly/3y9v312

If the link does not work, please copy and paste the URL into your browser.

College Board Parent Representation – call for Expressions of Interest

The College Board plays a vital role, acting to promote objectives and interests of the college community, and aiming to promote and monitor the strategic vision of the college. For more information on School Boards or College Boards, please visit https://www.education.wa.edu.au/school-councils-boards

We have three parent representatives on the College Board. The views of our parents are key to helping shape the strategic direction of the College, including influencing our Business Plan and Annual Report. Parent representatives usually hold their position for three years. Our current parent representatives have reached the end of their first three year tenure, hence this call for nominations.

The College Board usually meets twice per term. If you would like to nominate to be one of the three parent representatives please email me an Expression of Interest outlining your experience and why you would like to nominate for the Board. Your Expression of Interest should be no more than 300 words.

Should there be more than 3 Expressions of Interest, a voting ballot will be conducted. Candidate nomination statements will be circulated to all families along with an opportunity to vote. Following the voting process the top three nominations, as voted by the College community, will be invited to join the Board. This process will be complete by the next scheduled Board meeting which is 6pm, 9 August, 2021.

If you would like to nominate for the College Board, please send me your Expression of Interest no later than 4pm, 27 July, 2021. My email address is Eleanor.Hughes@education.wa.edu.au If you have questions, or require clarification, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

P&C

Friday 23 July is P&C Day WA. The idea of the day is to say thank you to all the volunteers who spend many hours working in and alongside school communities to invest in better outcomes for our students. Many of our committed parents have volunteered their services to the College since before we opened in 2015. We are grateful for every support provided to us by our P&C. Did you know that the P&C helped fund the shade sails around college? They also helped fund lockers, a marimba, and fantastic sound equipment which enhances our students’ performances. Our P&C has supported school events like the Spring Social, the colour run, and various other events. Please head over to our Facebook page on Friday to share thanks for the Joseph Banks Secondary College P&C.

Staffing Changes

Please note that there have been several changes to positions within the College since the end of last term. Deputy Principal, Peter Horton has taken Long Service Leave for the remainder of the year. Phil Wass has moved into the Deputy role and Taylor Jones has moved into a Leading Teacher role. Congratulations are extended to both Mr Wass and Mr Jones, along with Maddy Jeary who has stepped into the Domain Leader role for Health and Physical Education.

At the end of last term we also farewelled Learning Support Mentors, Emma Nelson and Sanjna Kapoor who accepted positions in other locations.

I would like to welcome Anita Dixon who has joined our Technologies team, replacing Theresa Wilkes who has moved to Geraldton. I would also like to formally welcome Brian Homan (HASS and Endeavour), Alex Walden (Maths and Explorer) and Teaghan Barone (HPE and Orion) who all joined our staff during Term 2 at different points.

We are currently recruiting support staff in a number of vacancies. Please note that we also have two staff on prolonged sick leave. We are working to ensure that those staff classes are covered by the same teachers for as long as possible. There is still a shortage of relief teachers across the state. We will always look for the least disruptive options when covering classes when staff are absent.

Disruptions to Traffic

In preparation for the Stage 3 Building that will commence in 2022, the Transportable classrooms are being moved. Two classrooms will be transported away from the College today (Thursday morning). This may cause some disruption to traffic flow around the College for a short period of time. On Friday, the remaining 4 classrooms will be moved to the main oval area. The parking adjacent to the oval on Joseph Banks Boulevard will not be accessible from 9am and this may also cause some disruption to available parking and traffic flow. We appreciate your patience as the transportable classrooms are moved.

Bus Changes

During Term 2, the College was made aware, as was the community, that there were going to be some changes to bus routes servicing Banksia Grove and the College. We were not notified that there would be changes to the bus scheduling. Deputy Principal, Leon Macfarlane, will be working with TransPerth to review the new schedule for the second bus which I believe has changed to 3.30pm. As soon as I have details about this, I will communicate to families.

This Term

There are a number of important College events this term including our Academic Awards, House Sports Carnival, the Te Hangi Evening, the Musical – Rock of Ages and our Year 12 College Ball to name a few. We look forward to seeing you at some or all of these events over the term.

Website

Last term we launched a new website. It is worth a look: jbsc.wa.edu.au

Thank you for your ongoing support. I look forward to working with you and your child over the term.

Stay safe and well.

Kind regards,

Eleanor Hughes
Principal