Term 1 2022 Newsletter

There is no doubt that a strong focus of our school community so far this year has been preparing for and managing the impacts of the Covid pandemic, which has well and truly made its presence felt in Western Australia since the borders opened.  As a school, we have maintained ‘business as usual’ to a large extent, thanks to the diligent efforts of our students, staff, parents and carers to adhere to the health protocols of mask wearing, physical distancing and hand-sanitising.  While inevitably, we have had Covid positive cases reported among our students and staff, these have been relatively small in number, enabling our school to operate with minimal changes to normal routine. My sincere thanks to the many parents and carers who have ‘kept us in the loop’ about your children and families’ health status and for your cooperation to help us to limit the impact of Covid in our school community. I completely understand that the volume of information coming from the Chief Health Officer and Department of Education can sometimes be confusing and overwhelming, so we greatly appreciate the patience and support that parents and carers have shown to the school to navigate this throughout the term. An update about operating conditions for term two will be available on our school website soon.

Despite the obvious disruptions that Covid has caused, a great many wonderful things have been implemented this term to get our school year off to a positive start. Among the most notable initiatives is the election of Student House Leaders and School Captains. This dedicated group of students spanning years 7 – 12 have committed to serve the student body by representing ‘student voice’ in planning and decision-making about important projects and activities within the school. Each ‘House’ has a student leader from each year group, ensuring that irrespective of age, all students have a peer representative to share and promote ideas, to listen to feedback and to work as part of the larger student leadership team across the school. The School Captains, year 12 students Willow Palmer and Jake Bidewell will have the additional role of being School Board members, to ensure student representation at our highest level of school leadership. My congratulations to the 2022 School Captains and Student House Leaders. I look forward to working with you throughout the year.

The school has been working on strengthening partnership opportunities with the community over the past several years to develop student pathways and connections to ‘real world’ learning and future careers. This year we have been fortunate to appoint a specialist ‘Career Practitioner’ to our staff to support and enhance this vital aspect of school operations. Our Career Practitioner is Mrs Gray, who brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the career education and pathway development space, having worked as the Senior School Coordinator and more recently as a Head of House at Pinjarra Senior High School.  In term one, Mrs Gray has been working on a partnership agreement with Alcoa to offer Alcoa Student Excellence scholarships for 10 Aboriginal students from year 7 -12. These scholarships are designed to provide support for Aboriginal students at school and to provide insights into the multitude of career pathways and job opportunities available both within Alcoa, but also the wider resources industries. Scholarship applications have been released and students will be chosen through a panel selection process early next term. This unique partnership project will be a pilot in 2022, with a view to consolidation and expansion in future years. We look forward to announcing the scholarship winners and to working with Alcoa to support pathways to excellence for our students.

Another fantastic initiative to support student learning and make sure that school provides a purposeful and relevant experience for our students is the Engagement Strategy, which offers a range of different programs and opportunities for students from year 8 to 10. So far in term one, selected year 8 students have participated in the Bike Rescue program coordinated by Mr Beswick and Mr Frost. Year 9 students have started working on a food production enterprise to support the school canteen with Mr Crock and year 10 students have launched the Pinny Crew air tasker enterprise within the school. Groups of year 10 students have also been invited to participate in accelerated VET preparation programs in Hospitality and Building and Construction, where they will commence formal vocational training in certificate qualifications in semester two. Students involved in the various programs have already done some great work and have benefited from the team approach to tasks to develop their communication and problem-solving skills. Students and staff are enjoying the opportunity to ‘learn differently’ and have made great progress in their pathways.

Many of you will have been watching the ever-changing landscape at the front of our school, as the new Sports Hall and Performing Arts Centre building is starting to take shape. We are now (almost) looking at a level site ready for the ‘footprint’ of the new facility to be put in place, which should happen early next term. The construction process has experienced a couple of delays, (as expected in any large-scale project), but we are well on our way to enjoying this fantastic expansion of our school facilities, which we expect to be complete before the end of 2022.

Obviously, the work being undertaken has created significant shortages of parking for staff, students and visitors which is no doubt inconvenient. This has resulted in increased parking on McLarty Road itself and on other streets immediately surrounding the school. While this is understandable, I would request that parents and carers endeavour to avoid parking along McLarty Road during peak ‘drop off’ and ‘pick up’ times, as congested traffic impacts the capacity of the busses to pull in and out, potentially compromising the safety of our students. Where possible, the use of less busy roads would be a better option, leaving the areas heavily used by busses clear for safe entry and exit. I realise that accessing the school has been made more complex by the building process, but we need to work together to minimise risk. I am sure that at the end of the project, when the building is finished, the ‘pain of parking’ will quickly fade. In the meantime, please do your best to help keep our students safe on and around the roads.

It is equally important that students and members of the public do not enter the fenced building site for any reason. During the construction phase, the site is under the control of the contractor, Universal Constructions. It has been formally ‘handed over’ and until the completion of the work, is not school property. Consequently, anyone entering the site without permission is trespassing and may be prosecuted. There are also considerable safety issues on an active building site, so we urge all parents and carers to remind students that they are not to enter the fenced area under any circumstances. If we can work together to minimise the risk of injury or damage during the construction of our new buildings, it would be appreciated.

Finally, as we look forward to the school holidays for a well-deserved break, a reminder to look after yourselves by continuing to wear masks in public as you venture out and about and to maintain physical distancing as much as possible. If you or your children test positive for Covid during the break, or are identified as a close contact, there is no requirement to contact the school. We will work with parents and carers to manage the return to school on 26^th April in accordance with advice from the DoE and Chief Health Officer when this becomes available. We know that term two will see a continuation of most restrictions in school that we experienced in term one, but if we all maintain the protocols that reduce risk, hopefully the latter stages of term two will see a return to camps, excursions, carnivals and gatherings which are such an important part of the school calendar. Up to date information will be available throughout the holiday period on our school website.

Thank you all for your support and partnership to navigate the many complexities of term one. Have a safe and relaxing holiday and from all at Pinjarra Senior High School, Happy Easter.

Jan Stone
Principal