Welcome to a new year with all the challenges and opportunities it brings. Our focus has been on safety for our school community and I thank everyone for the part they play in this. As we learned in 2020, we take each challenge in our stride, being flexible and agile as we do the very best we can.

Congratulations to our Class of 2021

Our Year 12s continue to do us proud and last year was no exception. Last year we had a 94% attainment rate (ATAR >=55 or Cert II) and WACE achievement of 94% (both measures well above state and like schools).  We set high standards for our students and we are very proud of their achievement.

Our school was also listed with the highest performing students in Year 12 ATAR courses in Psychology.

14 of our students received a SCSA Award of Distinction or Merit and many of these students received the Principal’s Award at the end of 2021.  

Certificates of Distinction went to Sophie Catchpole and Charlotte McCullen.

Certificates of Merit went to Aimee Bowers, Chloe Corfe, Sophie Eynaud, Sophia Ferrari, Bethany Francis, Hayleigh Kerr, Elizabeth Kingston, Jewel Pivac, Sophie Ries, Elise Thom, Myfawny Walster-Jones, Evie Williams.

Congratulations to all these students.

Uniform – new shorts

Last year our school board endorsed a change to the school shorts. This was in response to feedback from parents and students particularly in regard to the fitting of the girl’s shorts. As we did with the track pants, the students preferr

ed an option that would be suitable universally and with a microfibre fabric which is comfortable and easy to wear.

We were not expecting these to be available for the start of the 2022 school year, however we learned that Lowes did have these in stock.  As always our policy is to allow students to continue to wear previous uniform items while there is a transition to the new style.  These shorts are suitable for active sport and will replace the current black sport shorts as they are phased out.

Uniform – winter preparation

As you are aware with our COVID strategies in place, classrooms are required to be well ventilated. We encourage parents to ensure that students have appropriate uniform jumpers and jackets as non-uniform items will not be able to be worn during the colder months. Given delivery delays we encourage you to contact Lowes early to ensure you have orders in place so stock can be held for you. For your information Lowes have just had a new delivery of winter stock.

COVID update

As we move into a higher case load environment we encourage all families to closely monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and seek testing if symptoms develop. Our school remains open and we will provide updated information as it becomes available or is applicable.

New guidelines for close contacts came into effect on 10 March and we continue to follow WA Health advice.  These details were emailed to parents directly.

As a reminder - please do not send your child to school if they are unwell.

New build – turning of the sod

Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery, MLA Matthew Hughes and Director of Education Matthew Osborne attended the school on 20 February to turn the sod for the new building project at the school. They were welcomed by our Head Boy Rohan Harwood and Head Girl Lilly Hogg and Year 9 representatives of the KSESC and joined by School Board Chair Peter Rudolf and P&C President Heidi Jannetta. The $25.3 million project will include a new multi-storey block with 8 classrooms, new specialist Education Support facilities and a new four-studio visual arts building. We are looking forward to seeing the new buildings take shape over the next 18 months.

Hills high school upgrade begins (echonewspaper.com.au)

Road and carpark safety

As I have mentioned earlier this year, we ask parents to take care when dropping off or picking up students due to the reduced car parking on the site with the build. In particular, the main car park on Canning Rd is a staff only car park and parents are reminded not to use this park. I draw your attention to safer locations to drop off children:

• Cotherstone Rd – Students may be dropped off along the school side of this road. Please do not park during the morning and afternoon bus pick up times.  Parents may park during the school day (9.00 – 2.30pm)
• Central Rd – Students may be dropped off along this road where they can access the school via the supervised crossing.
• Kalamunda Sporting Complex (Kostera Oval) – Students may be dropped off by the clubs rooms on Recreation Rd and access the school via the oval.

Leadership camp

Once again we are very proud of our student leadership group this year, who managed to slip in their camp before restrictions tightened at the beginning of the year. It was a wonderful time to plan for the year and forms strong bonds across the different year groups.

Year 7 Camp

We were very fortunate to be able to still hold our Year 7 camp with day activities at Bickley Camp site. This was a wonderful opportunity to get to know staff and students.

Welcome to our new and returning staff

This year we have some new staff joining our school and we welcome Ellen Bandarian (Maths), Shernai Walton (PE), Amanda Moreno-Diaz (Career Practitioner), Craig Roberts (Media), Monty Montgomery (Photography), Koren Bryan (Italian), Charles Macgregor (Humanities), Jacob Petit (Humanities), Nicholas O’Connor (D&T), Rosemary Omo (IT), Ashleigh Lustica (Year 7 team) and Jessica Baikie (Year 7 team). We also welcome two new school psychologists Beatrice Foong (M,T,Th) and Sarah Maiden (W,F) who will joining us this year.

We also welcome back Debbie Yeoh from leave.

We would especially like to welcome Stevannie Santosa, Miska Duri Suryanita and Mai Fung who are joining us as Language assistants this year in Indonesian and Japanese respectively. We are very fortunate to have them working with us to enrich the learning for our Language students.

Helen Deacon
Principal