A big welcome to Term 2 to you all. Although this is not the start to our second term at Foxwell State Secondary College that we expected, I want to applaud every member of our school community for their commitment to working together and getting through these difficult times with such positivity and optimism. 

Our school SPIRIT values of Service, Perseverance, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility, Inclusivity and Teamwork are all very evident and will be sure to guide us through.  Today saw the first formal day of our home- learning “Continuity of Learning Plan’ being rolled out to all students. We are quite pleased with the implementation and the engagement from our students for the first day and know that things are only going to get easier and run more smoothly from here.

My best advice is to take the time to read the instructions and watch the videos provided by the school each morning, as these clearly show how to work through the program and activities. Our staff have been actively providing feedback to students who have submitted their completed tasks today and this will continue every day until we are back together, here at school. 

We hope to have the school’s video-conferencing platform established by the end of this week so that all students can have a weekly face-to-face online conference with their class teacher and class mates to ensure our wonderful relationships can continue to flourish. Thank you for your patience with the internet connectivity today, as students across our state get online together from home for the first time.  Please do not get so frustrated that you give up – just take a moment and try again. In the meantime I am sure that your child can be reading their new novel and doing other activities that do not require their device. Remember to have your child respond to the daily attendance notification each morning by 10am, so that we can mark them present and avoid sending an absence SMS to you. 

Learning must occur each day and this will be monitored by our school and the Department.  Should illness prevent your child from attending to their school work, please notify us as per normal procedures.  I encourage you to support your child to complete their work and encourage them to seek help from their teacher if they are having difficulty. 

Today we welcome two new members of teaching staff to our school. We are very pleased to welcome Mrs Susan Raisson and Ms Racquel Wilson to our team. Both teachers are very experienced teachers and will be assets to our team.  They are very passionate about education and our school’s philosophy and excited to be appointed to our highly sought after school.  Please make sure you make them feel very welcome over the coming month/s.

Until next time

Kym Amor