It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through Term 4 and that I have now completed my first 8 weeks as the Principal of our school.  It has been a fabulous and busy term as I have been learning about our College culture, our team, our students and families and our community connections. I have also been spending time planning and reflecting upon our next steps as a College and implementing plans for 2024. As a result, families are encouraged to read the following information for College operations for the remainder of Term 4 and for the beginning of 2024.

Foxwell Learner

 During the past few weeks, I have been working alongside our staff team to align our staff beliefs and define our collective why statement. I am pleased to be able to share with you, that as a College team:

We believe in the pursuit of success through individual achievement and the development of 21^st Century skills to equip and enable our learners to make a powerful difference in an ever-changing world.

This belief statement will drive our work and continuous improvement cycles to ensure the success of every student within our College.

Year 10 Semi-formal Event

Congratulations to our Year 10 students on completing their Compass Years at Foxwell and their compulsory years of education. Last Friday evening, we held our first semi-formal event in our stadium to honour our students and their families on reaching this lovely milestone. It was a great night of celebration.

Thank you to Ms Nicolas, Mr Russell, the Year 10 staff team, the team of staff who helped serve food on the night and our student semi-formal committee for their efforts in creating a night for students and their families to remember.

Student Code of Conduct review and Reset for Learning process

This term, we have started our annual review of the Student Code of Conduct for implementation in 2024. Our team has spent considerable time reflecting on our current approaches and have decided to move our College towards being a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) school in 2024. This will see a range of new positive behaviour strategies being implemented and a review of our behavioural flowchart and possible consequences for both minor and major breaches of the code. If you are interested in nominating to be a parent partner in our PBL set up process, please express interest by emailing principal@foxwellssc.eq.edu.au.

This term, we have already begun aligning our practices for student engagement in learning. The reset process has been refined to allow students to reset for learning within the Learning Hub. A Head of Department or Deputy Principal will help students to assess their own well-being for learning and support them, where required. This support may include: an appointment made with the Guidance Services team, learning intervention with the Inclusion team, assistance from the teacher or HOD to re-engage with the learning tasks, support from families to prepare students for re-engaging in learning the next day or behavioural consequences as per the Student Code of Conduct where a young person has not behaved appropriately within the classroom.

Celebration of Success – Awards Day 23 November 9am

This year, our College Celebration of Success will be held on the 23^rd of November at 9am at the Highway Church, Ormeau for all award recipients and their families. 

Our normal learning programs and classes will be suspended on this day to allow all staff and students to attend the awards day. Limited supervision at the College will be provided for any students not required to attend the awards ceremony. Award recipient lists will be published soon to allow for arrangements to be made.

Change to the organisation of the school day for 2024

As a part of our review of our student engagement and achievement in learning and our staff well-being frameworks, our College team have voted in favour to a change of their rostered duties and our timetable / organisational structure for 2024.  These changes include:

• The establishment of Care classes for teacher / student relationships / well-being for learning check ins and roll marking at the beginning of the day. Care classes will start at 8.45am.
• The end of the school day to 2.45pm.

(Bus companies are also being made aware of this change)

• Students will attend four timetabled sessions plus Care class each day.
• There will be two breaks for students: 1 x 30 minutes after period 1 and 2, and 1 x 40 minutes between periods 3 and 4. 

We appreciate your support as we implement these changes in 2024.

Strategic Plan development and School Review 2024

In 2024 we will be undertaking a full school review as required by all schools, every four years which is implemented by the Department of Education. We have requested for our review to be scheduled in Term 1, as the outcomes of the review will then be able to be used to support the development of our next four year Strategic Plan.

To assist in our planning for 2024, the review and strategic plan, we will be forwarding a survey in the coming weeks for parent feedback. This feedback will be taken into consideration as we continue to refine our College policies and practices for increased student engagement and achievement in learning. I encourage you to become involved in this opportunity in the coming weeks.

Communication

I have enjoyed meeting students, parents, community members and staff over the past few weeks. Should you wish to make contact with me, appointments are able to be made through the administration office by asking for the Executive Services Officer or via email at principal@foxwellssc.eq.edu.au. As the Principal, I am often out in the College working alongside students, staff, our cluster schools and regional staff and therefore, may not be immediately available.

Please be aware that normal school communication protocols are encouraged. Students and families should seek the support of their Heads of Year, Heads of Department, Deputy Principals, Guidance Officers and Support Services team. These are our more immediate support personnel and lines of contact for students and families.

I am looking forward to celebrating our students’ success at the upcoming Celebration of Success and to meeting more members of our College community.

Kind regards,

Melanie Harth

Principal