At Foxwell State Secondary College, we are proud of the unique education that we are providing to our students.

We endeavour to provide a warm and supportive environment in which all children can 'succeed', grow in confidence, and flourish.

We continue to promote students' success through a balanced pursuit of excellence in academic, cultural and sporting endeavours and we love to celebrate the achievements of our students, staff and community members.

So, why do we do what we do? Why are we so committed to our why? We believe that every child needs to be treated as an individual and celebrated and supported in their personal endeavours.

We firmly believe that One Size Does Not Fit All. Across our school, we have over 520 individual students who all deserve to be acknowledged and guided towards reaching their individual potential. In our classrooms, Sports Performance Hall, practice rooms, art studios, laboratories and workshops, we strive to best cater for the needs of ALL children. That is our commitment and that is our why. 

At Friday's Staff Professional Development Day, our staff spent time collaborating to reinforce this commitment and review our progress. The passion and dedication from our staff is beyond anything I have seen before. They want your child to succeed, and each and every day they work incredibly hard to best motivate, inspire and guide your student to be the best they can be.

As a staff we talked about the 50/50 expectation. We expect that staff are at all times adding 50% to the partnership with their students. We also expect 50% from each and every one of our students. That 50% can look, sound and feel different for each child due to their unique strengths and needs, but all the same, we expect 50%. We ask that you speak specifically with your child today asking them if they are currently contributing 100% of their energies to ensure they are bringing their 50% to the partnership while in every classroom.

One of our greatest strengths remains the partnerships we foster between students, staff and parents. These partnerships enable us to live out our SPIRIT values and our commitment to providing a world class education for every student. We call this the 'Partnership Triangle'.

In our Partneship Triangle, we expect student, staff, and parents to be contributing their third. We all have to consider, are we doing our third? Ways that parents can do their third are by :

• ensuring that your child has all necessary resources ready each day for school
• ensuring that your child has at least 8-10 hours uninterrupted sleep every night
• ensuring that your child has a healthy and balanced diet, with breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner provided
• being genuinely interested and engaged with your child's daily learning
• supporting your child to complete thier homework or assessment tasks
• providing a calm study environment in the home and regular schedule for homework completion
• contributing to a positive partnership with your child's teacher, checking on progress and staying up-to-date with the learnings in each subject
• being a safe and consistent presence in your child's life
• prioritising your child and their learning every day.

Our staff and our students all have their own expectations that are regularly discussed and reviewed to ensure that they are also doing their third. From today, let's all commit to doing our third every day!

NAPLAN results

As you are aware, each year, students in Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 sit the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy. Earlier this year, our Year 7 students completed their tests in the areas of Reading, Writing, Numeracy, Spelling and Language Conventions.

We are pleased with the results of our Year 7 cohort and the individual results of our students. The vast majority of students have demonstrated at least the expected growth from Year 5 to Year 7, with a large number of our students demonstrating significant improvement during this time. The hard work of students, teachers and parents each and every day has lead to these positive reults.

I encourage parents to reflect on the individual results in the NAPLAN reports, with which students have been provided today. As a school staff, we review this data, together with the many other pieces of data we collect, to guide our teaching and learning program for each child. 

Let's Celebrate our Staff

Three outstanding educators from Foxwell State Secondary College have been nominated for the 2021 Gold Coast Secondary Principals Alliance Excellence in Education Awards.

Mrs Victoria Leadbeatter is nominated for the 2021 Bond University Secondary Education Leadership Award.

Mrs Suni Moraes is nominated for the 2021 Griffith University Excellence in Secondary Teaching Award.

Mrs Cheryl Newton is nominated for the 2021 TAFE QLD Excellence in Educational Support Award.

Our nominees are up against some very strong competition from other extraordibary educators across the Gold Coast. We wish these nominees the very best at the upcoming awards ceremony. 

The little things matter

As we near the next school holiday break, I ask parents to maintain their high expectations, and support our staff as we support our students to continue their learning, right up until the last day of term. Our expectations around behaviour, uniform, engagement, attendance, and the demonstration of our SPIRIT values are just as important now.

I look forward to participating in the Colour Run next Friday. If you have not registered your child, please remember to do so today. This is an exciting day in our school calendar and would be disappointing for your child if they missed out on the fun.

Until next time

Mrs Kym Amor

Principal

Foxwell State Secondary College