What a positive start to the year. I have been in and out of classes and out and about during duty over the last four weeks and the school is buzzing along beautifully. We had a very positive SLB Induction Assembly, and our students came together demonstrating a high level of respect for the speakers and each other on the day.

I look forward to once again working closely with the SLB this year as we strive to make Queechy an even better school during 2025.

We have begun this year with an absolute focus on Connection and Belonging for students, staff and our wider community. Connection and Belonging sits at the centre of our School Improvement Plan this year and is a key element of our strategies to improve student attendance.

We strive to support students to be here for more than 90% of the time with an aspirational goal of moving towards 95% over the next few years. This would translate to missing no more than one day per month.

This isn’t a goal we expect to happen without us working together to overcome some of the barriers young people and their families experience that prevent this level of attendance. There will be multiple opportunities to work with students and parents/carers to explore some of these barriers and develop strategies to minimise their impact during this year and into the future.

Our teaching and TA team have made a great start to the year with very high levels of engagement in class by students and evidence of well-planned, differentiated work that all students can access being seen across our whole school. I thank our staff for their ongoing commitment to sustained improvement and refinement of our teaching and learning resources over the last 5 years. The impact of this effort is visible in every class, every day.

Our school environment is looking even better this year and a big shout out to our grounds and cleaning staff who strive to make this space as attractive and inviting as possible, the results are obvious.

I look forward to meeting new parents to our school at the welcome BBQ next week and touching base with the many families I already know. Please make the time to join us for this event if you can.