Dear Parents and Carers

This past weekend reflected again how full life is at Calvary. On Friday and Saturday it was wonderful to enjoy the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang performances. Perhaps my favourite number from the show is the song that carries the line “Teamwork can make a dream work” as that certainly sums up life at Calvary. I echo again my thanks to all staff and parents who helped our students shine on the stage.

We are proud of our Volleyball teams and their success over recent weeks, and I am sure that I am not the only one enjoying seeing our beach Volleyball courts taking shape. Along with many in our community, I can’t wait to see them in use! And of course, there are many other sports events that have taken place over the weekend – and we have recently enjoyed our Athletics carnivals. I love seeing students giving their stretch best and I am always particularly proud of those who are trying things they have not attempted before.

This weekend our lambing season came to a successful end, with our team welcoming more cuddly little newcomers to our farm. Our exceptional Show Team family not only hosted lamb cuddles but also managed a successful Bunnings BBQ fundraiser.

Along with all this, our students continued to strive for excellence in their assignments and assessments as the term draws towards its close. This week we will all be able to enjoy JS students showing us what they have been learning. I also look forward to seeing the data that demonstrates the learning progress our students have made in both mastery of curriculum content and the development of their lifelong skills across this semester. And we will enjoy many Arts performances and a Visual Art display as we celebrate Arts week this week.

An important part of the student development team is those who support our staff in meeting students at their point of learning stretch. You may be aware of some of the work our chaplains, counsellors, learning assistants and student learning growth staff do to support the enrichment of learning for all students.

Earlier this term I let you know that Rebekah Kemp and her family will be moving north over the holidays. This left a gap in our team, and we have taken the opportunity to look again at how we can support student learning even more effectively. The outcome of this review is that we have appointed a Head of Student Learning Growth, Sarah Wishart, who will take up her position at the start of Term 3. Sarah comes to us with experience that will enrich our capacity to serve our community well and we look forward to welcoming her into the Calvary community.

Rebecca Damianopoulos continues in her role liaising among students, parents and staff as we work to partner in meeting student need well. We value Rebecca’s skill and her strong advocacy for students with additional needs. We are excited about how we are becoming increasingly skilled in meeting the diverse needs of all our students.

We are also in the process of recruiting an experienced teacher who can help us lift our skills in designing learning to meet the personal needs of all our students.

Our chaplains and counsellors, along with our teacher psychologist form a strong team enabling us to take care of the wellbeing and personal development of students. When we say that at Calvary we ‘grow the whole child’ we mean it. Our intent is always to act in the best interests of each child, helping them meet challenges and avoid complacency as they develop and consolidate the lifelong learning skills they need now and in the future.

As the semester draws to a close, we sadly bid some of our staff goodbye.

• Sandra Swartz will be leaving us to spend more time with her family.

• Recently Molly Atkins also resigned from her position in Prep at Springwood.

• We bid Pauline Ball farewell after 25 years of service to the Calvary community. Pauline is well loved among our students, and she will be missed by many.

We welcome Megan Terracini to Springwood and Tania Nicholson to Carbrook, joining our learning design team and wish them many happy years as part of the Calvary team.

I wish you a very happy school holiday period, some rest from the intensive routines that are the term time in our active and engaging community and the refreshment of enjoying family time together. We love partnering with you on this journey!

Yours sincerely

Cherylynne

Principal & CEO