As we approach the midway point of term three, I am already wondering where the time has gone! I am thoroughly enjoying the role and feel blessed to have the opportunity to work with the Senior School students in the role as Acting Head of Senior School.

The term started at a fast pace as we welcomed two Japanese International students Ryuju Inomoto and Shota Inoue on the opening day of this term. They have settled in well to year 10 and will remain with us till the end of term.

The first week concluded with the opening of St Gregory’s Chapel, led by Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy AO. This captivating and spiritual building offers both students and staff a place of worship and is the completion of the Schools original master plan. Our Peter Moyes day celebration assembly also took place on Friday 26th July and we were blessed to welcome back three former principals to our School; Allan Shaw, Doug Swingler and Julian Dowse. It was an honour for me to read citations for Rachel Anderson and Rais Aluwi, winners of the Senior School Peter Moyes Awards. These students demonstrate the values that underpin our prestigious School.

Year 12 students are fast reaching the end of their time at Peter Moyes, however there is still assessments and tests to complete prior to their final School exams which start on Friday 20th September. There has been a focus on academic intervention based on final report grades from Semester one, providing targeted students with action plans to aid their grades.

Year 11 students should now be building upon their Semester one grades through focus, questioning, application in class work, academic tutorials and work at home. A new initiative, the ECU University Preparation course has started with selected Year 11 students submitting their first assessments. Year 11 students have been involved in Head Boy and Head Girl nominations.  We are very fortunate to have such a fantastic calibre of candidate which made it very difficult for students and staff to cast their vote on Thursday 15th August. Interviews will now take place with a short list of candidates and the final announcements will follow in due course. The remaining Leadership positions of Chapel Prefect House Captains and a small number of Prefects will be selected following the close of applications in Week 5.

Year 10 students have been busy selecting their subject choices. Individual interviews took place under the expert guidance of their Heads of House. Those students selecting subjects without the pre-requisite for a course will be placed on an Academic Contract for that subject which will be reviewed by the Head of Department in Semester One of 2020.

Congratulations to Mrs Barber and Florey House on winning the Inter House Athletics Carnival. The event took place on Friday 9###sup/sup### August and was well represented by Senior School students, most notably year 12 students in their final Carnival at the School. We now look forward to the ‘A’ Division ACC Athletics event with will take place on Wednesday 18th September.

OLNA Round 2 will commence early in September, some students will be sitting tests in this round of OLNA. The status report for students who sat OLNA in March is available on the Parent Portal. It is an expectation that every student who is to sit one or more OLNA test has to attend their scheduled OLNA preparation study session. Preparation sessions are given for Numeracy, Writing and Reading and are targeted to assist the particular concerns of individual students. Parents should refer to communication from Ms Gillian Dawn for further details.

The Year 12 Valedictory Evening will take place on September 19th followed by the start of their final School exams on September 20th. It is paramount that Academic Tutorials are used wisely by all students to enable the completion of work in preparation for Graduation. Revision timetables should all be complete for ATAR students with focus on practising timed past papers, short and extended responses.  The attention to detail is critical for all Year 12 students at this stage as they enter their final few weeks at Peter Moyes Anglican Community School.

Mr Drew Hall
Acting Associate Principal - Senior School