October 23rd.
Welcome back to the final term of our year. This is only a short term having just under 9 weeks.
Uniform:
We are concerned by an increasing number of students who wear their PE or Sport uniform at the wrong times. Some students are wearing the uniform to school and continue to wear it after PE lessons. Students are required to wear their proper school uniform (not PE uniform) to and from school as well as during the day when sport or PE is not timetabled. Students who wear their PE or sport uniform could be detained by staff because they are out of uniform.
Our uniform is strong at school. The vast majority of students wear the correct uniform at all times. By condoning the wearing of a PE uniform during the school day or before or after school only serves to weaken our school image within the community. The school has worked hard to have a positive image within its and indeed the broader community. I ask all parents and students to ensure the correct uniform is being worn.
Home Room 2010:
Next year we have decided to abandon the Home Room period before the school starts each day. Instead the time taken by the Home Room process will go into the periods during the day. The periods or lessons will not increase noticeably but what will be noticeable will be one less required movement of students in the school day. A new set of bell times will be published in this web page as well as the school intranet (http://web2.crestwood-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/Welcome.html).
If students are late to school they will follow the same process. Students report to the office window for a late note. If they have a note from a parent or carer then the students go straight to class with no consequence. However, if students are late and do not have a note then they will be placed on a lunch detention. If this occurs too often the parents will be contacted and After School detentions will be issued.
Rolls will be marked in a similar way except the roll will be the period one class roll. Students who are absent from the class will have their names referred to the office. We are investigating how this roll marking will occur. There is a possibility of student attendance being noted via computer or smart phone or an iPod Touch. This will further reduce our paper warfare. Letters or emails to parents about student absence will still occur.
Diaries/Calendars:
We are also examining different ways of publishing calendars for the students and parents. Each year the school spends over $10,000.00 on having school diaries produced and then issued to students. We believe many students do not use the diary at all and staff believe that their efforts in having the students use a diary effectively are better spent on teaching. Next year students in Stage 5 (Year 9 and 10) will have a laptop issued to them. The software in the computers will allow students to use a program such as MicroSoft Outlook as a school diary. Students can use Outlook to "write" a timetable for themselves and then use it to note assignment and assessment dates. A whole school or even a stage calendar can easily be produced with links to the web page and the school intranet. We could use a web based calendar (such as Google Calendar) as well. This would give access to a calendar for all students and members of the community.