Welcome to 2010
School has started for 2010. Welcome back to our families and welcome to our new families. I know Crestwood will continue to offer a quality education to all its students.
The first few weeks will be spent trying to determine accurate numbers of students. This is required by the DET. It verifies the anticipated number of students enrolling and returning. The staffing of the school (how many teachers, Office staff, etc) depends on just how accurate these numbers were when they were submitted in early December 2009. It seems a long time ago. It looks as if we will be able to offer some places in Year 7 and perhaps Year 11 at the moment. We have extensive waiting lists for Year 7 and a small one for Year 11.
Our School Development Day was spent on examining two areas of the school. The first was the installation of 12 Smart Boards around the school. All faculties spent time using their computers( laptops and netbooks) to begin the process of aquaintance. These smartboards will be an important teaching tool as the technology levels of the school are increased.
The staff were also introduced to the new attendance system. This promises to be a real time saver for many reasons. Staff will be able to mark their rolls and lodge them electronically. This will free our office staff from the data entry of entering every absent student in the school each day. The new system will allow teachers to mark their rolls at any period during the day to check on students who absent themselves. Yet another component of the new system is an ability to text parents if students are absent. Parents, in turn, will be able to by return text, make an explanation for a student's absence. This program works with our timetable program to provide all staff with the where-abouts of students during the day. This again will reduce time wasting as the student timetables used to be stored at the front office. We are looking to see if students can get access (legally) to parts of this program so they access their timtetables should they loose the paper copy they receive.
As mentioned elsewhere we have dropped our traditional Home Room time. Students will be expected to be in class by the time the teacher gets to class so the roll can be marked. Students who get to class after the teacher will be deemed to be late and will need to follow our late procedures by reporting to the office for a late note and perhaps a lunch detention.
Because we no longer mark rolls in house groups the way students line up on our Monday morning COLA assembly will also change. Students will be expected to line up in their English classes (every student in the school studies English). Announcements will be made and the students dismissed for period one. It is in the period one class that students will have their names marked off.
The staff have had time to look closely at our HSC results. This Year 12 group was a small group of students - 91. We had many students achieve a Band 6 or equivalent. There were approximately 44 of these awarded to our students. Nearly 50% of our Year 12 group were offered a place at a university. This is an outstanding result. Given the size of the group and the fact that not all students wanted a university placement, this would see the percentage go well over 55% and probably closer to 60%. We have done very well indeed and will continue to do so. In the coming weeks we will have a special High Achievers Assembly where these students will be recognised for their hard work during the year. Congratulations to all.
Our top ATAR was 96.5. We had a number of students achieve ATARS in the 90's, so again we are very pleased with their efforts.
Our current senior leaders (School Captains, Student Representative Council, Senior Leadership Team and Sports Captains) will be inducted in another special assembly on Tuesday February 9th. This assembly will be followed by a morning tea for invited parents and their sons or daughters. The school places a large amount of responsibility on these students. They have been selected by the staff and students so they have the confidence of the entire school community.