Principal Piece with Justin Harrison Term 2 Week 8 2023

Toolooa SHS is a school that is providing all students with a quality education in a safe and supportive environment. We are a school that is constantly reflecting on our current practices and looking for ways to improve.

This week, all students during year level parades have had an opportunity to provide us with feedback on a number of areas that impact their schooling at Toolooa. More specifically, they have had the chance to complete a survey whereby they give us their insight into areas such as safety, school culture, teaching/learning and clarity and fairness of rules.

This feedback will play an important role in our school’s executive committee moving forward in determining priorities for further improvement and thus enabling us to make Toolooa SHS an even better school. We do appreciate the student’s feedback.

Toolooa is committed to providing a safe, respectful and disciplined learning environment for students and staff, where students have opportunities to engage in quality learning experiences and acquire values supportive of their lifelong wellbeing. We value respect, achievement and responsibility.

Toolooa’s Code of Conduct is designed to facilitate high standards of behaviour so that teaching in our school can facilitate a learning culture of high performance whilst enabling our students to participate positively within our community. If you have not already done so, I encourage all parents/carers to refer to page 4 of the Student Success Journal which unpacks the specific behaviours that we expect to see in reference to our core values of respect, achievement and responsibility. In addition, it is also important that you are aware of the possible disciplinary consequences that could be issued for breaches of behaviour. These can be found on pages 13 – 18 of the Student Success Journal.

Finally, to help achieve our school’s mission; Education for Life, it is important that: “Every member of the school community, whether staff, student, parent or visitor, will act at all times with the safety and dignity of themselves and others in mind.”

I do thank you for your support of the school so we can work together and provide the best education possible in a safe and supportive learning environment.

This is an important reminder that the first Senior Schooling Information Evening is on tonight in the shelter, starting at 6pm. The Senior Schooling team will be discussing what senior education looks like (Queensland Certificate of Education, ATARs, pathways, etc.) and more specifically, what pathways Toolooa offers to support your child transitioning to further education, training or employment.

Our second parent/guardian information evening is on next week, 15 June in the shelter. This information evening is focussing on what each subject/program is comprised of. Subject Heads of Department, Guidance Officers, Heads of Senior Schooling and the Senior Schooling Deputy Principal will all be able to speak with you about Year 11 subject choices and pathways, and answer any question you may have. Representatives from external training providers will also be present for parents/guardians and students to talk with.

Final 2023 Year 11 subject choices will be made later this term.

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. A letter will be emailed home in week one next term to provide further information about this process.

On Monday 29th May, our Year 7 and Year 8 students enjoyed an engaging and high energy presentation of programs called Backflips against Bullying. The programs are designed to proactively teach the students appropriate social and emotional behaviour, with a specific focus on bullying awareness and strategies to prevent it.

Through the use of Acrobatics and Parkour, students were engaged in key messages around Power Dynamics and Resilience, Cyber Bullying, issues related to Harassment, Real World Consequences and Rumours as well as various other social and group skills. Ongoing follow up on the topics and information from the presentation will occur across classrooms with a variety of resources provided as part of the program.

Toolooa SHS is a ‘uniform school’ because the Parents’ and Citizens’ Association decided at the outset to support the wearing of school uniforms. There are a number of advantages of wearing school uniforms, some of these being; developing a sense of belonging to a group, pride in membership of that group and identification of students travelling to and from school. As it is now getting colder, this is a reminder that the only jumpers that are allowed to be worn are either the school jacket or a plain black jumper or jacket. If students are choosing to wear a black jacket or jumper, please remember that it is to have no logos on it of any shape or size.