Principal’s Piece — Justin Harrison
Gold Award Presentation – Semester 1, 2022
Each term, Toolooa recognises students who have strived to achieve outstanding academic results in each of their subjects they are studying. This week we held recognition parades to celebrate the academic success of our students for the first semester of this year.
To all gold award winners, congratulations on a very successful first semester. We are looking forward to seeing you maintain these great results and recognise others who strive to achieve at a consistently high standard.
Year Level Coordinators and Deputy Principals will also present Silver Awards and Excellence Awards (effort, behaviour) on Year Level Parades in the coming weeks.
COVID-19
As you would be aware, the spread of COVID-19 continues to pose a threat to the health and safety of all members of the community. I take this opportunity to remind you to keep up-to-date with the Queensland Health advice in relation to this. For the latest information from Queensland Health, please visit: https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/public-health-directions
Parent and Community Engagement
Quality partnerships between school and home are integral to the success of the student. They require a reciprocal commitment from staff and parents to work together to improve student learning and wellbeing. Effective partnerships can help to raise parents’ awareness of their ability to improve their children’s learning and wellbeing. Understanding the school, home and community contribution to student learning helps cultivate a holistic learning environment.
While involving parents in school activities (e.g. attending school events) is important, it is engagement through learning partnerships which has shown to have much greater impact on student outcomes. I thank all parents/carers who continually try and engage in their child’s education, a process which can be very difficult during this phase of their life.
Consequently, I thought I would take this opportunity to remind everyone of ways that we as parents/carers can do to support our loved ones:
Keep up-to-date by reading information from the school
Maintain a positive dialogue with your child about what they are learning
Establish appropriate study arrangements
Ask your child about their learning and school day
Access local services including local community health services, parenting programs and libraries that can support your child’s learning and development
Monitor screen time and sleep
Promote a healthy lifestyle
Talk with your child about goals and aspirations
Be approachable and supportive
Support good relationships with peers
Road Safety—Student Drop Off and Pick Up
The safety of our students is of paramount importance and we thank our parents/carer for their support in the area of student drop off and pick up.
To help reduce the traffic congestion down the front of the school in the afternoons, I am asking all drivers not to sit in the queue waiting for a space which blocks the entrance to the stop drop and go. Not only is this stopping our buses from entering the bus lane and transporting students’ home on time, it is dangerously backing up the traffic onto Philip Street and the roundabout on Benaraby Road. I urge all parents/family members to adhere to the road safety rules, especially around schools.
Finally, staff supervision of this area can be challenging, especially when their primary role is to monitor approximately 1000 students exiting the school out the front gate and ensuring their safety in a very complex environment. As you can appreciate, it is a difficult job; one that I believe my staff do exceptionally well. There are going to be times whereby parents/carers feel frustrated, please do not take it out on my staff. If you have any concerns regarding pick up, please contact me. To help limit the congestion, please consider picking your child up15 minutes later each day or organising an alternate location nearby to be picked up.
School Opinion Survey
Thank you to the large number of parents/caregivers who have completed the school opinion survey. It is greatly appreciated. As soon as the school receives the results of the survey, they will be shared with our community. More importantly, this data will be used to celebrate successes, identify areas that need to be improved and help guide the school when formulating the strategic direction for next year.