To my parents

‘Honour the past and own the Future’

Welcome back all Students, their parents and caregivers of Marsden High School. Last week, I began the  journey  with you all at Marsden High. I feel very honoured to be the principal (the leading learner) of a fabulous school and look forward to building the educational future of our students in partnership with teachers, parents and the community.

I enjoyed the opportunity to speak to the whole school student body in our first assembly last Tuesday. I was clearly impressed with the suberb way in which the students presented in their full school uniform, their good manners and the respect shown to the speakers. This sets an outstanding standard. Well done.

In just a short time, I have learnt how enthusiastic and committed our teachers are about our students, one teacher enquired about a trip to the space station in Houston, another, about taking students on a trip to visit our sister school in China, another teacher wants to start a lunch time sporting competition for students, including Wii sports games, and numerous exciting learning opportunities are planned. This indicates to me we have great students who deserve these activities.

2011 Year of the Flood

2011 has been deemed the year of the flood.  I extend my heartfelt wishes to all students and their families who may have been effected by the tragic scenes in early January. Thank you to all those who, I know have in a some small way, given assistance to those that have been in dark times due to devastation caused by the swelling waters.

Procedural changes to improve communication

There is a number of innovations I will be introducing this year, firstly, I would like to ensure communication between the school and home is smooth, consistent and informative, endeavouring to keep our parent community well informed about your school. With this I encourage all parents and Carers to ensure that their details, in particular email address and mobile phone number/home number is correct and up to date. We plan to introduce a fortnightly newsletter that will be emailed to parents, along with a refreshed Website. Not only will this be more economic, it will be both efficient and eco-friendly.

“Its all about learning”

If its good for student learning… then its worth pursuing.

The most important thing…is learning and at ” Marsden High”  it is ‘Learning for life’. We are a school that is focussed on that Main Game of learning. As principal, I will always ask myself, if its good for learning and good for students, then its worth investigating.

Next newsletter we will be highlighting the outstanding achievements of our 2010 HSC and SC students, and look forward to building the opportunities of our present HSC and SC students to achieve beyond their best.

Staffing

I welcome 2 new staff members,to the  English Faculty , Both Teachers come with a great deal of experience and expertise. Our Librarian Mr. Dunn will be retiring this week, staff will be farewelling him on Monday. Our librarian for more than 20 years, with outstanding service to students of NSW, we wish him the very best. We will notify students and parents of his replacement once this is confirmed.

During the next weeks, we will be finalising our numbers, as we have had a number of new enrolments,  which is very pleasing.  I extend a welcome to those students and their parents. And invite you and Year 7 2011 parents to join our P & C, the first meeting is February 22nd, 7.30 in the Library. I welcome your contributions to achieving a successful school community.

There are number of policies and procedures outlined in this newsletter to ensure the well- being of all students, please ensure you are familiar with our procedures.  As part of school improvement, we will annually review our policies to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our students. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Good school attendance and Success.

There is an undisputed link between success  and good school attendance. All students are to attend school every day. When a student  is absent due to sickness, a note should be submitted the first day of the students return. Students who need to take leave from school, for example overseas holidays, religious holidays etc. parents must  complete an exemption form (available at the front office).

It is imperative that students and their parents complete the correct forms. For the moment these forms are available at the front office, and should be completed before the event where possible. When the application is approved,  the student will then be issued with an exemption certificate.

The DET policy on attendance can be found at the web address below.

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/student_admin/attendance/sch_polproc/PD20050259.shtml

I look forward to a fabulous year of successful learning in all areas of the curriculum and beyond.

‘The Greatest Challenge is getting the best out of ourselves every time’