Principal Communications, 19 August 2024
19 August 2024
Dear Parents and Carers
An Evening / Morning with the Principal – this week.
Please join me at Springwood tomorrow, Tuesday 20 August, OR at Carbrook on Wednesday 21 August for our annual Evening/ Morning with the Principal. As we are one College across two campuses, with one philosophy and ethos, the content of each event is the same, so please choose the venue most convenient for you.
I’d like to share with you again what matters most to us at Calvary and why you made a good choice when you entrusted your child’s learning future to us.
Since 2019 we have been implementing an innovative learning model that is research-based and evidence-informed. This means we follow and respond to research about how children learn best, and we monitor the outcomes. If the evidence does not reveal the results we anticipate, we interrogate and modify what we are doing. You will see more about Stage-based learning across our social media sites in the coming weeks as we prepare to take our model to national conference presentations in 2025. There has been a lot of interest from other schools in our model for learning design and we are keen to share the successes and what we have learnt along the journey with educators across Australia and around the world. Ours has been a necessarily slow and carefully considered implementation process as we have brought our staff, students and other stakeholders along this journey with us. I am more than ever convinced that stage-based learning is the best way we can address the needs of the whole child in an education context, personalising learning and ensuring each child is learning ready every day.
Next year we are introducing Heads of Stages 1, 2 and 3 to our Junior school program. We are also continuing to refurbish our learning spaces in our Junior School locations to give us maximum flexibility with spaces capable of being configured into many different variations to suit student learning activities. The Stage 3 learning hub in Florence Young at Springwood and the Stage 3 learning area upstairs in the Culbert at Carbrook will both be refurbished in 2025 to echo the wonderful flexible spaces we are currently enjoying at Carbrook in Stage 4. If you have not yet seen this downstairs Culbert space at Carbrook, please make a point of popping in and asking staff to show you around.
Agile and flexible learning spaces are an important element of our stage-based learning model and at Springwood the prep room was refurbished for 2023 with this in mind. Since then we have continued replacing the interior clumsy room dividers with more aesthetically pleasing and more easily adaptable folding doors. We have also been updating the furniture on both Junior school campuses.
We have spent much of this year providing the complete renovation and update of the Culbert building and its surrounds. This project is nearing completion. In term 4 and continuing into 2025, our grounds and buildings team will focus their attention on providing improved playground and sporting facilities on the Springwood campus before the work to be done on the interior learning spaces.
These upgrades have lifted our facilities on both campuses to ensure they provide everything your children need as they grow and learn – and all within a beautiful natural environment. Visitors to our College campuses frequently remark on the beauty of the natural environment we are blessed to enjoy, and we are keenly aware of how rare that is in schools today.
Over the past three years we have been working on updating the uniform with three objectives: the comfort of our students, an update that reflects contemporary style and possibly most importantly of all we want to make the uniform more cost-effective for families. The good news is that this journey has brought us to the point where we can make a real difference as we take provision of uniforms inhouse from the end of this year. Our aim is to develop a uniform shop that brings you the benefit of lower cost uniforms as well as our excellent Calvary service for your convenience. I will elaborate on our plans at each event this week and then communicate details in a communication solely devoted to uniforms in the near future. For the rest of 2024, you may find yourselves frustrated by certain item sizes being out of stock as we have instructed the uniform supplier not to replenish stock – particularly on items still undergoing update. Please be patient with us and talk to us about the compromise we can make to ensure a comfortable and cost-effective transition process. I reassure you that any new uniform item you purchase in the next few months will be acceptable for use in years to come.
It has always been our desire to match the Carbrook experience for our Springwood students as closely as possible under our ONE COLLEGE TWO CAMPUSES ethos. This is an audacious goal, and I will elaborate on the next steps we are taking in 2025 and what this means for your child. As part of this plan, we have progressed appointments of senior leaders in delivering on the organisational restructure announced at the start of term. The appointment of Kim Winton as Deputy Principal (JS) and Josh Wilson as Deputy Principal (MSS) will continue to enrich the quality of teaching (delivering Exceptional Learning) across the College. I also congratulate Dino Arraiol (Head of MSS), and Zoe O Donnell (Head of JS Carbrook campus) who are well known to you, on their appointments. Our most recent appointment is Michelle Sprenger to Head of JS Springwood campus, and I look forward to introducing Michelle to you when she takes up her appointment. Michelle has a rich educational background with deep experience in Christian education and a strong interest in investment in the development of the whole child. I look forward to telling you more about these appointments and how they can benefit your child’s Calvary journey.
I hope to see many of you tomorrow and on Wednesday to share with you and to hear from you. It is helpful to me if you send your questions ahead by using the link where you register for the evening or sending your questions by email to info@calvarycc.qld.edu.au Questions will also be taken at each event.
It’s important to me that you have opportunity to engage in rich discussion with me as so many of your children do. I love the chats I have with them in our many encounters. It is they who make my every day worthwhile and enjoyable despite the many challenges that accompany the responsibility of leading our College.
Yours sincerely
Cherylynne Gostelow
