Principal Communications, 29 September 2023

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back to Term 4! This is always an exciting Term at Calvary as our learning designers look towards celebrating our students’ learning progress over the year. We are also engaged in planning for 2024 which makes this an energising period as we take our next steps in the implementation of best ‘stretch’ learning design for each student.

We are particularly excited about the projects we are working on that provide significant improvement to our facilities.

Over the holiday break on the Carbrook Campus the removal of several trees and the overgrown shrubbery at the main entrance has opened up the approach to the campus. I am delighted that several large gum trees were found to be healthy and do not pose a risk to the safety and wellbeing of our community and our buildings! You will find these four gums still standing tall and proud at our entrance.

The design for the new entrance and cleaner waterway will manage the mosquitoes and give us an attractive and welcoming main entrance. We expect it to take several months to complete the work and until it is completed the area will be kept safely fenced as a construction site. Please help us to help your children stay safe. I shall keep you informed as we develop each phase of the building project in the journey to generate a welcoming and sustainable environment for our students.

The work on the waterway extends to the lake and I am looking forward to a future when our students will have outdoor learning areas extending from the north side of the Culbert across the waterway. These outdoor areas will meet up with the boardwalk that will take students from the bus drop off zone to the College main entrance, improving the flow of pedestrians around the College.

The priority is completing the interior of the lower floor of the Culbert so that six Stage 4 classes will find their new home rooms welcoming them at the start of 2024. Stage 3 has already moved into the upstairs learning areas and will soon find themselves at home. This project, managed by our own staff, is a cost effective way of providing our students with flexible learning spaces that bring Year 7 and 8 (Stage 4) into close proximity to facilitate flexible learning groups under the supervision of a team of learning designers and learning assistants. The learning development team will also have access to spaces that will position them well to provide learning support as well as social emotional wellbeing support for our students in Stages 3 and 4.

We are very proud of the way we have found low cost solutions to ensuring our campus provides contemporary responses to the needs of our students. These responses are often the envy of other colleges around us. Stewarding our resources well is a priority for our team and this includes caring for our staff. Several years ago the Executive team set out to make the College a preferred employer among teachers and those working to support education. The quality candidates that respond to our recruitment are a clear demonstration of the excellent culture at Calvary. This is pleasing as we can offer good service to your children.

Calvary also ensures that all staff have opportunity for professional growth. This can lead to people leaving us. I am, however, always proud when Calvary has contributed positively to a person’s career development. Karel Nieuwoudt, our IT manager is one such staff member. Karel joined us on a contract in 2018 and has since completed university studies as well as holding the permanent position of IT Manager. It was Karel who led the projects providing the infrastructure we wanted for learning design, moving us to Office 365. The work accomplished in 2019 gave us the digital resources to move to online learning as agilely and successfully as we did when COVID struck. Karel has kept us ‘ahead of the game’ and we will miss him when he moves on to his next, even more challenging role.

Fiona Burnett, Head of Junior School on the Carbrook campus, has left us and is spending more time with her family. Fiona served Calvary faithfully from 2005 as a teacher and then from 2016 as Head of Junior School. We will miss Fiona’s energy and her commitment to growing the Carbrook Junior School community. You will still see Fiona around campus as a parent. We wish Fiona all the best in her future endeavours.

In Term 4, Zoe O Donnell has agreed to fill the role of Acting Head of Junior School and Carlee Johnston will step into Zoe’s role acting as Head of Student Wellbeing. Zoe and Carlee worked well in these roles in Term 2 while Fiona was on leave, and I am appreciative of their willingness to step in at short notice to see us through to the end of the year.

An exciting and busy Term lies ahead. I look forward to seeing many of you at our Awards Assemblies, Valedictory, Celebration events and our Carols event which will be held on our Springwood campus this year.

Yours sincerely

Cherylynne Gostelow