Issue 8 2023 - Principal
Principal
Rebecca Kirkwood
Welcome to the final newsletter of the year!
Firstly, it would be remiss of me to not mention our Annual Awards Ceremony. I think all of those four hundred and fifty people in attendance would agree it was a fantastic day. This day is always such a great opportunity to celebrate success. What makes it even more special is that the format of the day allows the College, families, community and industry to come together to celebrate that success. Of course, living in Denmark, we know it’s always helpful if the weather is good, and it was nice to see the sun play its part also! Thank you everyone for your continued support.
Our College is a strong educational institution built on the back of tradition and this has placed us in good stead for a long time - eighty years in fact. It’s also important that we reflect on practices of the past and continually look for improvement opportunities. We saw this reflection process play out positively this term with the introduction of an orientation experience fo new students in Term 4. All new students, both day and residential, were invited for one night to experience a little taste of the College. They were introduced to us and we were introduced to them. To say it was a success, would be an understatement. We have received considerable positive feedback which will see this experience permanently feature on the calendar. A huge thanks must go to the 2024 Student Prefect team and the residential staff who led a major component of this experience.
I recently wrote to all families, both current and incoming, highlighting key dates for 2024. Most importantly, information was shared that we will begin the year with a staggered student introduction. Once again, this modification has been made to enhance the orientation experience for new students but also be least impactful on the current students. If you have not received this communication, please contact our school administration team to make sure you are on our emailing list. Last week saw the release of our much anticipated website. This has been the result of about six months work, led by our very own Alexis Steyn. Alexis works in our front office and has many talents, one of which is graphic design. Many schools incur great expenses engaging third parties to build and update their webpages; we were able to avoid that by using Alexis’s skills. We have received a lot of positive feedback already and I think you will all agree, it is great to have an updated online presence that reflects the contemporary organisation that we know we are. If you haven’t looked at our website yet, please do!
Finally, I would like to wish all of our families a safe and wonderful Christmas. We are having Christmas at home this year, with all four adult children promised to return to Denmark for the holiday period, so we are looking forward to having a full house again. I hope that you also get an opportunity to spend quality time with family and experience some joy this festive season.
Please find a letter to all parents from the Minister regarding vaping below.
Rebecca Kirkwood
Principal
WACOA - Denmark