Newsletters

Domenic Camera
Principal
Australind SHS

Welcome to Australind Senior High School 2019.

As we commence this new and exciting school year I would like to acknowledge our staff in delivering exceptional 2018 Year 12 results that placed the school in the Top 50 School Rankings. Our success in the ATAR (university entry) Pathway has been exceptionally pleasing with English and Chemistry finishing in the top performing school courses across the State. Our ATAR Dux Geoffrey Saunders topped the cohort with an ATAR score of 99.05. Another twelve students also turned in scores above 90, with 3 students only just falling short of 99 by the smallest of margins with 98+ scores, with an overall cohort Median ATAR of 82.1. Those applying for university places in 2019 having achieved a Median ATAR of 84.4, with 60% gaining an ATAR of 80 or higher. Of our students applying for university entrance, students were offered a placement with 85% being offered their first preference, this same statistic for all schools across the State was only 68%. The opportunities available to our students continue to be outstanding.

Our Vocational Pathways results have also been pleasing and continue to support student aspirations.  Our reported performance was not accurate due to issues associated with external RTO’s and the strict cut off dates for submission of data to SCSA.  Our WACE achievement/Attainment data result was 90%+ which continues to be outstanding.

On balance, the school continues to cater individually for all students in our attempt to support students in their journey towards post school destinations.

This year our projected enrolment is pushing towards 1500 students with further growth forecast. Our Year 7 enrolment continues to grow and sits at around 300 students.  This follows the trend in our local primary schools. As a result, we have had to closely consider our enrolment processes to ensure that we continue to have the capacity to enrol local students. In support of this growth, the school has now moved to a 6 period day so that we can provide greater access to our specialist facilities in areas such as The Arts, Technologies, and other resources where we have felt the pressure related to our growth.

We wish all of our students and staff a great year ahead and it is my pleasure to introduce a number of new staff to Australind SHS that will be working with our students; Rhett Bennetts (Health and Physical Education), Hayden Brown (Humanities and Social Sciences), Vanessa Bowden (Mathematics), Mary Dunn (English), Rebecca Drury (Performing Arts), Samantha Ellis (English), Nathen Kubler (Science), Luke Philip (Music) Alex Marinelli (Mathematics and Information Technology), Josh Nimmo (Health and Physical Education), Narelle Alstad (Health and Physical Education), Abigail Stephenson (Mathematics), Abigail Stephenson (Mathematics), Billie-Gay Thomas (Humanities and Social Sciences), Gerald Thomas (Technologies), Chloe Wiggers (English), Kelly Summers (Deputy Principals and HoLA The Arts),  Kathleen Fenton (School Nurse Tuesday and Wednesday), Penny Gaskell (Education Assistant), Brodie Hopper (Education Assistant AUSLAN), Carol MacLean (Education Assistant), Laura Nieuwpoort (Education Assistant) and Ashe Warrick (Student Support Officer).

Staff returning from leave include Michelle Aslett, Samantha Ellis and Steve Howell.

Australind SHS staff and students wish to congratulate our Year 12 student executive leadership team for as they are important advocates for the student body. With the support of Mr Paul Renfree and Ms Abbie Walton, these students will continue to work closely with the School Executive Team and the School Board to continue to create student drive opportunities.

The 2019 Student Executive include: Mya Brown, Byron Burton, Sophie Clifton, Fletcher Cornish – Vice Captain, Chris Lawler, Lauren Quaife – Vice Captain, Jack Stubbs, Danielle Suckling – School Captain

The growth of Student leadership across the school is very important to us, and this year this group will function in different structure as a Leadership Triad that includes a School Captain, along with two Vice-Captains. We look forward to the wonderful opportunities that might be created as we work closely with our students.

This year we continue to encourage students in all year groups to consider Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to school and this can be Android, Windows, Mac or any IOS machine that meets minimum specification (a mobile phone is not a suitable device).  Our BYOD program software will be based on Microsoft Office 365 Software as is available on all platforms and access is free for all students. Students will store their work in One drive as students now have access now to 100gb of data that they can access from home and school. Every student prints via web print in ‘Papercut’, available on any device.

An events not to miss is the Year 7 Student and Parent Welcome BBQ on the Front Lawn after school to be held on Wednesday 13^th February.

Enjoy the year ahead and please continue to communicate with us as openly as possible because our partnership with parents/caregivers is an essential link supporting the success of our students.

Yours sincerely,

Domenic Camera

PRINCIPAL