Dear Parents and Guardians

Welcome to Term 2. We would like to thank all our staff, students and community for their engagement and hard work in achieving the successes of Term 1. We look forward to further extending this work throughout Term 2 starting with our students resuming school on Tuesday 30 April.

As many visitors to the campus have noticed, our admin support officers/receptionists across the school have changed. We have sadly fare welled several staff and have welcomed new faces in the front offices of our ELC, Primary and Secondary school. We wish our exiting staff and our new staff every success for the future.

Term 2 is filled with many events including exams and NALPAN testing. We trust that our students will apply themselves and achieve results of which they can be proud. Please refer to the online calendar for details regarding various dates and activities.

http://calendar.ststephens.wa.edu.au/term.php

The School Education Act 1999 requires non-government schools in Western Australia to be registered. The Act makes various provisions for the regulation of schools’ operations and funding. In accordance with these standards St Stephen’s School regularly qualifies for a 5-year registration period. In June of this year the school will once again be going through the process of reregistration. One of the areas of importance is that of keeping children safe. Our school has adopted and will be using the Keeping Safe Child Protection Curriculum (Government of South Australia: Department of Education and Children’s Services) which covers two main themes: We all have a right to be safe, and We can help ourselves to be safe by talking to people we trust. The two themes are explored through four focus areas:

• The right to be safe
• Relationships
• Recognising and Reporting Abuse and
• Protective Strategies.

This child protection curriculum has both a broad and a narrow focus. While its specific aim is to help children and students from pre-school to senior secondary learn to recognise abuse and develop ways of protecting themselves from abuse, its wider focus covers rights, responsibilities, relationships and ethical behaviour. The curriculum’s effectiveness depends on the engagement of the whole school and community. This emphasis on keeping children safe together with codes of conduct for teachers, students and parents make up some of the documentation available for our community to operate well together and in appreciating our individual roles and responsibilities. Please keep an eye out for these documents and details regarding our behaviour and conduct towards our children and each other.

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” — Mother Teresa

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” — Helen Keller

We trust that you and your family will enjoy this term and that our students will realise and accomplish all their goals and dreams.

Regards

Dr Pretorius and Leadership Team