Telopea Park School / Lycée Franco-Australien Principal’s Report for the P&C 6 September 2017

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed our new Proviseur into the school in week 3 of term, just after the last P&C meeting. M. David Binan has been getting to know the staff of the school. We are privileged that he has joined our team. We have also welcomed the new Conseillère Pédagogique, Myriam Rault, into the school, as well as four new French teachers. Anais Perez (year 5) and Floriane Michel (secondary Mathematics and Physics teacher) both arrived at the start of August; while Laurent Leguay (Humanities) and Maxence Baudry (year 4 French and year 6 mathematics teacher) began at the school on 1 September. Thank you to the P&C for the “welcome packs” that were generously awaiting the arrival of each teacher.

Student Enrolments At Census (week 3 of term) there were 1417 students in the school – 860 students in secondary and 557 students in primary. This can be compared with 1360 students at the same time last year (521 in primary and 839 in secondary). We are presently working on the enrolments for Kindergarten and Year 7 for 2018. There will be four kindergarten classes of 21 students each. Year 7 enrolments are on track to be as expected at around 200-220. As has been the case for the last few years, we are struggling with space in the secondary sector. The Education Directorate re-assessed the school capacity last semester and agreed to provide two more classrooms in the form of another portable building on the oval. Unfortunately a tree may need to be removed to accommodate this. This is a heritage decision and we await the answer. The new temporary building could be installed as early as next school holidays.

Binational Review As you know, the school underwent a Binational Review at the end of last term. We await the Binational Review Report which will inform the writing of the next Strategic Plan, 2018-2021. This plan will be written by the school’s executive team with support from the Board.

Primary Reports and Parent Teacher sessions Progress Reports (mid-semester) were sent home for primary students in their pochette last Thursday, 31st August. The primary sector parent/teacher sessions will take place next Tuesday 5 th September from 3.30 – 5.50pm and Monday 11th of September 3.30 – 5.50pm in the secondary library. Bookings will be online. Parents should have received instructions on Thursday 31 September on how to generate an online booking. If parents have not received this, please phone the primary front office on 6142 3380.

Secondary Reports and Parent Teacher sessions Progress Reports will be sent home in week 9 for secondary students. The secondary sector parent/teacher sessions are taking place on Tuesday, 19th September, from 4.00 to 6.30 pm and Wednesday, 20th September, from 4.00 – 6.00 pm. Bookings will be via the online booking system known as PTO. Details on how to log onto PTO will be provided with mid semester report. It is anticipated PTO will open on Wednesday 13th September and that Narrabundah College Careers and Transition Officers will be available during these times for year 10 students and/or their parents.

1 NAPLAN results for 2017 Individual student results were sent home with primary students (in their pochettes) in week 6. Secondary results were mailed home to families. Overall the school has achieved very well. We are now using these results to analyse the progress of individual students.

International Excursions this Term: Nouméa for Year 6 38 Year 6 students and 4 teachers returned from the 10-day visit to Nouméa on Friday 1 st September. From all accounts this was a valuable cultural experience which included billeting with host families from our sister school Collège Georges Baudoux. Students from the host school will return for billeting in Canberra next year.

Band Trip to France The Band trip to France involves over 65 students and 8 teachers and departs in week 10 this term. The band will play in famous locations and represent our school in Belgium, the UK and France. Community members may have heard the performance of members of the school Jazz Band on 666 ABC on the 24th August. This was a live performance played in the ABC studio. The band played two songs and Tim, Ralph, Emily and Rob Clements were interviewed on the upcoming European Band Tour and the band program. There will be a Farewell Concert held in the school hall on Mon 18 Sep – 5.30-7.30pm as a farewell and world premiere of the newly commissioned works. These were so generously supported by the P&C by engaging a composer to work with the school. The concert will raise money to donate to the Pozières School which is currently negotiating a binational agreement with Australia similar to the one that exists at Telopea.

World Challenge The senior student World Challenge group flies off to Cambodia and Vietnam in week 9 for a three-week stay. This group will hopefully provide significant support to local communities through the approach engineered by World Challenge. We wish them well.

Trips planned for 2018 Look out for the following overseas excursions planned for 2018.  French Exchange to Grenoble in term 1  German exchange with a school in Berlin  World Challenge to Zambia in term 3.

Request for Contributions from French Stream Families About 30% of Primary and French Stream parents have contributed.

Secondary Mathematics and Science e-Text Books/Learningfield The uptake on digital textbooks funded by parents is a slow process. As you know all secondary parents were requested to pay the annual cost of all Mathematics and Science textbooks this year. So far approximately 60% of secondary parents have paid for these resources.

The Future of Education – An ACT community conversation This was initiated and launched by the Minister for Education, Ms Yvette Berry.

2 Comments have been invited from the community. I have submitted a response from the senior executive team of the school. I encourage the P&C to do the same. Our focus was on the importance of language learning in general and bilingual learning in particular as well as the advantages that this gives children.

Occupational Violence Management Plan The Education Directorate (ED) has developed an Occupational Violence Management Plan in line with the ED’s Managing Occupational Violence Policy. The Director General, Ms Natalie Howson, is leading this initiative and has taken steps to reduce the amount of violence, both that teachers suffer in their workplace. National Book Week Celebration There was a wonderful celebration in the Francophone Hall on Thursday 24 August. All primary year groups joined the assembly and paraded in their delightful costumes. This supported the excellent displays in the primary library which focused on the nominated award-winning children’s books. Secondary students also mentored and coached primary school students by sharing the joy of reading with them. Thanks to the secondary students, classroom teachers and teacher librarians for bringing Book Week to life at Telopea Park School and encouraging reading. There are many ways to engage young people to value reading. Here is a list of books that have recently gained awards. These have been displayed in the library and may be worthy purchases for home libraries. Book of the Year: Younger Readers Rockhopping / Trace Balla Book of the Year: Early Childhood Go Home, Cheeky Animals! / Johanna Bell, Picture Book of the Year: Home in the Rain / Bob Graham Eve Pownall Award: Amazing Animals of Australia’s National Parks / Gina M Newton Crichton Award for Debut Illustrator: The patchwork Bike / Van T Rudd The secondary sector also celebrated Book Week with a Mufti day and ongoing library displays. Mufti day raised significant funds for the Kids Cancer Project. Congratulations to the many high school students who submitted their books in the Write a Book in a Day competition, finally finishing at 8 pm on the Friday night. Working in teams of 10, students wrote, illustrated and bound copies of their short novels for children with cancer in hospitals. Award winning books recently acknowledged for adolescent readers are on this website: https://cbca.org.au/winners- 2017. The Bilingual Book Fair is this week (week 8). It is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, and has books for all ages in English, French and the other languages that we teach at Telopea. Robocup Junior Competitions Congratulations to the student teams who competed in the regional Robocup Junior Competition held last weekend on Friday night and all-day Saturday. In the Search & Rescue competition, our year 10 team did very well. Our two year 7 teams used the day to practise on the Search & Rescue fields. Our year 7 girls competing in the Robot Dance Competition won 3rd place in the Regionals with their two costumed robots dancing in unison to the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’. A great effort!

Step into the Limelight Our year 3-6 choir and dance group excelled at Limelight in week 6. Students danced and sang songs in French and English and once again represented our school amazingly well.

Race against Hunger Thanks to the year 10 EFS group and teacher Christophe Navaux. The group raised over $8000 for the Race against Hunger charity. It is envisaged that the 2018 event will be even bigger. This was 3 an excellent opportunity for our students to realise that not all children in the world are as privileged as them.

A huge thank you to all teachers who support the many extra-curricular activities in the school. This is often achieved in their own time and is greatly valued.

SRC Trivia Night Congratulations for the successful running of a trivia night by the SRC on Thursday 24 August. Over 70 people participated in this successful event. It could be the start of things to come!

ACT Schools Bandfest Both the Year 7 Band and 8-10 Wind Ensemble performed on Tuesday 5 September. As usual they represent the school with passion and professionalism.

Report from Committees: We continue to invite parents and carers to sit on the many school committees. Master Plan Committee – the Design Working Group (DWG) The Landscape Architect, working with the DWG has almost completed the recommendations for the 10-year plan. We will share that with the community when it is sent to us. The P&C Grounds Sub-Committee was invited to the last meeting.

School Committees We still invite parents and carers to be part of the ongoing school committees. They include: Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Committee This committee meets in week 6 on Wednesday 3.30pm-4.30pm

Curriculum Committee This committee meets in week 5 on Wednesdays at 3.30pm.

Work Health and Safety Committee

The Gifted and Talented Committee was postponed this term. It is led by Robin Egerton and she will inform parents when it will be held.

Thank you to the parents who assist the school in so many ways. This is greatly appreciated. Happy and safe holidays to all our families at the end of this term. We return for term 4 on Monday 9 October.

Kerrie Blain 1 September 2017

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