1 to 1 laptop update including Webinar tonight

We have our Family Zone webinar this evening at 7:30pm as per the details sent home to all students in Years 7-12.  There will be many opportunities to ask questions and also get to know more about the package.  It is critical for parents to note that this is a complete cybersafety community package that the school is providing for our College at considerable cost, and your engagement can be nothing but advantageous to your child’s safety when living in a digital world.  As the 1-1 laptops rollout it is also critical to note that to manage student hotspotting and avoiding the College firewall when at College (again, developing responsible users of technology), students who choose to bring their mobile phones to school must have the Mobile Zone app installed.  By doing so, we can allow students to use both their laptops and mobile phones in a manner that is safe, responsible, and without inappropriate content and opportunities for cyberbullying to occur. We are still awaiting our cases and skins for the new devices, though will be sending home the required agreements and documentation tomorrow afternoon.

As communicated with students last week, to collect the laptops the student must bring a case with them, or purchase one of the cases available from the office.  Cases are $35 each (retail $70) and are very good.  If you would prefer to supply your own they must be strong (not just a felt slip) and include space for a charger to be carried. Please also note that no payment is required for the laptop as the levy will be applied to all Year 7-12 students’ fees at $65 per term.  Obviously the case will be an additional to this and may be paid upfront or also added to the invoice for Term 1. Please note that further information regarding laptop collection will be forthcoming via email early next week.  If you did not receive an email regarding the Family Zone seminar this evening, please use the parent portal to correct your contact details. 

Want to get involved?

Our College has many opportunities for parents to get involved and engaged in both their child’s education, and the College itself.  In the past few weeks I have had many enquiries as to how parents can support the College by being involved and we are all very keen to have as much involvement as possible. Below is a list of some ways you can get involved and who the best contact person is for you.  Of course, to contribute to the general College such as volunteering time to working bees or through your area of expertise, you can always let the front office staff know how you are able to help out and we will keep a register.  Obviously, we also have the P&F who will communicate whenever they are intending on hosting an event, function or working bee. We would love to engage more with our community this year and welcome all offers of support to the College.

Student numbers

We start our year with 554 students at OLSCC, with 3 more enrolment enquiries this week.  This is extremely close to our predicted enrolment of 555, and as such do not anticipate any shifts in staffing after the day 8 deadline, which is always a great relief.  Currently we have 216 students in the Early Years, 201 students in the Middle Years and 137 students in the Senior Years.  As we continue through the year I encourage you to read our newlsetters (on Schoolzine, website, SZapp or facebook), share our facebook posts and share with your friends all the things that make our College great. In doing so we can continue to build our College to sustainable enrolment numbers that will ensure subject viability and stable staffing structures across all year levels.  It is our College goal to build towards and stabilise at 700 students over the next 5 years to make the teaching, learning and business operations of the College function optimally.

Swimming Carnival

The 9-12 Years Swimming Carnival was an absolute blast with the highlight being the Belly Flop and Bomb Dive events!  What a great bunch and well done to all who participated, especially those that gave their best effort and those that excelled!

Peter Cuskelly

Principal