Dear parents, friends and students,

Student Voice
As part of our Annual Improvement Plan this year, we are seeking feedback from students to understand their experiences of the College with a view to our culture, our vision and ways to improve the educational journey and involvement of all students at Woodcrest. Over the course of this term and next we are undertaking sessions with students to hear their perspectives around the following questions.

1. What does our vision of ‘Inspiring Students’ mean to you?
2. What makes Woodcrest a great place to be at? What do you like about the college and what do we need to keep doing?
3. What are we not doing well? What are the things that we need to stop doing or need to improve upon?
4. Does our college have a ‘culture? How would you describe the culture of Woodcrest?

Recently along with the Director of College and Senior Deputy Principal I met with Secondary School Student Leadership Team to put these questions. The students in the meeting were from Year 9 and Year 12 and they gave a variety of answers during an animated discussion in which they relished the opportunity to give us feedback. Later in the day I met with the Primary School Student Leadership Team and asked the same questions. All of the students were keen to have their opinions heard and whilst across both sectors here were many similarities, as expected there were some significant differences as well. I will meet with further groups of students in the coming weeks to give us a broad representation of student views before unpacking the responses with members of the executive for consideration.

Communication
We are currently looking into alternative ways to communicate with our college community. Our data indicates around 11% of people who receive the newsletter actually open it meaning that the current way of delivering this information is not effective. As the year progresses we will continue to  work through what the best way is to get our college news to the community in a way that is convenient for you and simpler to navigate.

Federal election
By the time you are reading this, you’ve most likely already voted in the federal election. As educators we closely follow the policies regarding education at both state and federal level as they directly affect government schools. Currently primary students in Queensland are funded at 89.6% of the Schooling Resource Standard which is the minimum recommended amount that David Gonski identified to be funded per student so that schools could meet their educational needs. That is a deficit of $1259 for every student in our primary school and under the current arrangements Queensland public schools will not reach 100% of the standard until 2032. As principals we continue to lobby both sides of government for a better deal for students along with advocating for equal funding for both primary and secondary students. Currently, secondary students are funded at additional $3105 per student more than primary students. Equal funding for primary students would see an addition of over 2 million dollars into resourcing at Woodcrest alone

Jeff Jones
Executive Principal

Student Attendance
Our college student attendance goal for 2022 is 92%. Our attendance for Term 1 in primary was 90.9%. We know that Term 1 was a very disrupted term with lots going on, but because of that, it is even more important to ensure students are at school every day this term and on time ready for the start of the school day at 8:50am. Student attendance has a direct impact on student achievement.

Attendance less than 90% is regarded as chronic absenteeism and makes gaining student achievement of C or better so much harder to achieve. Please support your child’s education by getting them to school every day possible.

Well done Prep with an attendance of 94% and Year 2 for meeting the 92% goal, keep it up. All other grades, I’m sure can do better.

NAPLAN 2022
NAPLAN has finished for another year. I would like to thank all the students in Year 3 and 5 for doing their best and for showing a high level of engagement and persistence while completing the four test sessions. The online smart tests that adapt the level of difficulty according to how students are performing throughout the test certainly gives a more accurate measure of student ability and students enjoy the interactive nature of the questions in digital form. Results will be provided to parents in the coming months.

Family Email Contact Details
Parents/Carers are reminded to update their email contacts. Each time we send group emails, like year level family emails, we receive a number of messages saying the message could not be delivered as the email does not exist. It is essential that we are able to send emails to every family to relay important information and keep families informed. If you have not received group emails from Woodcrest recently, you may need to check your details are current. A group email will usual start “Dear Parents/Carers”.

Shop for Schools Competition
In the month of June, Orion Springfield Central is running a school competition where families can upload photos of receipts via an instore QR code to gain points for their nominated school. Each dollar spent will earn 1 point for Woodcrest and there are double points on Mondays and Tuesdays. There will be weekly prizes and major prizes of $5000, $3000 and $2000 for the top three, point scoring schools. Families go into a weekly draw for a $100 voucher. The more receipts you upload the greater your chances of winning and the more points you gain for Woodcrest. Happy shopping.

Battery Rescue National Challenge
On Wednesday assembly, representatives from Stockland presented our $2000 prize and certificate for winning the 2021 Battery Rescue National School Challenge. Thank you to everyone who sent in batteries to help stop these going into landfill. Our community collected over 1 tonne of batteries last year. Keep sending in batteries so we can win this competition again in 2022. All types of batteries are accepted including vehicle batteries.

Regards, 
Peter Lund
Principal of Primary