From the Head of Middle School

Congratulations Robert House on a great win at our Inter-House Athletics Carnival last week.  Congratulations also to Seamus Walton (Year 8) who goes into next year's Athletics Day programme as the reigning Year 8 Shot Put record holder.  After school Athletics training is now in full swing for our Inter-School Quads meet this Friday followed by the JPSSA and PSA Inters in Week 7.

The College Calendar increases in importance as we move toward the end of this term and for Senior School the end of their academic year.  Key events for Middle School families to be aware of are appended below under the Important Dates section.  The full calendar with all events across the College for the entire year can be found in SEQTA Engage by clicking on the Calendar icon.

The big event of this week is the Middle Years (8-10) Drama Production Oliver Twist that takes to the Dickinson Centre stage on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.  I encourage everyone to come and support the efforts of the cast and crew and encourage boys who have thought about being in a production but have not as yet, to come, see and feel the experience of taking a risk and having a go, on stage.

Next term, Spring Term, the Senior and Middle School timetables move from a 5 period day to a 6 period per day structure; 6 x 50 minute lessons per day, plus our daily Guided Literacy session.  The rationale for this is to increase the frequency of teaching sessions per fortnightly cycle.  There is no change to the start and finish time each day, however there is a slight shift in the scheduling of recess and lunchtime.  Over the school holidays your son's timetable will change to reflect the 6 period day and will in all probability have different subjects on different days when compared with this term.

Last Friday we had Mr George Svirac, Senior Transit Officer with Transperth talk to our boys about being safe on trains, safety around train station platforms, expectations of students on board trains and fare evasion.  It was a valuable talk with the overarching message that the Transit Officer's primary role to help make train travel safe.  An interesting conversation you could have with your son might be to ask him whether he now knows when and how to activate the Emergency Call button at the train station or on the train and what happens if he does.

Mr Richard Ledger
Head of Middle School