Welcome to Autumn Term in Middle School
Dear Parents
Our new Middle School Building remains on schedule to be finished before the end of this calendar year and therefore allows for the greater possibility for this year's Year 6 and 7 boys to 'move in' and experience the new rooms. Whilst there is still a long way to go before that point it is exciting to think that the boys who have watched the building grow will get the chance to use it first.
NAPLAN commences for Year 3, 5, 7, 9 students across the country this week. Year 7 boys will sit five tests that allow teachers, schools, school systems, states and national education authorities comparable data on where our students are academically and offer strategic direction at all of those levels for improvement.
As our first set of Winter fixtures conclude it is useful to remind parents of the Parent Supporter Groups that work behind most of the activity that unfolds at Scotch. Four parent support groups that offer behind the scenes strength to our Winter sport program are:
- SOFAS: Supports of Football at Scotch
- Hockey Supporters Group
- Soccer Supporters Group
- Rugby Supporters Group
Year 7 representatives will contact you about how you can become involved throughout the season. Your involvement in these groups whether it be on game day or behind the scenes organisation is vital in creating the atmosphere and environment that boys enjoy while participating in their sport.
E Diaries
As we live in an increasingly electronically connected world with information being pushed and pulled from multiple sources, the Student E Diary is one mechanism that is helping us groove habits for our boys to work comfortably in this environment. The Student E Diary is an initiative being trialled in Middle School this year with the aim of developing different aspects before it is rolled out in other areas of the school. One aspect we are seeking to amend is the ability for parents to see the information the boys enter into their diary, particularly around the homework field. We are working on making that feature available this semester.
A second feature we are keen to streamline is the communication between home and school, or parent and teacher. We have some confusion between email and Direct Messaging mechanisms with the result that teachers are inundated throughout the day and evening with messages from both sources. The following is how we would like to proceed from here in relation to contacting a teacher for information:
Direct Messaging: Please consider this feature as it was in the normal paper diary. Teachers typically set aside a period at the end of the week to review a boys diary, comment on its usage or underscore a reminder of task. Parents typically acknowledged the student's diary usage and activities or asked a question or passed on information in this forum on a weekly basis.
Email: For information required to be communicated or sent on a daily basis please use the email system. Typically teachers will check their emails before school and intermittently until 5.15pm each school day. Any information regarding student absence or urgent messages should also be sent to middleschool@scotch.wa.edu.au
Co Curricular Clubs
Please click on the link to see this term's Co Curricular schedule
Richard Ledger
Head of Middle School
