Dear Friends,

Welcome back to school. It is always a wonderful experience for school staff to notice the maturing of students that takes place over the midyear break. Especially our youngest students. I am sure some have grown inches taller over the break!

We celebrated NAIDOC this week with learnings and activities taking place both inside and outside of the classroom. What a privilege to be an Australian at a time when finally, the richness, wisdom, talent and achievement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are acknowledged with shared national pride. This week on assembly I shared with the students my experience living and teaching in the Torres Strait with my husband and sons in the late 1990s. I will never forget that emotional flight home to Brisbane over the aqua Arafura Sea and the bright red earth of Cape York. It was 2000 and the rest of Australia was well and truly preparing for the Sydney Olympics. Christine Anu’s version of My Island Home was playing on the aeroplane. Every line in that song is evocative of the seafaring cultures of northern Australia. What a privilege to have learned from our Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal families and friends. We still yearn for the people and place.

Over the past few years, the leadership team and teachers guided by Liz Kemp our Head of Curriculum English and Mathematics have targeted school resources and professional learning to the explicit instruction of reading and writing. This has been a work of ‘staying the course’.  We are now seeing the results of consistency and schoolwide instructional practices. This Year’s NAPLAN results are cause for celebration and affirmation of the difference YSS and its teachers are making. The upward trend in our results in those areas of whole school focus is affirming. Student reports are expected to arrive over the next week.

Thankyou to all those families and PandC members who spoke with the School Reviewers during the School Review. The Summary Report will be uploaded to the school website for your interest. The Executive Summary Report outlines the key affirmations from the review and key improvement strategies to be incorporated into our 2025-2028 School Strategic Plan.

Have a wonderful week.

Eunice