“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.”
My family, as you may be aware, is preparing for the wedding of our eldest child. We could not be more blessed with our future son-in-law. It is still a deeply challenging place to be as we consider Amy leaving home and getting married to Joe. Reality can be difficult to deal with. Even though she has a Science Degree and a Masters Degree and is on the Dean’s Honour Roll and a Golden Key Member, Amy is still one of my children. It amazes me how our children are so central to us and how we think.
Children. They unite us as a school and are our heartfelt reason to get out of bed in the morning. Teachers, admin, aides, groundsmen, parents, grandparents, guardians, bus drivers and others - we all want the best for the children in our care.
Best practice changes - it needs to. What was necessary for children ten years ago was different from twenty years ago. It is different now - more than ever!
SEQTA Engage and SEQTA Learn are online tools that some of you are using to connect with the work and pastoral care of ‘our’ children. SEQTA Engage is the parent portal and Learn is the student portal.
You may notice initially that there are some gaps around what teachers have / haven’t included. Please be assured that in the future, as we gain momentum with this platform, more content will be added as we aim to rely on this system more. Teachers will put class work, homework and results in SEQTA Teach, which then becomes available to parents and students. Comments on the students’ work by staff and the students themselves are available as soon as they are released.
Our aim is to move to a continuous reporting system using SEQTA Engage. Our goal, which may even come to pass next year, will be to stop the twice yearly school reports and only release a summary report with results. Why? Because, as with the change I started talking about, parents and students will always know where their progress is at and how they can improve. There will be no need to wait until the School Reports. Everything will be online and as up-to-date as possible.
Parents will be able to deal with issues and concerns, celebrations and highlights, not in half-yearly packages, but as soon as they come up.
Parents can obtain their login for SEQTA Engage from the office by calling the school or emailing us. It is wonderful to be able to go on this journey into a new level of communication together.
Scott Winkler - Principal