I would like to welcome everyone to the 2025 school year, especially our 129 new Year 7 students. We also have a number of new students in Years 8-10 over the last few weeks.

We have had a great start to the year, with students already fully engaged in their learning. Our vision “Inspire Today, to Empower Tomorrow,” gives us a strong direction and focuses on ensuring we give our students the important skills that require them to be successful in today’s workforce. Our Motto, Realising Potential, highlights that active participation in school or community life has a significant positive impact on a person’s wellbeing. We encourage students to keep making the most of their opportunities at school. 

It is important that our whole school community aligns their actions towards our values. The values highlight the behaviours we expect to see from students, staff and our community. We keep each other accountable to these values and understand that our work in this area has helped us build a strong culture, based on high expectations.

The focus value for this term is ‘Best Effort.’ Please talk with your child about the different ways they can display this value in different aspects of their daily life.

Whole School BBQ Meet and Greet

It was great to have so many families attend our meet and greet afternoon this week and take the opportunity to connect with the school and your children’s teaching team. We hope to continue to see families engage with school in a range of ways. Whilst we didn’t keep a tally of exact numbers in attendance, 400 sausages being eaten is either an indication of great numbers or hungry families!

Pump Track

We are so fortunate to have our own Pump Track that students can utilise as part of our HPE program, before school and at lunch time. The Pump Track is supervised by a duty teacher before school from 8:15am-8:30am each day and at every lunch break from 12:30pm-1:00pm. Students are not supervised when riding the Pump Track before 8:15am or outside of school hours.  

2025 Staffing

Below is a list of our leadership team and principal teachers.

2025 Leadership Team

Principal – Mr Tom Murray

Assistant Principal – Mr Daniel Franks (Senior School)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Fiona Heazlewood (Junior School)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Danika Hess (Hillcrest Recovery/PLT Quality Assurance)

Assistant Principal – Mrs Sarah Elliott (PLT Quality Assurance/Year 10 English PLT)

Instructional Specialist – Mrs Tara Nathan

Year 7 AST – Miss Casey Frimley

Year 8 AST – Mrs Lucy Withers

Year 9 AST – Mrs Caitlin Baxter

Year 10 AST – Mrs Sarah Elliott

11/12 AST – Miss Amber Loone

Year 9 Maths PLT – Mrs Alex Stubbs

HPE Team Leader – Mrs Kaylah Rataj

RP Team Leader – Miss Meg Lutwyche

Student Support Teacher – Mr Andrew McDougall

School Business Manager – Mr Max Brown

2025 Principal Teachers

7A Miss Frimley

7B Mrs Chynoweth

7C Mrs Rabe

7D Mr Schmidt

7E Mrs Dalle-Nogare

7F Mrs Cooper

8A Mrs Withers/Miss Jago

8B Miss Mack

8C Mr Yeates

8D Miss O’Halloran

8E Miss Reeves

9A Mrs Baxter/Mr Eeles

9B Mrs Bellchambers

9C Mrs Allen

9D Mrs Stubbs

9E Mr Viney

10A Mrs Elliott/Mrs Smith/Miss Hooper

10B Mr Connors

10C Mr Crabtree

10D Mr Robinson

10E Mr McClymont

2025 Prefects

During the second half of last year, our current Year 10s worked through a leadership process to nominate for Prefect in 2025. These students stepped out of their comfort zone and put themselves through an application, speech and voting process. I would like to thank all students for embracing this opportunity and giving it their “Best Effort”. Below are the elected prefects for 2025.

Our prefects are:

Head Prefects 2025

This week we held our Head Prefects process for 2025. All prefects were invited to share a speech with the Prefect Board outlining their suitability for Head Prefect. Applicants then had to sit an interview with Mr Murray, Mr Franks and Mrs Heazlewood. The Board voted on the most suitable applicants and I am pleased to announce Erin and Gabriella as the 2025 Head Prefects of Reece High School.

NAPLAN 2025

Students will be sitting NAPLAN between 12 and 24 March 2025. The National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are already learning at school. On its own, NAPLAN is not a test that can be studied for, and students are not expected to do so.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process – it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance; however, students and parents may use individual results to discuss progress with teachers.

Why NAPLAN is conducted online?

NAPLAN online provides a better assessment and more precise results.

One of the main benefits of NAPLAN online is that it uses tailored (or adaptive) testing. This means that students receive questions better suited to their abilities, so they can show what they know and can do.

Online testing also allows us to provide a wide range of accessibility options to support students with disability to access NAPLAN.

Feedback from students is that they find the online test more engaging.

Parent information brochures and other resources

Your questions answered on NAPLAN and what it means for your child: NAPLAN information brochure for parents and carers

The link will take you to the official National Assessment Program (NAP) website.

Resources (nap.edu.au) Please contact the school if you have any further queries.

Harding Miller Education Foundation

Earlier this term, Aloka, Laura and Heidi received their brand new laptops as part of their Harding Miller Education Scholarships. The Harding Miller Education Foundation Scholarship Program provides practical support to lift the educational and career aspirations of high-potential Australian girls. New scholarships are valued at approximately $20,000 over four years. Scholarships are provided as a ‘toolkit’ that students can use to support their pursuit of academic excellence.

School Association Annual General Meeting

The School Association Committee AGM will be held on Wednesday 12^th March at 5.30pm. We have vacancies for parents on this committee. If you would like to get involved, please see the associated form in this week's newsletter or collect a nomination form from the main office and submit it to the returning officer by Tuesday, 11^th March.