Transition Time

At the end of Week 2, the Year 12s celebrated the end of classes before they prepared for their exams and life after school. This day marks the beginning of the farewell process for the Year 12 students as they leave the safety and support structures of Westminster and venture into life after school. It is the end of a journey, which for some students began fourteen years ago. During that time, there have been many ups and downs, challenges, fun times and significant moments which have impacted on the decisions they have made and will continue to make into the future.

To see the emotions that were expressed during the last day it was clear that while the students are looking forward to the opportunities that lay ahead many were sad to leave Westminster. While the farewells will continue until the Valedictory Dinner, the Class of 2019 will always be welcome back to share their experiences.

Since the beginning of September I have been interviewing Year 6 and Year 7 students transitioning into the Senior School. Along with our new Head of Year 7, Jane Edwards and I have met most of the 2020 Year 7 students and I was pleased with the level of confidence and excitement most of the students displayed. This is an exciting time for Westminster as we welcome the Year 7 students in to the Senior School, and the staff have working particularly hard to ensure the students experience a challenging and exciting curriculum in an environment of care and support. Jane has been especially busy working of ensuring that it is a positive start of all students.

Since the beginning of this term our Head of Year 8, Kate Johns and I have been interviewing 2020 Year 8 students and their responses have been very similar to the Year 7s. Kate has been working hard to enhance the Year 8 program for 2020 and I am confident they will experience an exciting and rewarding year.

Reflections 2018

After a somewhat long haul to finalise, we expect to distribute the 2018 edition of our annual year book, Reflections, in the latter half of November, and we thank you for your patience in this matter. Generally, this is distributed through a family’s youngest child at the School if the family was also here in 2018. Families here last year but since left are also entitled to a collect a copy or have one posted to them if distance is an issue. More information will be sent to these families to outline these arrangements.

Parking and Traffic

Alison Avenue Stormwater Project

We have been working closely with the City of Marion’s Stormwater Project team to have Alison Avenue reopened whenever possible during morning drop off and afternoon pick up. We understand the inconvenience to anyone regularly in that section, but the City of Marion team is doing its best to accommodate the School’s traffic peaks. It may not be possible for the roadway to always be reopened at these times so please continue working with the prevailing detours/arrangements and how it might also affect bus movements around you. The Council team is now working across the intersection of Orkney and Alison Avenues to meet an end goal of early December. Again, we highlight that most of this section is a long school zone, which means speed should not exceed 25 km/hr when children are present. Many students are in this area before and after school so please note the signage to clearly define the school zone and speed limit.

ELC No Parking Zone

Thank you to our families for observing the ‘no parking’ zone between the ELC playground and rail line on the Gate 1 roadway. At the moment we are using cones as a temporary control measure but expect permanent signage and line marking to replace these later in the term. Thank you again for helping us to make this a safer zone for our young ELC and JP students.

David Wallage
Head of Senior School