Welcome to the 2021 academic year. It is a privilege to welcome many new students and their families to our school this year and of course to see all our existing students back too. We are all glad to see the end of 2020 but we start optimistically but carefully into 2021 with COVID restrictions remaining fairly much as they were for Term 4, 2020.

Our HSC results saw us maintaining our results in line with the past year and I will put out a more detailed report on them shortly. Our top ATAR score was 97.1 and 4% of our students achieved a Band 6. The majority of our students were in the Band 4/5 range and we had the highest number of early entry offers to university we have ever had.

I will also be publishing a report on our School Improvement Plan for 2020 and presenting our Plan for 2021. Thank you to those who took part in the Flourishing Schools survey last term. The report on that is out and will be available on our website shortly. It has been helpful as we put together our School Improvement Plan for this year.

Our Secondary School Japanese teacher, Mr Charles Wheeler has left us for a new role and we are reviewing languages across the school this year. Thank you to Mrs Michelle Mitchell who will be taking the Year 10 Japanese class. There will be no Year 7 Japanese this year, as we plan for what to do in Year 8, 2022.

In Primary, we welcome Mr Chad Sneyd into Year 6. Chad worked as a casual in our Primary School last year and is a welcome addition to our team. Mrs Fay Davis is still recovering from knee replacement surgery and Mr Joseph Oldfield will be filling in for her for much of Term 1. He is well known to us as a casual teacher. We also farewelled Mr Matthew Cohen, our Director of Teacher Development, who has taken a more senior position in a school in Port Macquarie. We will be working to replace him during this year.

A new year is a great opportunity to make a fresh start and we are optimistic about the progress we can make at GPCC this year as we work together to ensure our children have the best opportunities to grow and be well equipped for life in all its fullness.

Phillip Nash

Principal