Over the last six weeks Louise Rose has been acting principal while I have worked in a principal leadership role supporting principals and leadership teams in school improvement across the north of the state.  This has certainly been a wonderful opportunity for me however I am happy to be back at Brooks.  Working with other schools has confirmed to me the great work we are doing at Brooks High School.

One of our key focuses has been our team work.   At Brooks all teachers work in Professional Learning Teams and time is built into our week so teachers can do this work.  This work is recognised across the world as the best way to improve student learning.  During meetings student learning remains at the centre of our thinking and teachers work to answer the following questions:

• What do we want each student to learn?
• How will we know when each student has learnt this?
• How will we respond when a student is having difficulties with this learning?

We constantly reflect on our teaching and students learning and we look for ways to reteach the curriculum when students have not yet been successful in reaching our expected standard.

Two weeks ago Louise Rose and I attended an international summit in Melbourne which focussed on this work and involved highly recognised international speakers.  Last Thursday and Friday Louise Rose, Cilla Keenan and I attended a conference in Hobart titled Together we Inspire.   These opportunities confirmed that we are well along the right road and they bought some clarity to our planning into 2020. 

I would like to thank some of our leaving staff.   Lauren Cooper will commence maternity leave.  We wish her well during this exciting time.   Liz Mackey has been our school nurse over the last 4 years.  She has accepted a promotion and will be replaced in her nurse role at Brooks by her husband David. We congratulate Liz on this well-deserved promotion and warmly welcome David to Brooks.  I also welcome back Kyla Milner, our School Psychologist, after a year of maternity leave.  Finally I thank Lily Deeth, her replacement School Psychologist for all her work over this time.

I wish all our students, staff and families a restful holiday and I look forward to the excitement that happens in Term 4.

Louise Fisher

Principal