Acting Dean of Waterford | Mr Luke Gribble

The start of Term 2 has been a very busy time at Waterford Place, both in and out of the classroom.

At the end of Week 1, the boys listened to a presentation by Paul Dillon from DARTA (Drug and Alcohol Research and Training). Paul is highly regarding in this area of education and has a long association with Terrace contributing to the boys' Formation program in Years 10, 11 and 12. We hope that the information provided helps our young men make educated decisions and keeps them safe. Please ask your son what he took away from the DARTA presentation.

Last Wednesday, all Year 10 students sat the Allwell ‘Benchmark’ testing. This testing provides very useful information allowing the Studies Office to track our students’ academic performance and potential as individuals and a collective. Coupled with the NAPLAN data already collected, this information is very useful in our Academic Mentoring program. Robert Allwell’s team administers this testing program in many schools across the country. During the test, Robert commented to me that we are very fortunate with the level of engagement consistently shown by the students at Terrace. The current group of Year 10s definitely maintained this high standard, and I proudly passed on this wonderful compliment to the boys.

Thank you for your attendance at the Immersion presentation evening last week. As I listened to the presentations, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the exciting range of Immersion opportunities available to the boys. We are very fortunate at Terrace that staff are prepared to literally go the extra mile with your son and the Immersion program is evidence of this. We are now working hard at trying to accommodate the 244 selection preferences and negotiating with our external providers.

Thank you to staff and parents for gathering at the recent two rounds of Parent/Student/Teacher meetings. The partnership between school and home is vital in guiding and supporting your son. As always, please continue to stay in touch with your son’s teacher if concerns arise. This next period is an important time for your son to be working hard on his assignments.

The Waterford community is looking forward to welcoming many of our mothers for breakfast on Friday morning. I certainly hope that all the mums in our community have an enjoyable day on Sunday.