Acting Principal’s Message | Mr Chris Ryan

Dear Terrace Family,

Earlier this week, it was my pleasure to announce the College Captains for 2019:

College Captain
  • Oliver Seawright
College Vice Captains
  • Thomas Burns
  • James Hurst
  • Angus White
  • Thomas Woodrow

We congratulate these fine Terracians on their appointments and pray for them as they prepare for the exciting responsibility of leading their cohort and wider College student community in 2019. In doing this, I wish to sincerely congratulate the other fine Terracians who were nominated by their peers and short listed for these positions. I said to them all at interview that we are blessed at Terrace in that we could appoint 10 College Captains and each would be outstanding at the role in their own way. It is a credit to each individual and to their families for the way in which these young men engaged in the challenging process of selection. It is a genuine privilege to listen to them speak with such pride and passion for their school and our mission.

Further, last week I also had the pleasure of meeting with Declan Madden and Nikolai Wightman to offer them the positions of Captain and Vice Captain of our GPS Athletics Team for the upcoming championships. I was particularly pleased to hear from the coaching staff about the standards of example these young men have set for younger students and team mates. I congratulate them on your behalf and wish all of our athletes well.

Congratulations to the Year 11 students and their partners for a most enjoyable evening on Monday at the Semi Formal. We were very proud of the way in which all enjoyed themselves and presented. Thank you to Mrs Jo Tarlington and all staff in attendance for their assistance with the organisation and supervision.

As I wrote last week, Conor Tweedy aimed to attend this function and delightfully did just that and had a great time, and it was his birthday! Further, Conor has attended classes for the first time one day this week. This was successful and will be reviewed so that further goals can be set and attained. This is an important time as Conor, his parents, education advisors and the College learn how best to support his wheelchair access to school so that he is as comfortable and confident as possible to focus on enjoying his learning and friends.

On behalf of all staff, I would like to wish our Problem Solving Teams the best of luck for this weekend.  Three teams across Years 6, 7 and 9 are travelling to Melbourne this Friday for the National finals of this event.  Our congratulations and best wishes to Tasman Bunkum, Benjamin Chatwood, Reuben Dooley, Conor Farrell, Daniel Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Gamboa, Joseph Lee, Matthew Mitchell, Elliot Quinn, William Rehbein, Alex Richards, Benjamin Savage, Hugo Smith.

Dr Carroll has gone home from hospital and has commenced his rehabilitation program in earnest after partial knee replacement surgery last Thursday. When I visited him in hospital over the weekend, he was certainly very sore but positive and looking forward to getting home and working on his recovery. Dr Carroll has set himself the goal of looking to be present for our Celebration of Excellence on Friday 2 November. We wish him well.

I have been pleased with the settled tone around the College. It is very important in Term 4 that we move into routine and work quickly and I ask parents to continue to support this. The reports that were released last Friday are an opportunity for reflective conversation and the setting of targeted goals and strategies for this term. Tutor Group leaders will be meeting with your sons to review these reports. Year 12 students will have mentoring meetings with members of the College Leadership Team and Year 11 students will meet with their House Dean. It is very important that students don’t ‘take the foot off the pedal’ in Term 4; especially our Year 12 students. The CLT met with the Year 12s on Tuesday and Mrs Quinn updated them on their academic progress, which is pleasing. There is still plenty of room for improvement if we work hard together. We are confident that this will be the case.

As we come to the close of Week 2, we are a quarter of the way through our teaching time this Term for most year levels and almost half way for our Year 12s; it is a busy time and I wish everyone the best for the week ahead.

A reminder of our Morning Tea at Tennyson on 10 November to farewell Mrs Julie Quinn and our upcoming Celebration of Excellence Evening on Friday 2 November.

God Bless

Mr Chris Ryan
Acting College Principal