Principal’s Message | Dr Michael Carroll

Dear Members of the Terrace Family,

I offer my congratulations to all those involved in the preparation and hosting of the Celebration of Excellence evening. It was a spectacular night and was an excellent reflection of the diverse talents and expertise that exists within the Terrace Family. It was very much a team effort and I thank and congratulate all those young men who received prizes on the evening. Well done.

Our Year 12 students have entered another phase of their journey. Their House Breakfast and final classes were held on Tuesday and now they are into their final set of exams at Terrace. The journey culminates next Friday with the Farewell Assembly, Graduation Mass and Graduation Dinner. I will say more about our Year 12 students in next week’s edition of the Terrace News. However, I do wish to congratulate them and look forward to sharing their final days with them.

Last Saturday, the final GPS event for 2019 took place with the GPS Track and Field Championships. I congratulate our athletes and coaches for their hard work throughout the season. It is a high-quality competition and I am proud of the efforts of our athletes.  They finished eighth and are looking forward to bettering that in 2020. There were 26 personal bests achieved by our athletes on the weekend. Although a busy time of the year, I have to say that I was disappointed with our supporter numbers on Saturday. It is something that we need to address moving forward.

Competing at state or national level in any competition is an impressive feat, and last weekend a group of Terrace Gentlemen took part in the First Technology Challenge (FTC) State Final. This competition is a mix of engineering, programming, mathematics and science, and involves the construction and use of robots. The boys overcame a major early hurdle before finishing in second place overall. Congratulations to Chris Good, Patrick Gleeson, Matthew Cho, Jacob Lawrence, Paul Clarke and Eden Chan. They have now qualified to compete at national level. I would also like to congratulate and thank their dedicated mentor, Mr Peter Whitehouse, for his efforts in getting them to this point. It is an outstanding achievement.

Over the last few weeks, a large number of interviews for staff for 2020 have been occurring.  A number of these are CLT and Middle Leader roles, as well as teaching roles for 2020. Below I have included the appointments thus far, including CLT appointments for 2020. Some of these have previously been announced but I hope that this summary gives an overview of the staffing appointments for 2020.

There are some other staff appointments covering leave contracts during 2020 that will be finalised over the coming weeks. The staff are a critical part of the Terrace Family, so I welcome and congratulate these staff on their appointments.

This week, we have announced the House Leaders for 2020. I congratulate each of these students and wish them well for their leadership journey next year:

Finally this week, I again remind parents that the exams are less than two weeks away. Supporting, encouraging and monitoring your son’s homework and revision time is an important way of supporting him over the coming few weeks.

Have a great week.

God Bless.

Dr Michael Carroll