Hello,
I recently spent some time with a dear old friend who is well into his nineties. He was a very successful businessman and he made a significant contribution to his community. He told me that the secret to his business success was that he always employed courteous and good humoured people. “If they did not greet me with a smile and a ‘hello’ they had no future in my company. If they were not going to greet me then how would they welcome our clients?” He went on to say that staff with good qualifications were important but they were of little use to his business if the employee did not have the essential social skills.
At Bayside we show an interest in each other, we greet each other, we support each other and we work together as a community. We do not take this for granted and our pastoral care program explicitly teaches these values/skills and I know that our staff model these values.
My dream for each of our students is that they will gain the necessary academic qualifications to reach for their desired future along with the social and communication skills needed to thrive.
Recent highlights:
- Parent BBQs. What a lovely night to share some time with family and friends. I particularly loved seeing excited former students catching up with their teachers.
- Welcoming our new prep students at the Altona North Campus. I just love their sense of joy about starting school (Savannah and Zoe pictured below)
- The swimming carnival and in particular seeing the Yr. 12 house captains dressed in team colours, participating in events and encouraging student participation.
- Attending today’s 2019 Top Ten Assembly where we welcomed back our top 10 VCE students from 2018 to congratulate them on their wonderful results and to hear about what they are doing this year. What a great celebration it was! This will be a feature of my next Update.
- Celebrating the contribution of Mizuki Miura, our Japanese Language Assistant. Mizuki has been with us for the last 12 months and is about to head home.
- The sense of pride I felt when I was in one of our local supermarkets when I saw how politely two boys from our Altona North Campus interacted with the staff.
- The painting of classrooms at the Williamstown Campus. It is amazing what a coat of paint does!
- Seeing how well our Year 7 Centre at the Williamstown Campus is working.
- Presenting the Swimming Carnival Shield to the Hobson House Captains (Tina and Renee)
- The number of Positive Passes being given to students in year 10. So much so, that they are celebrating by rewarding a ‘student of the week’ and having them celebrated in a special photo frame, created by Woodwork teacher Daniel Bonnici and Dinda and Sok.
- The Year 12 Study Forum held at Swinburne University
I love my job.
