My name is
Nathan Freeman and I am the Principal of Jindalee State School for 2016.
I would like to
start by thanking the staff, students and parents that I have met over the past
two weeks for welcoming me so warmly into the Jindalee school community. It is
an honour to be afforded the opportunity to lead a school with a tradition of
excellence, such as Jindalee.
I have been
employed in the Metropolitan Region since 1997 and have worked at many
different schools throughout the region; primarily through Ipswich and the
western corridor of schools. My substantive school is Karalee State School
where I have been Principal since 2011.
My wife, Ingrid,
works in the leadership team at Kenmore State School and we have two boys: Sam
and Tom. We live in Chapel Hill, so I have a relatively short drive to work
each day and I am already loving this aspect of the new job!
As Principal I
am committed to maintaining the Jindalee culture of high expectations and will
continue the unrelenting focus on enhancing school performance. I believe the
fostering of strong, positive partnerships between the school, home and the
wider community is essential if we are to deliver the highest quality education
for all students at Jindalee. With this in mind, I will invite you to become
actively involved in our school this year.
2016 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP)
The 2016 AIP
improvement priorities are focused on:
·
Improving the quality of teacher pedagogy through explicit instruction
·
Reading
·
Mathematics
·
Spelling
Effective Communication
Delivering
relevant, timely and accurate information to over 800 students, 548 families
and 100 staff can be challenging for the leadership team in any large school.
This year we will be exploring new ways of communicating effectively with our
community. Two actions for this term are:
·
using class and whole school e-mail lists to disseminate relevant
school information to parents
·
hosting regular forums where parents can openly discuss topics with
the school leadership team and work together to improve our school
2016 Jindalee School Captains
At the first
assembly last Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting our school captains for
this year: James Turner-Fry and Samantha Lane. I was very impressed with their
ability to organise their new Principal and their confidence when speaking to
the assembled students and staff.
New Staff at Jindalee
I am pleased to
announce the following new staff at Jindalee for 2016:
·
Michele Van Der Zant (Head of Special Education Services)
·
Kristy O’Keefe (Year 5 teacher)
·
Katie Moore (Year 4 teacher)
·
Jo Nicholson (Year 3 teacher)
·
Julia Theron (Year 2 teacher)
·
Kirsten Cowan (Prep teacher)
·
and Michele Buck returns after seven years leave (Year 1 teacher)
Student Enrolment Numbers
At 11am
yesterday our student numbers were 806. This means that we will maintain our
existing class model of 33 classes. This is great news as it allows us to
maintain the positive momentum built over the first week of school. Our
teaching staff having set high expectations for student behaviour both in the classroom
and at play time and the students have responded beautifully.