Hello Kearnan College Community!

Please save the date for our Centenary celebrations on Saturday, October 25. Open classrooms will begin at 11am, including a display of various pieces of memorabilia from our history. This will be followed by a catered lunch in the Assembly Hall. Tickets for the meal can be purchased for $70.50 from here. Students and staff are busy creating and collecting the items to be included in our time capsule, which will be housed in a Kearnan school bag and displayed in the Library for a future generation to open. On Friday, October 24, in addition to the official opening ceremony of our early childhood classrooms, students will engage in a range of activities to mark our centenary. It is going to be a wonderful couple of days to celebrate our rich heritage and contribution to the families in the local community over the last 100 years.

Over the last few weeks, we celebrated some of our very special staff members. Mr Geoff Bane and Mrs Tracey Lynn were recognised on our Groundsperson Appreciation Day. Geoff and Tracey do a remarkable job keeping our school safe and looking beautiful. We really appreciate their expertise and the care they put into keeping Kearnan’s environment at its best.

Earlier this week, we celebrated Education Assistant and Aboriginal Teacher Assistant Day. We are so blessed to have wonderful support staff in our classrooms who do so much to help our students feel confident and successful and to provide an additional pair of hands for our teachers. Thank you to Miss Abbey Kilrain, Mrs Lisa Wiseman, Mrs Debbie Renzullo, Mrs Jodie Schilders, Mrs Katiya Schutz, Mrs Susan Griffiths, Mrs Joh Ramiro, Mrs Nicole Prestedge, Mrs Tricia Guarrera, Mrs Misty-Lee Fitzgerald and Mrs Veronica Conopo. We are so lucky to have you all!

As advised by email yesterday, we will be offering the option of full-time Kindy in 2026.  Parents will be able to choose whether they send their child for 3, 4 or 5 days, depending upon their child’s readiness. The fee for full-time Kindy is less than $7 per school day and it is for any child born from July 1 2021 to June 30 2022 (inclusive). Please contact the school office for further information, or download an enrolment form from our website.

Our Pre-Kindy program is another great option for our littlest learners. It operates from 8.50am until 2.50pm on Thursdays and is completely free of charge. This is a great introduction to school routines to support the development of independence and social skills and to get students tuned into pre-literacy and pre-numeracy learning. Children can begin Pre-Kindy once they turn 3, but you are able to submit the enrolment forms whilst they are 2-years-old and a spot will be held for them until after their birthday. We have spots available for both the remainder of this year and next.

Congratulations to two of our very talented students. Ainsley O’Donnell (Year 9) has been awarded the HSS Performing Arts Scholarship. She will use these funds to support her continued music education. Abbie Glancy (Year 7) has been selected to represent WA in the 2025 Cricket 12s Girls Championship in Ballarat later in the year. Congratulations to both Ainsley and Abbey on their impressive achievements! It is so exciting to see our students excelling in their chosen fields.

We are currently finalising our budget for 2026. Our funding is dependent upon our student enrolment numbers so it is important we have an accurate projection of next year’s enrolments. If your family will be leaving Kearnan at the end of the year, it would be greatly appreciated if you could let the school office know, if you haven’t already done so.

We recently had some of the CEWA leadership consultants facilitate a day of professional learning for our secondary Heads of Learning Area (HoLAs). They were joined by some of their HoLA counterparts from Albany, Busselton and Bunbury Catholic schools which provided a valuable opportunity to expand their professional networks. Our HoLAs are instrumental in supporting our teachers and ensuring we are keeping up with the latest news relevant to their learning areas.

We greatly value our partnership with parents and recognise the important role that collaboration plays in supporting student wellbeing and success. If you have any concerns about your child, I encourage you to reach out directly to their class teacher (for primary students) or their subject teachers (for secondary students) so that you can work together to find a positive way forward. In the secondary school, our Heads of Year are also available to support with pastoral matters, such as friendship challenges or general concerns about school life. Staff email addresses can be found on the College website. Please note that teachers are often unable to check emails during the school day and may need time to respond thoughtfully. If your concern is urgent, we recommend contacting the College office by phone. Mrs Barton, Mrs Tempra and I are also happy to be contacted if you feel further support is needed or if your concerns remain unresolved.