Year 9 Update
A very warm welcome to 2025 to those students, parents and families who are beginning their Wilsonton High journey this year and those continuing. I am excited by the opportunity to work alongside the Year 9 cohort and look forward to working in partnership with you to enrich the lives of your children.
It’s a busy start to the year with the swimming carnival right around the corner, Elevate sessions for Academy students, school photos, Harmony Week, NAPLAN and Cross Country carnival are just some of the highlights in this jam packed term.
The school year has kicked off with 158 Year 9s enrolled at our great school. Mrs Caitie Dieters and Mrs Ronell Naude continue on as Year Co-ordinators. I have been very impressed in not only the strong relationships they have fostered with students but also the engagement students show during whole school and year level assemblies. They are very much looking forward to assisting every Year 9 student to have a successful year. We meet regularly to discuss student welfare, with a particular focus on attendance and our four encompassing core values, respect, resilience, commitment and responsibility.
Subject Selection: The opportunity to change subjects has now passed. In Year 9 students have the chance to explore four elective subjects, completing two per semester. These subjects include Agriculture, Art, Business, Dance, Design Technology, Digital Technology, Drama, Home Economics, Industrial Technology, Japanese, Legal Studies and Music. Year 9 is a great opportunity for students to experience different areas of study, helping discover their strengths and interests.
Behavioural Expectations: All staff are currently teaching our school mandated behaviour expectations for students before, during and exiting from class. All classes have had inductions to ensure every student knows what is expected of them within classrooms and in the playground. We remind our students continually about our expectations of every student learning and every teacher teaching. If students are unable to follow these expectations each day, they can expect potential consequences which range from lunch-time detentions through to a Saturday detention.
Our behaviour team monitor students closely and make every attempt to work in partnership with parents and staff to intervene with students engaging in poor behaviour choices in an effort to support students on their path to success whilst at school. We have regularly made it clear that we have high expectations and we will continue to work with students to help them understand how they can meet these, just as we work with staff to build on a range of strategies that support increased engagement. We expect calm and orderly classrooms and we expect our teachers to teach and students to learn without disrespect or disruption. All school staff seek opportunities to praise those students who are upholding our school values through the Peggy system as well as communicating success to students and to parents/ carers through phone calls, text messages or even emails.
Mobile Phone Policy: In 2024 the Queensland State Government banned mobile phones in their ‘Off and Away for the Day’ policy. Phones are to be away from the first bell at 8:45 am until the last bell of the day at 2:55 pm.
Bullying: Recently we have seen in the media the harmful and serious effects bullying can have on young people. Wilsonton State High School is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all students and does not tolerate bullying in any shape or form. As a school we guarantee to investigate and follow-up on every incident reported no matter how trivial one may think it is. In an effort to support this process we have activated an online anonymous reporting process called Stymie. Stymie is an external web-based application that allows students, parents and members of the community to report any type of bullying or harmful behaviour that they may see or observe. Stymie can be accessed via the internet from any browser and allows instant, anonymous reporting of poor behaviour or harm to the school. Screen shots from social media, photos and the like can be added to the report and it allows the school to quickly and effectively deal with situations before they escalate. For further information or to make a report please visit the Stymie website via the link below.
I’m looking forward to the year ahead and all that it brings. If you have any concerns or I can be of assistance in supporting your child’s educational journey, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.
Matt Buchanan
Deputy Principal –Year 9