A warm welcome to all our new students and families who have started their journey with Heatley Secondary College this year.  We have enrolled 112 Year 7's from primary schools right across Townsville and we have had a surge in new enrolments into our senior classes.  Thank you for your confidence in our work and the level of care and direction we offer the students at the college.

I would also like to welcome new staff to the college.  Thankfully, we have enjoyed a very stable 12 months in terms of staffing with very few transfers out of the college at the end of 2024.  We are also blessed in that we have almost a full complement of teaching staff unlike many other schools in Queensland who are struggling to fully staff their campus. 

Our new staff include:

Ms Jodie White (Maths)

Ms Angela Fleming (Science Maths)

Ms Sandra Darby (Science Maths)

Ms Madison Lyons (HPE)

Mr Quinton Pomare-Anderson (Director Clontarf)

I wish you all well in your career and your work with the students at Heatley Secondary College.

SCHOOL LEADERS

At the end of 2024, Mrs Adams-Thompson, Mrs Jenni Dawes and I had the pleasure of interviewing numerous senior and junior students for leadership positions.  I can say with a very high level of confidence that I have rarely met a more outstanding group of young people.  Every student who was interviewed acquitted themself with confidence and a positive outlook on their schooling and their relationships within and outside the college.  The task of selecting those to fulfil leadership positions for the 2025 school year was made extremely difficult given the calibre of our young people.

I am extremely proud to be able to name our school captains (both Senior and Junior) for 2025 below, and I have no doubt that they will do us “Heatley Proud”.

Junior Secondary Captains:

• Makenzie Bourke, Ruby Hampton, Bianca Owens, Alyssa-Jayde Sheean

Cleveland House Captains:

• Gabby Claffey and Leilagi Neli-Lilo

Cleveland House Vice Captains:

• Eli Coghlan and Olai Douglas

Lavarack House Captains:

• Claire Lester and Majella-Rose Lui

Lavarack House Vice Captains:

• Kcin Kalati and Zannon Mitchell

Melton House Captains:

• Roman Ross and Chloe Tomlinson

Melton House Vice Captains:

• Tiana Te Paa-Brown and Jordan Walton

College Captains:

• Taylee Hampton and Mungu Toby

College Vice Captains:

• Johnnias Clarke and Angelina Phillips

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Captains:

• Micheal Choikee and SonnyAnne Raggett

Cultural Captains:

Chelsea Anderson, Lincoln Coghlan and Shykeya Palmer

THE AGENDA FOR 2025

We have much to celebrate from our 2024 school year including:

• Vastly improved Maths results across the college
• 100% Queensland Certificate of Education attainment for our 2024 Senior class
• 9 of our 2024 Seniors have received an offer to attend university
• The development and implementation of a reconciliation action plan which will be ongoing at the college
• Substantial implementation of the new Version 9 Australian Curriculum

This year, our 3 target areas have not changed but we have added some significant strategies to align our work with our goals.  We are still broadly focussed on:

• Curriculum Teaching and Learning (Improvement in English results)
• Wellbeing (Resilience)
• Community engagement

Our strategies this year include:

• Significant focus on the teaching of literacy skills across the junior school and a refined and clear understanding of the teaching of English in every lesson
• Resilience in our Teens
• Working with our community partners to co-design our engagement strategies

I am very much looking forward to some improved results this year.

Lastly….. P&C

Our P&C AGM will be held in the administration block on Wednesday 12 March at 6.00pm followed by the general meeting at 6.30pm.  It was an absolute pleasure to welcome new members to the P&C at the first meeting this year and I would encourage all parents and caregivers, both new and old to consider joining the P&C and to also consider nominating for an executive position.

Kind regards

Melissa Jackson