It is lovely to see all students back at Wilderness, embracing the important lesson that all challenges can be faced and overcome with resilience, persistence, and collaboration.

Our official Welcome Back Assembly with all girls on site, gave me a platform to reflect and share an enormous sense of pride in how our Wilderness community is responding to yet another challenging start to the school year.

Although there are continuing restrictions and the necessary addition of face masks, everyone has responded confidently to new ways of learning balanced with a focus on wellbeing. I have seen our girls, teachers, staff, and families, approach situations through a positive lens, recognising that we have agency in how our future looks.

At Wilderness, we teach the girls to be responsible, respectful and generous global citizens and leaders. Exemplifying our values is Year 12 student Inika Weber, who has been named 2022 Prospect City Council Young Citizen of the Year.

Inika has a long list of achievements, including outstanding contributions to a broad range of activities within the School, and involvement in the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, Anglicare’s Foster Care program and the Treasure Box, which supports women and children in need.

Congratulations also to Year 12 student, Amolika Bhatia, who this week completed her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, our first student to achieve this prestigious award since its reintroduction to Wilderness. Amolika has embraced challenges and new adventures as part of the Award and made many significant contributions, having an impact on the lives of others in the community.

I would also like to mention girls who recently completed the Silver Awards - Millie Gosse, Elizabeth Parkinson, Eliza Quick, Nuhaa Hasan, Isabel Southon, Molly Simpson, Charlie Bower, Jemima Langley, Sorcha McGrath and Nicole Webb.

As we settle into the rhythm and routines of 2022, I wish to remind parents of the available platforms created to ensure communication between home and school is efficient and easy.

Parent Portal - SEQTA Engage

 SEQTA Engage provides parents with access to important information and quick links to other applications in one central location.  

 As a Wilderness parent, we encourage you to access the App for the following items:  

• Important dates, finance information, uniform shop details, co-curricular activity information, café menus and other helpful resources under  Portals. 
• Your daughter’s Timetable and Academic Reports. 
• Class contact lists used for class parties, get-togethers and other social activities outside of the classroom. 
• Quick links to:
  • Flexischools: our cashless online system for tuckshop/Café orders.
    
  • Clipboard: an extracurricular management system for Years 1 to 12 designed to provide you with access to your daughter’s co-curricular schedule, including her training and game details as well as her results and any other weekly information required.
  • Student Absentees Form. Please note all parents are asked to inform the School of their daughter’s absence by 9.00am using this form.  

At the start of the year, new parents to the School receive an automatic email from SEQTA to help guide the platform’s setup. I encourage you to contact the Hive, should you have any issues.

Seesaw – ELC to Year 6

 Seesaw provides our parent community with an authentic window into our classrooms and learning. Their daughter’s journal can be downloaded and documented as she transitions from year to year, allowing for a personalised continuum of their daughter’s time in the Junior School.  It is also used to distribute quick reminders to parents, e.g. casual day reminders. 

SMS  

In an emergency such as a bushfire warning or school closure, the School will notify parents of the situation via SMS.   

Email  

 Email is regularly used to communicate between the School and our community for year-level activity notifications, special announcements, school news, and significant events.  

Social Media  

 We encourage you to follow Wilderness School on the following platforms to see our girls in action: 

 Facebook: WildernessSchool 
Instagram: wildernessschool_sa 

Finally, I would like to introduce our new Health Nurse, Melissa Follet, to the community. Melissa has extensive experience working with children having spent the past eight years in community nursing for Child and Family Health Service, and previously working on the Adolescent Ward at the Women's and Children’s Hospital for seven years.

Melissa has hit the ground running this term and has already started to form trusting relationships with girls who have visited the centre.

Things are still a little fluid, with ongoing implications for sport, excursions, and gatherings. However, we will continue to update you over the coming weeks, and I look forward to sharing more exciting achievements throughout the year.