Dear valued member of the PLC community,

A Message From the Principal

As we come to the Mid-Term Break, I would like to thank all staff and students for their efforts in managing a challenging and uncertain time. While there is no denying that we face uncertainty, I have spent the last week watching the news and feeling nothing but blessed to be living somewhere like Perth at the moment. As the east coast of our own country faces the impact and recovery from severe flooding, we experience sunshine and warm weather. While countries around the world experience turmoil and violence, we live in a land of relative peace and harmony. If I were to have to be anywhere to face our current situation, I can say with great certainty, that Perth would absolutely be my first choice. 

While we do face challenges, there is also much to celebrate in our world and International Women’s Day next Tuesday is certainly a day that recognises how far we have come in achieving greater equality for women. It is fair to say that there is still a way to go, but I only have to talk to my mother and listen to her stories of limited opportunities after leaving school and having to give up work when she got married to be reminded of how far we have come. 

The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias. As it says on the International Women’s Day website: 

Imagine a gender equal world.  
A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.  
A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.  
A world where difference is valued and celebrated.  
Together we can forge women's equality.  
Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.  
Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day.  
We can break the bias in our communities.  
We can break the bias in our workplaces.  
We can break the bias in our schools, colleges and universities.  
Together, we can all break the bias - on International Women’s Day and beyond.  

While we will not be able to come together for our annual International Women’s Day Breakfast this year, it does not mean that we will not have the opportunity to acknowledge the day. I know that our Student Council have worked to ensure that activities have been organised and opportunities provided and will be sharing these with the girls on Tuesday in House Tutor Group.  

- Cate Begbie – Principal

Parent/Guardian-Teacher Interviews

The Pre-Kindergarten to Year 6 Parent/Guardian-Teacher interviews will be held on Tuesday 8 March from 3.00 pm until 8.00 pm. With current restrictions, these will be conducted via Microsoft Teams or over the telephone.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss how your child has started the 2022 school year. They are scheduled for 10 minutes. If you require a longer meeting with your child’s teacher, these interviews are not the correct platform and I ask you to contact them independently and schedule another meeting.

Please click here for the information on how to book your interview. 

The class teacher will then send you a Teams invite; if you would prefer a telephone meeting, please indicate that in your reply to the teacher.

If there are any technical issues on the evening, teachers will revert to telephone calls to the parent who has replied. If you require two meetings due to dual parenting arrangements, please make one booking each.

You can meet with class and specialist teachers, however, please note specialists teach many students and their available times can fill quickly. If you need to meet with them and cannot arrange a meeting, I ask you to contact them separately. There will be no Physical Education interviews due to our staff only recently commencing.

The booking system closes on Tuesday 8 March at 8.00 am.

Masks

With the mask requirements implemented for Year 3 students and up, I wanted to clarify why this is important. On top of the protection provided by wearing a mask, students are less likely to be identified as close contacts to infectious students and can therefore stay at school. Our priority is keeping safe, but also keeping our students in class where learning is optimised.

Head to our Instagram or Facebook for more great photos of staff and students in their ocean-inspired attire. 

- Richard Wright – Head of Junior School 

Mid-Term Break 

• Date: Friday 4 March – Monday 7 March inclusive 

Parent/Teacher Interviews 

• Date: Tuesday 8 March 
• Time: 3.00 pm until 8.00 pm

PLC Parents Committee Meeting - Online 

• Date: Tuesday 15 March 
• Time: 6.00 pm - 7.00 pm 

IGSSA Swimming Carnival

Our Senior School Swim Squad has been training hard for today’s big event and they should all be proud of their efforts. A big thank you to all the swimming staff for their tireless efforts in preparing our girls and helping ensure it was a seamless event.

The donations raised from this event will help to support PLC’s two World Vision sponsored children, 12-year-old Josephine from Zambia and 11-year-old Margaret from Kenya, with any surplus going to other PLC supported charities.

Head to our Instagram or Facebook for more great photos of staff and students in their ocean-inspired attire. 

Mask Wearing

Our staff have been emphasising to all students the importance of wearing your mask correctly and keeping up good hygiene practices. To help keep our community safe, students are now required to wear masks both inside and outside on campus and must only remove their masks if required by a teacher (eg physical education class) or if they are seated while eating and drinking.

We know that masks can be uncomfortable to wear, but that they play a vital role in helping stop the spread of COVID-19. Students who do not wear their mask correctly after repeated requests will have appropriate consequences put in place. We know our students will do the right thing and help keep everyone safe.

McNeil Street Slipway Reminder 

To aid in reducing traffic congestion on McNeil Street at the slipway, we kindly ask that cars dropping off using this slipway do not perform any right turns into or out of this slipway. 

Please refer to the below diagram for clarification. This request is for the safety of our community and to allow for the efficient drop-off of students. 

- Rebecca Watts – Head of Senior School

Mid-Term Break 

• Date: Friday 4 March – Monday 7 March inclusive 

PLC Parents Committee Meeting - Online 

• Date: Tuesday 15 March 
• Time: 6.00 pm - 7.00 pm 

Boarder of the Week:

• Latifa (Year 10) - For always being so generous in offering assistance to those who need it and for always valuing the positives in our boarding community.

Room of the Week: 

• Libby (Year 12) - For her consistently beautiful room. 

The Joy in Simple Things

Last weekend our younger students proclaimed to have one of their best social outings yet. It was safe, local, and outdoor fun. The girls met with students from St Hilda's and Scotch College at Manners Hill in the late afternoon to enjoy pizza and a variety of fun outdoor games. What the girls liked best about it was how simple, yet fun, it was. They loved spending time with the other boarders and really getting to know them in a relaxed setting.

May all our boarders and their families have a restful Mid-Term Break.

- Katherine Hazlewood – Boarding House Deputy (Wellbeing and Pastoral Care)

I sometimes wonder whether certain things are just coincidences or excellent timing, but perhaps no more so than watching the recently concluded three-part series Countdown to War on ABC TV.

It covered ordinary life in Britain in the three days leading up to the declaration of war against Germany at 11.00 am on Sunday 3 September 1939. It was uncanny because of its parallels to the contemporary situation in Europe and specifically, Ukraine. Back then people were anxious, but not unduly alarmed; the Government appeared calm, but in reality, were terrified; diplomatic delegations were at fever pitch, but to no avail. History records the consequences, but it is a chapter in the human journey that most of us only know about through the eyes of those who came before us.

Astute commentators see this full-blown invasion of Ukraine as being as much about reclaiming cultural identity, as amassing territory. Over 1,000 years earlier Vladimir the Great consolidated the Byzantine Empire, based in Kyiv; and by decree baptised en-masse the populace to the Orthodox Christian religion. Now his self-appointed successor seeks to reclaim that which is deemed essential to Russian cultural identity. Western society, in contrast, is perceived as weakened through lack of purpose; demoralised and vulnerable; where citizenship has become a commodity to be traded, leading to the collapse of cultural consciousness and religious engagement.

Put simply, much of the framework of contemporary Western society in this present conflict is regarded as having failed, because the very roots that made us who we are as a people with cultural and religious identity are starved of the nutrients so necessary for sustenance and growth. In this widening vacuum, new scenarios are emerging, not necessarily of our liking or choosing.

In this new battle for minds and hearts, with the eyes of the world focussed elsewhere, it can be easy to overlook other significant things.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and in the Christian tradition, of which PLC is part, it heralds the beginning of the Season of Lent; the commencement point in the long lead-up to the celebration of Easter. It is a time for recalibration in our lives, particularly when called upon to focus whether any part of our lives or behaviour has led to the destruction or desecration of another. Lent is a time of anticipation, as well as a time for seeking forgiveness, particularly for those aspects of our lives we know are not worthy either of us, or what we claim to believe.

My prayer during this Lenten Season is that we might open our eyes to injustice wherever it manifests itself; that we open our minds to learn how to share with everyone the abundance of God’s creation; and that we open our hearts to love our neighbours and our enemies, to embody the compassion of Jesus.

May it be so!

- Rev Nalin Perera, Chaplain               

Student2Student Reading Programme for Years 7 - 11 Students

PLC has a strong tradition of doing good for others. The Smith Family Student2Student Reading Programme supports vulnerable West Australian children with their reading and comprehension by pairing a PLC student with a younger student in the community.

The 18-week reading programme will see students sharing the same book, reading over the internet or via telephone. The commitment is reading two to three times per week for approximately 20 minutes each session with a buddy and service hours can be recorded for the programme.

All students who have not participated in the programme before will be offered training. Support is offered throughout the programme for PLC students by the PLC Lighthouse Service Learning team. 

• Click here for the Application Form. 
• Click here for the Parent Information Sheet.
• Click here for the Eligibility Questionaire. 

All above forms must be returned to the PLC Lighthouse no later than Friday 11 March with training provided later in the term.

Make A Difference Week – 8 to 11 March

Next week at PLC, the Senior School community is committed to making a difference during Make a Difference Week, affectionately known as MAD Week. Each day brings a different focus for how students can #BeTheChange.

Click here for a full list of activities for MAD Week.

World’s Greatest Shave – 21 to 25 March

Supporting the Leukaemia Foundation, the World’s Greatest Shave has been an annual event at PLC since 2016.

Due to current restrictions, we are asking students and staff to be involved by cutting or shaving their hair from home and returning in zip lock bags to the Lighthouse from the week beginning Monday 21 March until Friday 25 March. Ziplock bags will be available from the Lighthouse the week prior to take home for the cut or shave.

• Click here for the link to fundraise and register. 
• Further instructions on how to prepare, cut, and post a ponytail can be found here. 
• The permission form to take part can be found here. 

2022 Student Residential Address and Other Information Collection

The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment would like to notify you that a request has been made for PLC to provide residential address and other information as required under the Australian Education Regulation 2013. The Student Residential Address and Other Information Collection informs Australian Government school education policy and helps ensure funding for non-government schools is based on a need basis. 

PLC is required to provide the department with a student’s name, residential address, year level and whether they are a day or boarding student. The school collects this information by generating a unique and unidentifiable student reference number (SRN) for each student record. 

You are not required to do anything. Your school is responsible for providing the requested details to the department, however, you may wish to ensure that your school has the most up-to-date and correct details for your family. 

Please click here if you would like to read more about the data collection.

Another staff member, Jill Willetts, also swam in a team and won their age group. So much swimming talent in the PLC community!