Dear Parents and Carers,

What a pleasure the past few weeks have been as I have started my new role as Principal here at Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School. The entire school community have been very friendly and I am sincerely grateful and appreciative for the warm welcome and positive start to our year together.

One of the defining features of our school is the genuine warmth that we share together as a community and the individual care and attention that we have for each of our children and families.

The beginning of the term has certainly been very busy for all at GGLPS. Our staff team began the year with a series of devotions reflecting on the way in which we can fully rely on God, initially based on Acts Chapter 1, and exploring our annual plan for the school this year and its five focus areas; learning, caring, engaging, collaborating and inspiring. We look forward to continuing to develop our direction for the year with our school community over the coming weeks. Mrs Zadow led some excellent professional learning sessions exploring our use of wellbeing techniques for our students, as well as reflecting on our successful PYP Evaluation last year, planning for the years to come, and guiding our team through the process of collaboratively programming our classroom learning for this year. We also enjoyed a professional learning session led by Tracey Grice with a focus on teaching writing. Our gratitude to Mrs Zadow for organising some excellent professional learning for us to begin the year.

My thanks also go to Mr Kriewaldt for his excellent leadership, to our Business Manager, Mrs Howell for her efforts with arranging the painting of our facilities over the break, to Pastor Greg and Gen Freund, our School Council Chair, for all of their support as I've settled into the role, and to our committed teaching and admin team for all of their extensive work over the holidays in preparing for an excellent start to the year.

We had the sad news recently about the passing of Mr Ken Campbell and Mr Mike Leske, both valued members of our school community for many years. We ask that you uphold their family in prayer at a difficult time.

Our teachers and students have settled back into effective learning routines and there is a healthy and productive hum around the school. We value the partnership that we share with you as we work together to educate your children and are keen to support you in all that you do as parents. You are most welcome to make contact with us whenever we can be of assistance to you with your child’s education this year. We look forward to a wonderful year of learning ahead!

It is a pleasure to share with our school community the staff who will take on positions of responsibility within the school this year. Mr Kriewaldt and Mrs Zadow are Deputy Principal and PYP/Curriculum Co-ordinator respectively of course, and Mrs Zadow will also have specific responsibility for Christian Studies. Miss Hueppauff takes up the Worship role, Mr Napier, IT and STEM, Miss Williams that of Staff Representative / P & F and Miss Marino for Mathematics. We wish them every blessing in these roles and I am excited about the energy and expertise that they will bring to these valuable areas of our school.

I am delighted to announce that we have been able to partner with the University of Adelaide to offer the Children's University Australia program to our students this year. Children's University offers a great range of extra-curricular and cultural experiences and opportunities for students which are then recognised with formal certificates and graduations each year. The program will initially be offered for Year 5 and 6 students with the possibility of it being available for younger students as well.

The impressive way in which the children have conducted themselves around the school as we've started a new year together has been fantastic. The enthusiasm, engagement and citizenship of all have been excellent. Once again thank you for the warm welcome and I look forward to meeting many more members of the Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School and Church community over the coming weeks and months.

The Golden Vine

34.1 · 28 Jan 2021

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