Principal's Report
I acknowledge the First People of the Wathaurong, who are the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which I work and live, and pay my respects to the Elders of the past, present and emerging.
Welcome back!
An interrupted week, due to a state-wide lockdown, has not dampened our commitment to ensuring our students and families receive the most positive start that we can provide at Miners Rest K-6. I would like to take this opportunity to thank families for their support of our staff and students during the unforeseen closure of our school last week and warmly welcome everyone back onsite. Our staff schoolwide are committed to ensuring that we are maintaining the momentum with which we started the year, having high expectations of ourselves and others and being respectful and inclusive of everyone in our school community.
School Leaders
At Miners Rest K-6, we understand and value the importance of the role of being a student leader in our school. Each and every one of our students have the opportunity to be leaders, leading by example through their actions and behaviours, and we are very fortunate to see this type of leadership throughout our school on a daily basis.
A very important and precise process is currently underway to select our 2021 school leaders in the specific areas of Junior School Council, Sport, Visual Arts, Performing Arts and Environmental.
The application and selection process will conclude this week. Leaders will be announced and a presentation of badges will take place at next week's assembly.
Traffic Management
It is very clear to see the great progress that is taking place on our site. The new school buildings are looking more and more like a part of our learning space each day. With this great pace of development comes some inconvenience and we are experiencing some inconveniences currently with traffic flow and parking. We must thank all of our patient drivers and pedestrians for following laws and expectations to ensure the safety of our students, most importantly and our community as a whole. For these short term pains, we will enjoy long term gains in the very near future.
Speaking of traffic, a big congratulations to our cyclists. We had a whole school meeting, involving all of our student cyclists last week to share some concerns and reminders about what it looks like to be a safe cyclist arriving and leaving our school grounds. Firstly, I was so impressed with the number of children cycling to and from school. Secondly, I was more than impressed with the level of commitment that the students gave me in walking their bikes out of the school grounds and down neighbouring pathways until a safe road can be reached. The Ballarat City Council have acknowledged the congestion that our students experiencing in cycling to school and are looking at ways to improve the pathways that can support our cyclists safety. Stay tuned.
School Council
Nominations for positions on our School Council for the 2021 school year close on Friday February 26.
You can nominate under either the category of Parent Member or Community Member. Vacancies exist in both categories, so please consider putting your name forward, we would enjoy your input!
Our School Council AGM will be held on March 15 at 7:00pm, followed by the March meeting.
Curriculum Days
One of our priority goals in our 2021 Annual Implementation Plan includes a focus on:
Curriculum, planning & assessment, Health & Wellbeing and Building Communities.
To support this priority, staff will be attending a Whole School Wellbeing Conference on March 5 and a Numeracy Professional Learning Day on March 9. On these days, the school will be closed. Our Out of School Hours Care program is available.