Principal's Report

Welcome back to everyone and it is lovely to have the students back on deck today and able to enjoy some time with their friends. We hope the transition back to school was smooth for your child/ren.

Well done to everyone for hanging in there in what has been a highly unusual and challenging year. It’s comforting to see circumstances improving on the Covid front and we look forward to an uninterrupted term 4.

The focus initially will be on settling the students back in, helping them get back into classroom routines and learning behaviours. That shouldn’t take too long and we’ll then be looking to make the most of every moment in terms of learning. This will be balanced by the need for a bit of fun in what has been a gloomy year for many. We’d like students to remember 2020 for more than Covid restrictions and all year levels are planning memorable activities that fit within the guidelines provided by DET (Department of Education and Training).

These guidelines have changed regularly across the year, but it’s worth explaining a few elements of the current version that will be of interest. These include:

Camps & Excursions - It’s OK to go ahead with these, provided they are to regional areas and follow Covid safe guidelines.
Incursions - These are not permitted at this stage.
School Photographs - Unfortunately schools are not permitted to have external photographers come in and take school photographs at this stage. We’ll be exploring other means of achieving a similar outcome in the event that this restriction doesn’t change.
Transition - We’re able to have kinder kids visit in groups of 10, so are busily organising a revamped version of the Preschooler Program. Revised arrangements will be explained to parents with a prep for 2021 in a letter that will be distributed later this week. Transition programs into secondary schools are looking very limited, but no doubt parents with children in grade 6 will hear from the relevant secondary school as they plot a way forward. We will certainly be doing our best to support grade 6 students with this important transition.
Assemblies - We’re still not able to run assemblies, so will continue with the Friday broadcast for the rest of this year. If you haven’t tuned in recently, give it a try. A link to the broadcast will be sent to families on Friday through Compass.
Graduation - At this stage Graduation Ceremonies are not permitted, but we’ll keep our options open and will find a way to mark this significant occasion for our grade 6s.

Planning for 2021 - We are now in the thick of planning for next year. Obviously this is dependent on student numbers, so urge anyone who has a prep to enrol for 2021 gets a form completed and submitted as soon as possible.

Facilities Improvements - Without kids on-site, the holidays always present a good opportunity to get some work done around the place. Over the past 2 weeks that has included:

Japanese Garden - We lost the original Japanese Garden at our Buninyong Campus when the STEM Shed was built last year. For some time we have been considering the best location for the establishment of a new Japanese Garden and decided on the slope on the east side of the basketball court. Over the break we had earth works completed on that slope to create the foundation of a new Japanese Garden. A big thank you to Russ and Christy Roberts for their assistance with this. Over the coming weeks and months we will work with the students to come up with designs based on the basic principles of Japanese Gardens and begin to add various elements.

Painting - As always, we used the break to get some painting completed. This included the Landcare shed at Scotsburn, which now looks like a different building.

Tree Removal at Scotsburn - We never like to remove healthy trees, but over the break had one cyprus tree removed and another pruned at Scotsburn. This was part of fire preparedness work for the Scotsburn Campus.

Kitchen - Our new kitchen at the Buninyong Campus is now ready to use, which is exciting. It appears quite a few year levels are planning regular cooking sessions in term 4 and know these sessions will go down very well with the students.