School News 

OSHC fee increase 

Last year in our final Governing Council meeting for the year we decided to raise the fees for OSHC to keep up with inflation, and to ensure that the service pays for itself. The new fees will take effect from 1 April this year. 

A Note from Emily

It has been so wonderful to have all students finally at school and back to a bit of normality. This term's focus is engaged, under the heading Learn in our school motto Learn Stand Give Fly. Engagement is an important part of mindfulness and self-awareness. The practices we do and people we engage with play a larger role to how we think, act and feel. For myself, engaging in a fitness based activity a few times a week is something that 'fills my bucket' and it helps me to positively and mentally engage better at school, home and in my relationships. Can you pin-point the areas of engagement in your day to day lives that fill you up? Often our minds find it easier to focus on the engagements which 'empty our buckets'. Although this is good self-awareness, we can get trapped in this way of thinking. My encouragement for you this week is to think and focus on the areas of engagement in your day to day which positively fill you up and how they can help sustain your wellbeing. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and great start to week 5!

Emily Morgan, Pastoral Care Worker 

P&F News

Dear families, 

The Parents and Friends are doing a call out for second hand uniform donations. Please drop them to the front office as we will be holding another second-hand uniform sale on Wed 2 March after school. Thank you.

We welcome all families to join the parent run Facebook page Uraidla Primary School Families to keep up with what's happening at school and to find out about activities organised by the P and F for our school families.  

Uniform reminder 

The focus for this fortnight is ....Coloured or decorative hair accessories! Please note that coloured hair accessories are not part of the uniform - plain school colours only please, without design or decoration, or school uniform fabric. Thank you! 

Disability Support Group 

A message from Emily Pedlar, school mum: 

I would like to reach out to other parents of kids with disabilities to offer each other support (and support for siblings) & potentially come up with ideas to work with the school and parent community in becoming even more disability aware.  

Please ring or text me on 0414 541 159 or email Emily.k.pedler@gmail.com to let me know you are interested in joining this group, or for more information. Once I hear from people I will organise a get together for us as a group. Thank you!

COVID restrictions

Here are the current recommendations from the Department for Education:  

COVID safe measures

• All students and staff must stay home if unwell, even mildly. If students become unwell at school, we are unable to care for them here and we will be contacting you to collect them asap. Please have a plan in place for someone who can collect your child within a half hour. 
• We will be maximising ventilation by leaving doors/windows open, using air conditioning and fans, and keeping doors and windows open. Please make sure your kids have a jumper - it might be cold in classrooms with the additional ventilation. We have had a number of students complaining about the cold this week, without a jumper. 
• Outdoor learning will be encouraged where appropriate.
• Adults will  practise physical distancing where possible.
• We will do our best to minimise student/child intermingling across class groups inside for the time being – and spread kids out in the spaces we have available.
• We have been asked to limit non-essential visitors on-site; allied health professionals, music teachers and student support services are an exception. 
• We will continue to practise and promote hand and respiratory hygiene. Hand sanitiser will be provided for regular use, and disposable masks.
• Extra cleaning of the school daily will continue. This means that high contact areas of the school will be cleaned twice daily. 
• Students are being asked to fill up their drink bottles from taps in preference to drinking directly from the taps, so please make sure they have a labelled bottle every day. 

Face masks

• We will be requiring everyone to wear masks, to minimise the risk of infection. 
• Face masks are strongly recommended for students in years 3 to 6. We will be expecting all students in the Year 3-6 classes to be wearing a mask. 
• Once we receive smaller masks, we will be asking our younger students to wear masks as well. Children can bring their own masks from home as well. 
• Teachers will be wearing masks, except when it impedes the ability to teach. 

Can parents and carers come into the buildings? 

• We have been asked to minimise the number of adults who come onto our site for the time being.  Please send notes back to school with children rather than dropping them off yourselves, and contact us by phone or SeeSaw in preference to meeting in person.
• However, if you need to see us, yes you are welcome! You just need to ensure you do a COVID-Safe check in when entering the building and practise physical distancing from other adults. If there is another adult in the front office area, please make your presence known to front office staff and then wait outside until called.  
• Please enter via the Kidney Street red door main entrance only.
• Please note that all adults are required to wear masks when entering school or preschool buildings.

Pick up and drop off

• In the morning please continue to drop children off at one of the entrances to the school grounds, and allow them to make their own way to their classrooms. If you need to speak to your child’s teacher, please make contact through the SeeSaw app. 
• In the afternoon please make a quick pick-up from the gate. Children are not allowed to play in the playground after school for the time being. 

Assemblies 

• Assemblies are postponed until further notice.  We will invite you to a Zoom Assembly next Friday with each class in their own classroom.  

Flexischools App

We have taken on a new method of payments for the school. The Flexischools app allows you to pay for certain school services. Information is provided below. This is the preferred way to pay when available, but we will still accept cash and card. It is not available for all services, but we are hoping to streamline payments as much as possible. You can now pay your materials and services fees via the app, and soon instrument hire and book fees. Please call Sara on the school number if you have any questions.