An Action Packed Fortnight!

Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall

The Election Day BBQ and Cake Stall was a huge success with $2800 raised on the day. The fabulous response from parents supplying an extensive range of delicious goodies to be sold on the day was overwhelming but we also had the fabulous band of parents who came and wrapped and priced all the items on Friday to thank as well. The parents who came and worked on the stall cooking, preparing, and taking the money all did a fabulous job too. The money raised will be used to add the latest quality book titles to our Library shelves.  Sincere thanks to you all.

Education Week Celebrations

Wow! What a great way to celebrate our ‘young writers’ achievements last Wednesday as part of Education Week. We had an abundant number of parents, grandparents and friends.

Each class showcased their latest published writing based on “To Persuade”. The student presentations explaining the writing process they had gone through from generating ideas to the final published piece were amazing. Of course, the other pieces of writing on display as well, and each students Writers Notebook further illustrated the depth of the writing being produced across the school. From the conversations I had with parents they were elated at the fact that they were able to come back into the classroom and enjoy seeing what their child has been achieving. 

A huge thank you to our wonderful families for their fabulous response to our family writing task. I felt if I can use the idiom ‘It was the icing on the cake’ for our families to take the time and the effort to complete this task just shows our writers at school that writing is essential for us all to share and enjoy.

The ‘Suitcase’ writing for each class is presently being put into a book format so that it can be shared with families. 

Yard Art again proved to be a favourite activity. All the students worked in their small multi-age group lead by a Year 6 student to produce fabulous artworks based on a picture storybook. I hope you were able to see the finished pieces as you entered the school grounds Wednesday afternoon.

Building Works Update

It is with great excitement that I can now report that the tender period has now commenced.  The tender period began on the 13th of May and will conclude on the 10th of June, four weeks in total. I have been engaged in two site meetings, where prospective tenders have a look at the site in conjunction with the tender documents. It is also an opportunity for them to ask any questions of me and the architects. 

Cross Country

Since the last newsletter, our school cross country team has been very busy.

Firstly, on Friday 20th May the team competed in the SDSSA Cross Country at Jells Park; all our runners did an amazing job navigating the course at Jells Park. From this competition we then had a team of twenty-two students return to Jells Park yesterday to compete in the Divisional Cross Country. The extreme weather conditions were challenging but again the team all did their very best.

Congratulations to Advika, Alexa, Imogen, Kate, Oneli, and Zoe who are now all heading off to the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Cross Country on Tuesday 14th June at the Yarra Valley Racecourse. We wish them all the very best, and go Syndal!

Reptile Encounters

Over the past week, our school has been converted into a real wildlife menagerie by the exciting ‘Reptile Encounters.’ I am confident that this isn’t the first time you have heard about the incredible experiences the students have experienced this week. There were many different-sized pythons, a variety of insects and minibeasts, and owls including the popular tawny frogmouth but more rarely and one personally I had never heard about was the ‘barking’ owl, yes it barks like a dog. Different year levels were exposed to different wildlife depending on the curriculum focus. The mission of the Reptile Encounters is to be a voice for those who do not have one. The goal of the up-close wildlife experience is to create lasting memories and inspire students to take an interest in the natural world. I was most impressed by the knowledge of our students when answering the questions asked by the presenters, a truly captivating experience.  You will find more photos of this experience later in the newsletter.

Finally, I would like to thank Michael and Julie for helping to sort out our speaker and microphone issues that have been an ongoing issue for us particularly at assembly.

Have a fabulous fortnight everyone!

Helen