Message from the Principal 

Making visible what we value at our school and about our school is a really important thing to do. Over recent weeks this work has included introducing a gallery space in our foyer to celebrate and showcase our student artists of the month. We eagerly await a special artwork by Emma Bamblett to take centre place in the foyer and you can read more about her work at our school this week in this newsletter. 

Further down the corridor towards the staffroom, we have named our “chill out” space as “Jenny’s Room” in honour of Jenny Cranston who worked so tirelessly and selflessly to assist our students and staff for many years before her retirement recently. The office foyer itself has also had a makeover and update and the glass display case now features a display of artefacts and objects to spark student interest and curiosity. This display changes regularly and has so far included a science theme and maths theme. I wonder what is coming next?

SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE

This week we held our first School Council meeting and I am pleased to announce that during the meeting Irina Fainberg was elected as School Council President, Sam Redman as Vice President, Jamie McGowan as Treasurer and Justin Parr-Davies as Vice Treasurer. 

At the meeting we also confirmed our sub-committee structure for 2022. These are:

• Finance  - convened by Jaime McGowan 
• Parents Association (PA) – convened by Josh Lucas with Justin Parr-Davies as the School Council Representative
• Family Partnerships (which includes a focus on communications and education)- convened by – Irina Fainberg
• STEAM (Science, Technololgy, Engineering, Arts & Maths) convened by Daniel Kelly and Sam Redman
• Sustainability, Buildings & Grounds – convened by Rosita Zakaria and Adam Laws
• OSHClub - convened by Rosita Zakaria
• Canteen – convened by Kelly Rogel 
• Policies working group  - convened by Victoria Harris & James Penson

Our sub-committees are where the actual work of School Council takes place. All school councillors serve on at least one sub-committee and we also welcome other parents, carers and staff to join these. It would be GREAT to have lots of parent and carer involvement across all of these groups.  I will publish the meeting dates and times for these committees over the next few weeks and you can also flag your interest in joining one or more of these teams with me and I will link you in with the convenor of the group.

JUNIOR SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS

Our Junior School are collecting items each week for the Greenhills Neighbourhood House as part of their food relief program. These items include toiletries, non-perishable items and pantry staples. They can be dropped at the office ready for collection. 

GOOD LUCK YEAR 6 CAMPERS

Only 5 more sleeps until our Year 6’s travel to Anglesea for their camp. I know this group of students is very excited and our staff team have put significant planning in place to ensure that the camp runs as Covid safely as possible. This has included increasing the number of staff attending, reducing the numbers of student in each accommodation room, strongly requesting RA tests for all students on the morning of departure and again on the afternoon of return, mask wearing in the bus, maximising the program around outdoor activity and a lot of contingency planning in the event we do have a student/s or staff presenting with symptoms. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff that will be attending and in particular Lynsey Barrett for her organisation and leadership as our camp co-ordinator.

RIDE TO SCHOOL DAY

Friday 25th March is National Ride to School Day. 

We have a number of students who ride their bikes and scooters to school each day and this might be an opportunity for a few more students to give this a go! Last year we had over 150 students ride or scoot to school – let’s see if we can break this record in 2022!

PARENT HELPERS

Thank you to all of our parents and carers who have attended one of our Parent Helper Induction Sessions. These inductions are a very important process that helps our school community understand that our school has a clear and public commitment to child safety in the form of our Child Safe Code of Conduct and Child Protection Reporting Policy. By including these policies as part of our parent helper requirement, our School Council has clearly defined and explained acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for staff, volunteers and children. 

You must complete an induction sessions to be a parent helper in anyway at our school. This includes helping on an excursion, in a classroom or at any event during the year. 

We will continue to host the sessions in our staffroom and via Webex and the times over the next two weeks are:

Tuesday 15th March – 3pm in the staffroom

Wednesday 16th March – 9am in the staffroom

Friday 18th March – 9am in the staffroom

Tuesday 22nd March – 9am in the staffroom

Tuesday 22nd March – 6pm Webex

Thursday 24th March – 3pm in the staffroom

We will officially start our parent helpers in our classrooms with a maximum of one parent helper per day in each of our rooms from the week beginning Monday 21st March. This will be a deliberately slow and steady process to start with as we monitor any impacts this has on our school Covid safe operating environment. Over time and next term we hope to increase this number and really build back up to what this looked like in pre-Covid times.  Our teachers will soon outline when they would like the help and use a booking system to manage as effectively and efficiently as possible. Stay tuned for more information shortly.

SCHOOL ENROLMENTS 2023

Believe it or not we are now starting to forward plan for 2023! Next week I will send a letter home to all families with younger siblings that may be starting school next year. It will be important for you to indicate to me that you have a child starting in 2023 and complete an enrolment form as early as possible. 

We also have regular school tours each week on Wednesdays at 9.30am, or by appointment. I am also hosting an evening tour on Wednesday 23rd March at 6.30pm. If you know of any family that are interested in coming to our school please let them know about these tours.