Principal Report
Dear Families,
As we approach the end of term 3 it is not lost on me how quickly this year has gone by. The events are coming quickly, and that is just in school, I am sure with all the sports finals, this month feels like a blur.
Some of the highlights at school include swimming weeks, science, numeracy, and literacy weeks, as well as an upcoming Specialist Night on Thursday 29th August at 5:30 pm.
Our students love their specialist subjects, and we hope that you can support them to attend school this Thursday so they can share with you some of the types of activities that they love to do each week. See you there.
Loving school
Being at school each day that we are well enough should be a must for all our children. We know children get sick, especially these last few years, but we want to encourage the best attendance we can. If your child is away, please contact us to share the reasons why.
Teachers and staff work tirelessly each day to make school a place that children love to be part of. You can help us by talking positively about school, encouraging good routines, including sleep, as well helping them see any challenges as something they can resolve will help them be in the right spot to be 'Ready to Learn.
If you are finding there are challenges to supporting regular attendance some of these resources may help.
Staffing Update
A warm welcome back to Mrs. Rachel Boyle who has returned to school from parental leave. Rachel has joined 56O. The move replaces Mrs. Mykaela Oakley who has moved to parental leave as she awaits a new baby. We wish Mykaela well and hope for a safe and healthy new arrival. Good luck to Mykaela and her partner Josh.
Portfolio Tasks
Last week students left school with their learning portfolios. Inside you will find their term 3 learning tasks. The tasks have been graded and added to Compass under the learning tasks tab. The grades are used to help guide the final semester report at the end of the year. They are only a small snapshot of what your child covers term to term. We are proud of their efforts so far this term.
Laptops grade 2
Thank you to the parents and carers in grade 2 for supporting the laptop initiative. It is appreciated. The students will have their devices sometime early next term. After learning to log on, we will be helping them to use their devices safely and responsibly.
Facilities
We are increasing our enrolments and next year we will have 18 grades, and the year after 19. As we grow we are making decisions about where we will have teaching and meeting spaces. We have recently added a new room in the Boorai building that will be used in some capacity in 2025. We hope to be able to share plans early term 4 for where classes will be placed in 2025.
In the same building, we have also organised for the toilet flooring to be relayed with new vinyl. This will be across all three bathrooms. We have also moved the hand towels down. A thank you to the preps this year, and prior, for persevering and using those arms to stretch for a towel.
Accessibility
We are also improving the ramp to the portables. Conditions change as time evolves and the ramp that is there currently has been deemed ready for an upgrade. We are hoping this will be this year and have minimal impact on students.
Curriculum Day
On Monday 9th September, we will be hosting a numeracy professional learning day. The focus will be on 'Place Value'. I am excited about the changes that are being introduced in maths from 2025. This will be the initial start to our planning for these changes. Thank you for being supportive of our teachers/staff be able to use this time to be better prepared for their future teaching.
Looking ahead:
When we return from the term 3 holidays, we will start to plan classes for 2025. We will seek information from parents in week 1 of term 4.
We also know that many families choose to take the long weekend near the Melbourne Cup. Our teachers use this day to write reports. We will run a slightly different program that day that will collapse classes.
Kind Regards,
Craig Bradley