Principal Notes
Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Welcome back
Psalm 100 came to mind as I thought about the beginning of this year. I am humbled, excited and grateful for the opportunity to start this new year. I am a little nervous, I am a little excited, and I am a little tired. But there are so many things to be grateful for and I want to thank God for them.
I thank God for the rest that we were able to have in the holidays and for the work that the teachers, maintenance and admin staff have done preparing for this year. I thank God that each of you are part of our community. An important part of our school community! I am thankful that God is King of this school and part of our lives.
I know that there will be ups and downs this year as there always are, because learning, being a friend, and working with others is sometimes hard.
I know that there will be times when parents will need to have hard conversations with teachers and myself, and that teachers will need to have hard conversations with students and parents. But I know in all that we do this will be done respectfully, from a posture of care, focusing on growth and community.
As we do this, we will be living out our vision of being 'Active and connected, growing for LIFE'. Active in our learning, listening and relationships. Connected as community and partners as we grow for life here on this earth and beyond.
We officially bless our new staff this Sunday at 10:30am at Good Shepherd church. They have all been busy working these last few weeks and already they have been a blessing to our school community. We welcome the following people; Kate Armitage, Megan Hickey, Jessica Ayliffe, Sonia Colalancia, Denzil Forbes, Catherine George, Mirsini Arabatzis, Jared Grierson, Rowan Lieschke, Kim Reddy, Sheridyn Lovell and Hannah Vlahos.
As we start out this year I would like to draw your attention to some changes that have been made to support students and families throughout the school.
School Website
We have been working at making this a one stop shop for all of the information that you need from day to day. Thank you to Kim our Communications and Marketing person for working on this. If you have a question, we are hoping that this will be a place you can get the answer.
Uniform Policy
As you are investigating the website - I encourage you to understand some changes that we have made to the uniform policy.
Upper Primary Formal Uniforms
Currently boys in Stage 3 & 4 are able to wear their long or short pants at any time of the year. This is now also open to girls, there are three options of uniform combinations that they now have access to throughout the year.
Sports Uniforms
The transition for the new rugby tops has begun and as each size of the older uniform runs out new jumpers will be avalible. The transition in this space is long with the official phasing out of the older rugby tops to be the end of 2025.
Home Learning Policy
As part of our regular review of policy, teaching staff reviewed and made changes to the Home Learning Policy. You will note that the primary focus is on reading as the key skill that the students will be engaging in, and on balance for families and rest for the students. More information will be communicated at the Parent Partnership Nights. Please take some time to read through the policy before then.