Principal's Update

Dear Families,

We warmly welcomed back our children on Monday morning. It is an absolute delight to hear their chatter and joy at seeing each other again. What is also lovely about our school is that the staff are exactly the same; before the children arrived, there was a lot of catching up to do.

It is with both sadness and joy for Tina (Mrs Haase) that I announce that at the end of the year, Tina will be leaving us as a classroom teacher. Not to head off to another school, but to make the transition into a different working life. Tina will take the first six months of 2026 as leave and then continue to work as a Casual Relief Teacher. There is no doubt that Tina has had a significant impact on the lives of many children (my own included). Tina wanted to make this decision and leave full-time teaching while she still has a love for what she does. She has also become an Omi and wants to spend some time with her beautiful granddaughter, Scarlett. This has been a big decision for Tina, and she has both our support and blessing. I am sure many of you will want to wish her well and say goodbye before the end of the year.  ( However, we will still welcome her back as a relief teacher)

Many thanks to the small group of families who met at the end of last term to map out some events and fundraisers for 2026. We will send home a note next week asking for volunteers to organise and coordinate these events, so please start thinking about how you may be able to help out. Many hands reduce the workload. 

The plans include trying to organise the following: 

• A Trivia night
• Bunnings Sausage Sizzle
• Disco
• Outdoor Cinema
• Beginning of Year Picnic Tea
• Colour Run
• Catering
• Named pavers 
• Organising end-of-term lunches
• Occasional cuppas after Assembly
• Disco

On another note, I would like to emphasise the importance of school attendance, as well as punctuality in both arriving and leaving on time. Whilst understanding illness is unpredictable and unavoidable, I would like you to consider some of the following statistics.

• Ideally, all children would have a 95% or above attendance rate. Each session, or part of a session or a day quickly adds up. A 95% attendance rate equates to one day absent from school per month. Over the year, this adds up to 10 days. Over the course of the 7 years of primary school, this adds up to 70 days. This equates to one and a half terms. 

• If an attendance rate drops to 80%, this then equates to two full days per fortnight and over a year, 40 days away from school. This is an 8-week absence from school. Over the course of the 7 years of primary school, this equates to 240 days, which is more than a full year of school absence. If this occurred each year for a child over their 13 years of schooling, it equates to 520 days, which is more than two and a half full years of school absence. 

I know that is a lot of facts and figures, but time at school is precious, as is the flow and continuity of learning. We kindly ask that you consider this information; however, as I said earlier, illness is unavoidable.

Thank you for your ongoing support. Your children's education and well-being are our absolute priority.

We look forward to seeing all the wonderful things they will achieve this term.

Louise