A message from Margie     

We love our community! 

I always feel lucky to lead a school so grounded in community.  Students benefit by feeling connected to their community and when we can adapt our curriculum to include a local real-world context, this brings great relevance and meaning to their learning. This past fortnight has provided a number of opportunities for students to engage with and give back to the wider community: Remembrance Day, Summerhill Visit, Be Ready community calendar and CE Student Forums, all featured below. 

Remembrance Day

On the 11th of November students from all classes attended the Uraidla Soldiers Memorial to commemorate Remembrance Day. Our SRC executives Nilah and Lena along with Harriet, Elsa and Ada ran the ceremony for the school and members of the community. 

Leading into the day all students created poppies to wear and were educated on the significance of the day. Thank you to our student leaders for running the service for our community. 

Visiting Summerhill

Students in Years 2 and 3 walked up the hill to visit the residents of the Summerhill aged care facility.  They performed two songs for the elderly residents, delivered cards that they had made individually for each resident and enjoyed some interesting connection and conversation. 

2025 Be Ready Emergency Calendar 

You may remember that earlier this year, all students participated in the 2025 Be Ready Emergency Calendar project to support the work of the Uraidla and Summertown Resilience Group as part of the RediCommunities program, a collaborative initiative facilitated by the Australian Red Cross in partnership with Adelaide Hills Council. Deanne Hanchant-Nichols visited all classes to share stories about fire, the local landscape, and Kaurna seasons. Inspired by these sessions, students created artwork representing each season, and some were chosen to feature in the calendars.  Each of our families have been given a calendar free of charge, funded by Adelaide Hills Council, and supported by the SACWA Uraidla and Districts Branch. Additional calendars are available for $5 at Uraidla Cottage Pharmacy and the Uraidla Bike Café. 

Here are the featured artists with their calendar pages! 

Chief Executive Student Forum

Ada Brodie Tyrrell, Louie Griffiths, Eloise Sachse, Ellie Koay, Edith Comey, Edward Croser-Barlow and Anji Henschke joined me and students in schools from all around South Australia last week to meet online with the Chief Executive of Education Martin Westwell in the CE Student Forum, and to give feedback on the Department for Education's new Areas of Impact (Student Agency, Excellence and Equity, Wellbeing and Effective Learners).  I always love hearing our students' opinions about learning, and I was impressed by their confidence and passion in presenting their opinions! 

Cricket pitch

There was much excitement last Wednesday and Thursday when we had our brand-new cricket pitch (from the SA Cricket Association Place to Play Grant) dug out and poured. 

This process isn't completed yet with the company having to wait two weeks for the concrete to be ready. Next week they will return to lay artificial turf on the pitch ready for us to enjoy for many years to come. 

End of year events 

AGM

On Monday, December 2 at 7pm we will be holding our Governing Council Annual General Meeting, where we elect members and office holders for 2025. The Governing Council is a terrific group that advises the school on matters of governance such as finances and policy. We meet twice a school term at 7pm. If you are interested in joining our Governing Council please email me at margie.sarre187@schools.sa.edu.au to let me know before the night so we can be ready to welcome you! 

End-of-year performance 

• The evening performance takes place on Tuesday, December 10 at 6pm. 
• Students need to be at school in their costumes at 5:45. 
• School students will be seated on mats on the floor in front of the audience; toddlers and high school students please sit with parents.
•  The Uraidla Districts Football Club are putting on a BBQ (more info to follow), and the Hokey Pokey ice cream van will also be in attendance.  
• Bring a picnic rug, drinks and other food your family might enjoy, and plan to celebrate the great year we've had with the whole school community following the performance! I'll organise the weather 😬. 
• As noted in the School News section, the evening performance will be very full and will be ticketed. We will be putting on a matinee at 11am on Tuesday morning (Dec 10) and we welcome any parents, grandparents and other family members to attend. 

Volunteers' morning tea

We will be holding a morning tea for all adults who volunteer at school, on Wednesday, December 11 at 9:00 am in the school gym. If you have helped out with camps and excursions, being on a school committee such as P and F or Governing Council, have volunteered on a school stall, helped out in the classroom or volunteered in any other way, we would love to have the opportunity to thank you. We couldn't do what we do without our generous volunteers! 

Graduation 

We will be celebrating our Year 6 graduating students on the evening of Thursday, December 12.  We will also be bidding them farewell with a guard of honour on the final day of school Friday, December 13 at the End of Year assembly at 1:30.  We would love to see you there! 

End-of-Year Assembly

 the final assembly of the year will be held on Friday, December 13 at 1:30. We will have an early dismissal at 2:10 pm. 

Have a wonderful fortnight! 🙂

Margie