Leadership Report

What a difference a week can make!

Winter has officially arrived this week, bringing chilly mornings, rainy afternoons, and a few very wet indoor playtimes on the timetable. If anyone managed to sink a three-pointer at before-school basketball this week without feeling their fingertips, we’d love to know your secret.

A quick reminder that Monday is a public holiday for the King’s Birthday, so we hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. We look forward to welcoming students back on Tuesday.

A huge shoutout to Raul for leading our athletes at the Cross Country Division Championships this week. Thank you for supporting and encouraging our students as they represented the school so proudly. Be sure to check out the Cross Country page in this newsletter for a full recap of the day and some fantastic photos.

I spent some time in the staffroom checking in with our teaching staff. Here are a few quotes of the week, straight from the staffroom. And yes, the general consensus was that the coffee machine continues to be the most valuable thing in the building.

Paula (Foundation teacher): “In Foundation, we are working on tens facts and finding friends of ten.”
Laura (Foundation teacher): “It’s been excelente to see students confidently using más and igual. Addition in Spanish is really starting to click!”
Luke (Foundation teacher): “Doubles, doubles, I can add doubles. It’s no trouble for me to add doubles.” This funky beat has been stuck in my head all week."
Colleen (Foundation teacher): “The preps have begun their journey and are well and truly on their way to becoming full stop masters.”
Almendra (1/2 teacher): “1/2EF are writing more in Spanish than the Year 1 students in Chile!”
Bianca (1/2 teacher): “Our writing is the deadliest, like the poisonous snakes of Australia!”
Mel (1/2 LCL): “Our 1/2s’ handwriting focus across both English and Spanish literacy has resulted in many proud authors ready to show you their letter formation at home!”
Katherine (3/4 teacher): “Camp is in 12 days. We’ve all picked a favourite horse on the ranch website, and it’s looking like Pickles is our class favourite.”
Carmen (3/4 teacher): “We’ve been having really great class discussions about empathy, social awareness, and gratitude in 3/4EF. These students are blowing my mind. They are so switched on.”
Sole (3/4 teacher): “Some students have had their minds completely blown this week after discovering the magic of Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Unfortunately, they also learned that you still have to add capital letters and full stops on your own.”
Rob (Performing Arts / Music teacher): “I’ve really enjoyed teaching PE and STEAM this week. It was lovely to see the students engaging in Indigenous culture around the seasons. Buena esquiva!”

Speaking of celebrations, a massive thank you to our PFA team, Claire, Abner, and Alberto, for organising the pizza party prizes for all classes that raised over $2000 during the Colour Run fundraiser. Seeing students enjoy their well-earned celebrations throughout the week was fantastic.

We would also like to wish Sophia, our Foundation Learning Community Leader, all the very best as she begins a period of long service leave. Sophia will be away until Term 3, Week 2, enjoying a European summer honeymoon.

While we are incredibly excited for her, it’s fair to say there is a certain amount of jealousy floating around at the moment. As we pull on another layer of clothing and dash through the rain to yard duty, Sophia will somehow be enjoying sunny European afternoons, beautiful scenery, and holiday adventures. We promise not to hold it against her… much!

Newlands is Going to Hollywood!

It is an exciting time at Newlands, with our school selected as a filming location for an upcoming Hollywood horror movie. During the school holidays, approximately half of our school site will be transformed into a movie set, with more than 70 cast and crew members working on location. I'll let you guess which half of the school has been chosen for a horror film!

Over the final two weeks of term, members of the production team will be on site preparing for filming. This will involve making temporary changes to some areas of the school to create the movie set. We would like to reassure families that these preparations will not impact teaching and learning programs, and all classes will continue as normal.

Our holiday program will also continue to operate at Newlands throughout the filming period. To ensure the safety and smooth operation of both the film production and the holiday program, activities will be based in the Gymnasium and Learning World spaces.

We look forward to sharing more details once the project is officially announced and can't wait to see Newlands on the big screen!

Have a wonderful long weekend, stay warm, stay dry, and we look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday.

Luke Cripps

Principal