SKiPPS Newsletter

Important Notices

Working Bee

Our school working bee for the term is taking place this Saturday morning from 9am onwards.

 

We ask all families to try and find the time to come along and help us out for a few hours.

 

Working bees make such a difference to the look and feel of our great school and allow us to keep our physical environment in the condition that our students and staff deserve.

 

Sadly government funding alone does not allow us to engage contractors to complete these jobs so, without regular working bees, they would not get done and our school would be a poorer, less welcoming (and messier) place as a result.

 

This Saturday we are hoping to;

  • Weed and mulch garden beds in quadrangle
  • Sweeping and tidy sandpit area
  • Clear out storm drains
  • Remove a rotten garden bed from back of school
  • Tidy storage garage
  • Mulch garden beds around school
  • Sand and varnish benches
  • Weed, tidy and mulch area near staff car parks
  • Install acoustic panels on wall outside 3/4 classrooms (and patch inside)
  • Replace graffitied shade sail on fence in bins area
  • Create bicycle wheel archway for garden
  • Clean water troughs around school
  • Chook House - run layer of chicken wire along external fenceline to increase security.
  • Painting - in art room upstairs on damaged wall and in student toilets
  • Move piano to heritage shed office

As you can see, a long list that requires a lot of parents and carers - please come along and we will even shout you a sausage sizzle lunch when we finish up around 12pm!

Team Kids Staffing Update

We need to update our community on a staffing change at Team Kids (our external provider of before, after and vacation care) that has taken place in the last couple of weeks.

 

Simon, our Director of Service has now moved on from SKiPPS to another role within the company.

We would like to thank Simon for his hard work at our school for the last 16 months. During this time he formed some beautiful relationships, brought real positivity and energy to the role and provided a warm welcome to the students attending the service. The early starts, late finishes and responsibilities of his role are a big challenge and we all wish him well in his future endeavours.

 

In Simon's absence, Sarah, his assistant has stepped up to temporarily run the service.

 

We are excited to share that a brand new Director of Service has now been appointed and will be starting work at the school. Madison comes to us with a wealth of experience, having 5 years of teaching experience as well as experience with additional needs children. 

 

Madison will start at SKiPPS on Monday 19th August and I am sure we will all make her feel welcome at our school.

CYBERSAFETY SESSIONS  Term 3 

In 2024 all students participate in the Inform & Empower Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing program each term. All  grades across the school tune in to live streamed incursions (with their teachers) every term that focus on healthy and safe digital habits. The incursion content is all written and delivered by qualified teachers who are endorsed by the eSafety Commissioner as a Trusted eSafety Provider. These sessions aim to help children better navigate the online world and become more aware, clever, brave and kind. They will focus on topics including navigating unwanted contact, cyberbullying, help-seeking strategies, unsafe content, balancing screen time with "green time" and sharing personal information. 

Parents and carers are given resources to support conversations with your child at home. A concise “tip sheet”  has been emailed v COMPASS today that outlines what your child learned about in class and how you might open up these important conversations.

SKiPPS Orchestra news

Due to the ongoing maintenance works at school, the orchestra cannot currently rehearse in the Performing Arts Room. So we are planning to make music in a different manner for the rest of this term. Michael (our conductor) will offer a singing and song writing workshop each Wednesday from 8am-8.45am. 

 

The song writing aspect will include the option for children to enter the National Songwriting Competition run annually by the Australian Children's Music Foundation. https://acmf.com.au/national-songwriting-competition/

 

I know this is very different to the Orchestra program but, in terms of musical development, it is valuable and hopefully lots of fun.

We will start NEXT WEDNESDAY 14th AUGUST in the BER, the library area in the BER building, which Neil and teachers have kindly made available to us. Parent helpers are always welcome. 

 

Contact Michael for more information: Michael_roper@fastmail.fm or 0433911773