Principal's Report

Dear Parents, Families and Community members,

So officially ten weeks down and one to go! Given the lack of continuity in school and life over the last couple years, our students continue to impress us by displaying of our School Values of Care, Collaboration and Commitment despite the challenges to their stamina and 'school fitness' that must be at play at this point of the Term!

SRC Casual Dress Day & Chocolate Egg Guess

To kick off the school holidays, we are going to hold a casual clothes day and run a school wide 'Guess the number of chocolates' competition on Friday 8th April. 

Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation for casual dress and their chocolate guess. All money raised will be donated to Schools Plus - 2022 Flood Recovery Appeal. Your generosity will provide urgent relief to the school communities impacted by the floods in QLD and NSW.  

Special thanks to Coles, Armstrong Creek Town Centre who have kindly donated the jar full of chocolates for us to use in our competition.

SRC members will present the jar of chocolates to learning communities on the Friday and will record student guesses.  If there are multiple correct guesses, a name will be drawn out of a hat during the final assembly. 

National Ride2School Day

Wow!  It was great to see so many of our students riding, scooting, walking, and skating to school today.  Most of our home groups had over 50% of students' actively travel.

Our winning class with 15 out of the 23 students actively travelling to school was Carla and Erin's Grade 3's.  Congratulations!  Each student took home a new bag.  There were also 12 names pulled out of the active travel raffle and those students also won a bag too.

Thanks for everyone's support at drop off and pick up, it was amazing to see so many families arrive on bikes or scooters together!

New School Council 2022

On Thursday evening we had the first meeting our 'New School Council' where we presented the 2021 Annual Report and welcomed new and returning council members. Previous 'office bearing' positions were vacated  and new positions appointed.

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce our 2022 School Council and welcome the new members in particular.

Welcome for the first time to Alyce Matthies (Parent rep), Laura Hartshorne (Parent rep) and Alison Balchan (Assistant Principal - DET rep).

Welcome back to Tamara James, Leanne Ernstzen and Matt McBeath (all Parent Reps) and Janelle Levy (DET rep).

Congratulations to Tamara for being re-elected as School Council President, Matt re-elected as Vice President and Alyce Matthies elected to the position of Treasure.

At ACS we have been fortunate to always have a highly committed and active School Council and I know the 2022 School Council group will be no different and I look forward to working them this year.

School Cross Country

We are so proud of how our students competed at Cross Country today!  The weather was against us but that didn't stop the resilience and grit that each child showed throughout the day.  Congratulations to all our runners and thank you to our parents for their support!

End of Term Celebration

PACC invite parents, carers and children over to the ovals opposite the school on April 8th at 2.10pm to celebrate the end of Term 1!

Scooped ice cream van will be there selling some well deserved end of term treats! 

Dogs on Site

To support the promotion of a safe school environment and to ensure the safety of all whilst attending the school, dogs are not permitted within the school grounds at any time unless given approval by the Principal.  The exception to this policy is for dogs that assist people with disabilities or are part of the “Dogs in School Program.”

It is not permitted to tether a dog at the school boundary fence.  Owners are highly encouraged to remain with their dogs, outside the school boundaries, at all times. Owners are entirely responsible for the dog’s behaviour and for cleaning up any mess left by the dog.

COVID-19 and Absence Update

As I communicated during the week via Compass, we continue to see a high number of COVID cases within our broader community and I thank everyone for playing their part in monitoring symptoms, testing regularly and keeping children home if they are displaying symptoms regardless of testing results.

I would also like to acknowledge the amazing commitment and positive attitudes of our staff.  We continue to manage staff absences in a way that means student learning is maximised through the flexible and creative use of the staff we have.  Staff have taken on added and different duties all term, all in the name of student learning and well-being.

It would seem likely that this challenge will remain present for the foreseeable future, but please be assured just as we have in Term 1, we will remain committed prioritising learning alongside health and well-being at all times.

Last Day of Term 1 / Return to School - Term 2

A reminder to families that next Friday April 8th is the final day of Term 1. Students will be dismissed at the earlier time of 2.10 p.m. so please make arrangements for students to be collected at this time.   Please also note that there are no lunch orders available this day due to the early dismissal. 

Our first day back for Term 2 is Tuesday April 26th and we look forward to all students returning on this date.

Until then, have an enjoyable and safe Easter and School Holiday period and well done to everyone on what we've achieved so far in 2022.

Take care and enjoy!

Evan Savage

Principal