Principal's Message
Our children are our future...
Principal's Message
Welcome to the start of Week 5 of Term 3. I want to start by thanking all parents who made lovely comments on our Facebook site about me (relating to Victorian Principals' Day). I am honoured and privileged to serve this community and I extend my heartfelt gratitude to those who took the time to comment. It was humbling.
It is a case of "here we go again" with the lockdown announced on Thursday last week. If things go to plan, the lockdown will cease on Thursday, August 12, with school returning to onsite learning at 9am on Friday, August 13. Please note that I have just sent out a Compass Newsfeed with Webex codes for the week. Those codes are also replicated at the bottom of this page.
I must confess to a bit of disappointment having to go into lockdown again. Along with all staff, I was so excited to see the kids' faces when they returned and they have been so kind and sweet. I have never missed kids as much as I do now (and I have been a teacher for over 35 years). I was also sad for three new (and lovely) families who were destined to start on Monday. These families have come from overseas and have been conducting online learning for 18 months straight! I wanted to see their little faces light up when they saw children in the yard again after all that time. We will just have to wait.
Whenever we go into snap lockdown, it takes the first day to get things organised. Friday last week was 'remote lite' as the announcement came so late. We are confident that the Monday to Thursday sessions are fuller with more detail. We thank families for their understanding on this point.
During lockdowns, we focus on three main things:
- Are we OK as a healthy human being, along with our team?
- Are the kids OK psychologically and socially?
- Is our Remote Learning Plan robust and rigorous?
These three basic tenets are the cornerstone of our online work. We strip things back to make sure we can focus on the right work.
Book Week
Please take a look this week at our special Book Week page in the iNewsletter. Our kids love books and literacy is such a key cornerstone of what we do at SMPS. We want our kids to be 1: Good people (Character), 2: Good Citizens (Community) and 3: Good Learners (Learning). Literacy is key to this and books are the vehicle we use. Please read the page carefully to support Book Week at SMPS coming soon.
Codes for Webex This Week