Dear families and friends,

Another week of rain and we are seeing the impact everywhere we go. The Wannon River is very high and there is water everywhere.

This week has brought the focus of our own families to the very front of my thinking and how fortunate we are. I have been reflecting on how important they are to me this week. On Wednesday, my Mother moved from the family home into a smaller unit and it just reminded how much my family means to me. We all pitched in and helped move Mum. Our lives have become so busy again and are now back into the pre-Covid space we were in 2019. Please take a moment or two and appreciate the families in our lives.

Just a reminder that next Tuesday 1st November is the Melbourne Cup public holiday for all of Victoria and that the school will be closed.

Outside Tables

A big thank you to Merryn who applied for two grants for the school to go towards purchasing some new outdoor tables/seats for the students to use for play and for school learning. We have this week been advised that The Ray & Joyce Uebergang Foundation and the Gwen & Edna Jones Foundation are both granting the school $2,000 each to go towards the new seats. Parents Club have also advised us verbally that they will be happy to pay the remaining cost. These outdoor tables will be a wonderful addition to our learning area.

Professional Learning Community

This week the staff were very fortunate to have Glenn Kane visit the school to attend one of our after school meetings. Glenn is the Professional Learning Community Manager for the Wimmera South-West Area and he is also a former Principal in the Portland and Heywood area. Glenn came to school to give feedback on how the school is using this PLC approach. He has given our staff some terrific feedback and was very impressed by the organisation, team work and shared collaboration.

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes.

Professional learning community (PLC) schools start from a simple idea, 'Students learn more when their teachers work together'.

Wimmera South West Principal Forum

On Thursday, I participated online in the Wimmera South West Principal Forum. We were due to attend the Hamilton Showgrounds venue but it was damaged by the recent Hamilton storms. The sessions were on : workforce challenges, recovering and restoring students well-being after Covid and the Information Sharing & Family Violence Reforms Training.

F/1 Halls Gap Excursion

We have nine very excited students and three teachers who are really looking forward to our trip to the Halls Gap Zoo. We will be heading off at 9am in our mini bus with Miss Purnell as the driver, Ms Ferrier as the co-driver and Mrs McNaughton as the navigator. We will be heading straight to the Halls Gap Zoo for morning tea then starting our adventure. We have an animal encounter booked with one of the Zookeepers as well. I wonder what animals we will get to see? We will definitely make time to stop at the ice cream shop and a play in town before heading home. There will be lots of photos taken so please keep an eye for next weeks newsletter.

Stadium update

Our building works on the stadium have finally gone out to tender. This week we have had a builder from Thomastown come to school to meet with some local trade businesses. We hope that the tender process will be smooth and that we will have some more information before the end of the year of who will be completing the works and when it might start.

New sports crates

Our Junior School Council has purchased two new sports crates for some of our regularly used sports equipment. Thanks to Mae, Tilly and Holly who put them together. The students were very excited to see it all set up.

Thank you to Karl Price for pressure cleaning the concrete areas around the classrooms and lockers.

Darcy went on holidays this week and was very excited to meet the Fren family off the TV show, Travel Guides. He said they were very down to earth friendly people.

Have a great weekend.

Lisa Ferrier

Berklandia