From the Principal

Kindness is one of our school's Character Pillars. We teach kindness, we demonstrate kindness and we celebrate and award acts of kindness. 

The Kindness Factory talks about kindness being a powerful tool for nurturing the well-being of everyone! Scientific studies have shown that kindness has a great number of physical and emotional benefits which support people to be happy, confident, well-rounded individuals. 

For our school, focussing on kindness gives us hope that there will be less bullying and disruptive behaviour across the school and that students will enjoy coming to school each day to learn.  Last week Dean White, Executive Director of Schools and Chad Bliss, Director of Orange Public schools visited our school for a few hours. Both men were very impressed with how friendly and welcoming our students were and spent time touring our school, talking to staff and students. 

I, alongside my colleagues, have great pride in our school and it was wonderful to show off our amazing school and programs and showcase the incredible work being done across all aspects of the school.

We will be holding an open afternoon and welcome BBQ on Thursday 17th March to showcase our school and welcome new students and families and to welcome back our families who have not been able to visit for nearly 2 years due to the COVID pandemic. I look forward to seeing you at this special open day celebration. Invitations with information will be sent out next week. 

Our new focus on Positive Wellbeing for Learning (PWL) complements our existing Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) and the team have been brainstorming great ideas for projects in our school. We are looking at creating a mindful walk around the school and through the vineyard, which will allow staff and students the opportunity to take time to appreciate nature, reduce anxiety and refocus ready for learning. 

We continue to have a busy start to the term with Breakaways (lunch clubs) and outings in full swing. For more information about Breakaways, go to What's Happening section in this newsletter. Swim School for primary students was highly successful and I was delighted to visit the pool and see everyone enjoying and learning so well. Congratulations and thanks to the primary staff and the additional staff who were employed to support the program. 

Thank you to all parents and carers who attended Personalised Learning Plan (PLP) meetings last week. PLPs are an important time to establish goals for the next 6 months and to discuss the strengths of each child. If you have not had the chance to meet with your child's teacher, please make contact as soon as possible to develop the goals for your child. 

Don't forget to link with us through Seesaw, the Sentral Parent Portal and Facebook to find out about what is happening at school. The School website is also a wonderful source of information about our school. Communication diaries are incredibly important to also communicate information between home and school. If you need help with any of these forms of communication, please contact your child's teacher or the stage leader. 

Enjoy the Autumn weeks ahead and I hope to all see you at the Open Day and Welcome BBQ.

Melanie Meers

Principal

Adjunct Lecturer CSU

DipArts (Music), GradDip (Education), GradCertEd (Pedagogy), MEd (Leadership & Management), GradCertEd (Learning Support), ProfCert (Positive Education)

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