Welcome back, on-site students!

Thank you to everyone for your understanding this term. Our focus this past week and the coming week is on reconnecting with the students, redeveloping relationships and re-establishing community norms in the classrooms and school. Last Monday it was lovely to welcome back our Prep students for three days, then on Thursday, the Year 1 and 2 students were on-site, and Friday the Year 5 and 6 cohort. Today it was the Year 3, and 4 students turn!

While we are not back to a normal program yet, I am looking forward to having all the students back on-site full-time on Monday 1 November. Schools are moving forward with caution as the majority of our students are unable to be vaccinated. Therefore we will continue to have some restrictions, however we have become accustomed to being flexible. We have learnt to focus on what we can do rather than what we can’t. I am so thankful to have the students and staff back at school. Masks for Year 3-6 students continue to be mandatory and highly recommended for our Prep-Year 2 students. It was great to see so many of our students sporting masks this past week.

Classes for 2022

Teachers will begin the task of preparing for the 2022 classes in November. If you need to communicate something regarding your child’s educational needs for 2022, please do this in writing directly to the Principal, via letter or email. This needs to be submitted by Wednesday, 3 November. Requests made to teachers, or for particular teachers, cannot and will not be accommodated.

Class teachers and Specialist teachers who have been working with children throughout the year know the students and their friendship groups. They are familiar with their learning needs, and are able to make wise decisions around their placement in 2022 classes. Teachers will be directly involved when placements are being considered in November.

Please note: as class formation is time-consuming and takes many weeks to complete, requests submitted after Wednesday, 3 November are impossible to accommodate.

Step into Prep 2022

The program for our 2022 Preps gets underway the second week of November. We look forward to welcoming our incoming Preps for their sessions as they begin their transition to Solway. Under the current Department of Education guidelines, we are unable to host Prep transition sessions on-site. Due to this, we are planning to run the sessions online. The online sessions will run from 9:30-10:15 am. WebEx invitations will be emailed 24 hours prior.

If the guidelines change, we will notify families as soon as possible and revert to an on-site program. On-site sessions would return to a 9:15-10:30 am timeslot.

The parent information evening will continue as planned through WebEx. An invitation to this event will be emailed out to parents 24 hours before the event.

We look forward to meeting you and the students throughout the transition program, either online or in-person!

Graduation 2021

The Department of Education guidelines are still evolving and at this stage the directions for graduation are still unclear. I want to reassure Year 6 students, parents and families that there will be a graduation for our students. We understand the significance of this event and are currently working on a plan similar to the graduation of 2020. More information will be sent to Year 6 families shortly.

Congratulations!

To Lee White and his partner Laura who are expecting their first baby this week! We look forward to hearing news very soon.

Congratulations to Sarah de Jong and her husband Bernard, who are expecting their first child early in 2022, and Emma Kelliher and her husband Mika who are expecting also early in 2022.

Congratulations to Bre Baird on her engagement to Jeremy over the holidays. Bre is sporting a beautiful new ring!

Thanks!

A huge thank you to Paul from Ashburton Meats, who has donated 1000 child sized disposable masks to the school! These are a great back up for when students forget to bring a mask. Please remember as a sustainable school we would like to minimise the use of these, however this supply will come in very handy for emergencies!

Lyn Rodda

Principal

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