Principal News

Weeks 6 and 7

New Teacher

It has taken a while to find a teacher for junior school after Mrs Sykes left at the end of the last term. We had to advertise the position three times before we could find someone that we thought suitable for our school. We have Mrs Kylie Hudson starting in week 9 of this term. She is an experienced teacher, and I am sure she will be an asset to the junior school.

Teacher Illness

There is still a significant shortage of replacement teachers when staff are away with the flu. Last week, we had a day when the replacement teacher called in sick last minute. The pool of replacement teachers has dried up, and unless you can book them a few weeks ahead, there is little chance of getting one. Booking ahead is OK for planned times when we need replacement teachers but not suitable for sick people. We have to change school timetables and sometimes split classes to keep the school operational. We do not like to do this, but we have no choice. Some schools have sent all the children home because of the effect of this current strain of the flu. We hope that we do not get to that stage.

Earthquake Drill

As part of health and safety procedures in the school, we need to practice our emergency management procedures. We do this in partnership with a company called Dynamiq. 

Last Friday, we practised an earthquake drill. It went very well and showed us some things we needed to sort out. One of these was that when we have classes in the hall doing P.E, even though they are only a few meters away, we have no direct communication with them. Also, we need to sort out a way of knowing who the School Hub is. Parents come and are there during the day. There could be playgroups, English lessons, sewing etc., so we need a procedure to ensure that everyone is safe in the Hub.

Dynamic creates a report for us to identify things to change or watch out for, and we will use that to help us make some changes.

Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews

The teachers are working on the children's reports that will go home at the end of this term. Usually, at the end of term two, we have parent-teacher interviews; we will not do that this term because it is only a nine-week term. We will have the parent-teacher interviews on Wednesday, 20th July. The school will end an hour early on that at 2:30 pm. Information about the interviews and booking times will be going home before the end of this term. Parents will be able to have the interviews at school or home online.

School Closures Term 3

During term three, we will have two school closure days. The first one is on Friday 22nd July and the second is on Monday 29th August.

Friday 22nd July will be a continuation of the learning that staff are doing with Challenging Learning and the one on Monday 29th July is for Religious Education. For the staff to maintain the ability to teach Religious Education in the Melbourne Diocese, they need to do 50 hours of professional development in the R.E area. This day is part of that 50 hours. 

Steve Twomey

Principal