Leadership Report

Fiesta - What a night!

The night of nights! The fiesta was a fantastic celebration of our achievements to successfully implement our Spanish Bilingual across the whole school. To share this celebration with our community was wonderful, and to see so many on the night; past, present and possibly future was simply a testament to the high level of interest in Newlands in the wider community.

A number of thanks must go out to our staff and those parents who worked on the stalls, helped set up and of course who assisted staff packing up at the end of the night. A very special thanks goes out to Luisa and Jose who drove and led the creation of the fiesta - all within six weeks.

We are very lucky as a school community to have so many many staff (teachers and aides) who are always willing to go that bit extra for the kids. As the leader of the school I'm very honored to have so many teachers and aides who work tirelessly to make a difference.

So, thank you one and all, and have a wonderful holiday break and enjoy the opportunity catch up with family and friends.

Farewell David and Mary

We would like to thank two incredible members of the Newlands family as they move on to the next step of their journey.

Firstly, Mary has been working in the office over the last 12 months and she has been loved and adored by all member of the Newlands Community. We thank her so much for coming out of retirement to help our school continue to be better. We are going to miss her friendly smile and happy face as she demands receipts and signs off purchase orders. Mary our Melba of the business manager world will finally retire from the world of school accounting, first-aid, taking messages and all other forms of student problem solving. Mary has brought a sense of calm and order to the office, which we had been missing for some time. We hope now you can truly enjoy retirement and join many travels with the army of Grey Nomads. Have a wonderful retirement. We wish Mary all the best and want to thank her on behalf of the Department of Education for all of her years work.

David has been at the school since 2018 and in that time has worn many hats and had a plethora of roles. David has not only established the Spanish Music program at Newlands, he has used his contacts to ensure that individual lessons could be provided to the students at Newlands with multiple engaging options. David has been integral in the creation of our Developmental Management processes, leading our School Improvement Team, OHS and Daily Organisation. David is heading off to the border to Bombala Secondary School where he will be the Head of Teaching and Learning. We would like to congratulate him and wish him all the best. We look forward to his 2022 Term 1 return.

Changes to daily routine from term 2

There will be a few changes to the beginning and ending of the day starting in Term 2, now that the state has been announced COVID-Safe.

Students are able to enter the school from any of the open three gates where they will be greeted by a Yard Duty teacher. These gates continue to be the Front Entrance, Bike Entrance on Murphy Street and the Laneway gate on McNamara Lane.
All students and parents are able to drop their children at the front of the classroom in the F/1, 2/3 and 4/6 area beginning Term 2.
At the end of the day, students will be allowed to leave any gate at the school. Each exit will once again have a teacher.
All students will play at the Elizabeth street end during Lunch and Recess time. There will be 3 teachers on Yard Duty. One is designated to the oval, one on the Northern Side (Sensory Playground area) and one teacher in the Vegetable Garden (Toilet) area.
Parents are able to collect their child at pick-up time. The school gates will be opened at 3:15.
Students from every year level are able to use the Library during lunchtimes on Tuesday (Foundation/1), Wednesday and Thursday.

Hello Mandy

Officially Mandy has been with us all of term 1. As of term two she will be flying solo without Mary. We look forward to her taking over the reins and creating her own workplace style and office culture. I'm sure our community will be supportive and patient as Mandy moves into one of the busier terms for the year.

Term Reflection

Well, without dwelling too much on the COVID situation, I would like to briefly acknowledge that it has been now more than a year since we went into lockdown and continued for the year: who would have thought? But here we are coming to the end of the term, a term of many student centered activities. Swimming, Bike Ed, but I think the highlight of the term for the students was the Canberra Camp. The teachers, students and parents all are in agreement that it was the best camp ever!

I think we all agree that the Fiesta was a great opportunity for the community to come together, something that hasn't been possible for almost a year. I'm sure our Art Celebration, which will be happening in term four, will no doubt be as successful as our fiesta.

This term we have been working with the architects in developing our Masterplan and the first stage of the building program. The feedback from the community has been positive and informative. We look forwarded to sharing our vision next term as the architects further refine the needs of the school.

PFA News

Newlands PFA is organising a movie night fundraiser at the end of April. At this time, we are looking for 10 businesses to purchase advertising spots. Each advertising spot is being offered at a cost of $150. Your business is interested in sponsoring and would like further details, please contact the the PFA committee at newlandsprimarypfa@gmail.com or via the PFA Facebook page."

Past Students Success

It was great to hear from past students and to know of their success.

This year a few of our past student participated in the Education Perfect Language Championship at Coburg High. Amongst the top 3 students Victoria Wide was our past student Adam Al-Saadi (Year 8).

Respectively Adam won the Year 8 Level and Edris Al-Saadi won the Year 7 Level.

Congratulations !