Dear parents & carers,

Thank you for taking the time to read our extraordinary newsletter.

After what has been an incredibly challenging school year, it has been disappointing to finish 2021 with COVID affecting cohorts of students and staff and this flow on to the community.

I need to reiterate that the school has strictly adhered to the department and health guidelines with our practices. While the process of families notifying the school and then the department liaison with NSW Health can appear long, it is a process that needs to be adhered to. Any communication about COVID at any school must come from and be approved by NSW Health. The school has ensured that this is then communicated to our community as quickly as possible.

One of the school’s processes for speedy communication to families, is through Facebook. Social media can be an effective way to communicate, as well as share student success and achievement. It is not an appropriate way to conduct two-way communication with the school. Administrators of the Facebook page and the executive team are not in a position to respond to all of the questions quickly and moderate comments. If you do have significant concerns you must call the school to have these addressed. This will then minimise the incorrect information that is filtering through the community via Facebook.

Since 2020, the school has requested all students who display COVID symptoms not return or attend functions unless they have a negative swab test. This practice continues, as per department guidelines and recommendations for NSW Health. I urge all families, particularly parents and carers, to be vigilant with testing. If you are displaying symptoms get tested immediately and keep your children isolated, while you await your results.

Organisational information for 2022

Our numbers are not settled for 2022. Until we understand what our final numbers may be, we will remain in 2021 classes for the beginning of the year. Students may be with their class teacher from 2021 or they may have a different teacher.

If you are not returning in 2022 or you will be late returning, after Tuesday 1 February 2022, make sure you have completed the '2022 Student Leavers and Late Returners' form.

Farewell and good luck

I would like to thank Miss Rebecca Churchin, Mrs Leanne Stanborough, Miss Lubna Mustapha and Miss Kasey Blackwell for their efforts and contributions to Leumeah Public School. All four have secured work in different schools for 2022.

Mrs Jayann Walsh will return briefly in 2022, to cover a leave position. She will then go on maternity leave towards the end of February.

Miss Courtney Hall will return, at this stage just for a term in 2022. She will complete day to day work and RFF.

Mrs Tansy Boutskaka who has worked at LPS in many different capacities for over five years, is going to take some time with her family in 2022. Mrs Boutskaka may return to do some casual work throughout the year.

Mrs Cathy Van Zanden has been a fixture in the LPS community for many years. Mrs Van Zanden had a busy 2021, welcoming a beautiful granddaughter to the world and moving to be closer to her family. Mrs Van Zanden has decided, after all this time, to take some leave in 2022 and then separate from the department to work casually closer to her new home. We are very sad to see Mrs Van Zanden leave, but excited for her new life as a grandparent. Thank you to Mrs Van Zanden for all of her hard work and her contributions to LPS. We will miss you Mrs Van Zanden.

We wish all of our outgoing staff all the best for their future endeavours in teaching.

LPS Principal in 2022

At the beginning of this term, the Director Educational Leadership of the St Andrews Princpals Network, Mrs Karen Endicott, convened a merit selection panel to appoint a substantive Principal to LPS, as Mrs Kerry Wood relinquished her right to return.

Mrs Endicott convened the panel with representatives from the school, community and a peer principal. I am pleased to announce that I was successful in the process and have been selected as the substantive Principal of Leumeah Public School.

I look forward to continuing to lead LPS in 2022 and beyond to achieve the goals of our Strategic Improvement Plan, build the capacity of staff, concentrating on student agency and voice and a renewed focus on community engagement.

Every year at the Year 6 farewell, Mrs Wood has had a tradition of farewelling families from the LPS community, by listing them. I would like to continue that tradition now and also include families from other areas of the school. Thank you and goodbye to the following families. I apologise if I have missed some families.

The Agbayani family

The Ahmed family

The Al Burkat family

The Alsalihy family

The Aslam family

The Azad family

The Azhar family

The Basnet family

The Bolan family

The Bowman family

The Buckland family

The Clark family

The Hassan family

The Holt / Gannell family

The Intaz family

The Jak family

The Jamil family

The Jayaweera family

The Jenson family

The Johnson family

The Kainth family

The Kalaialagan family

The Khalane family

The Khan family

The Khandaker family

The Lal family

The Larrad family

The Lovett family

The Meti family

The Miller family

The Miyazaki family

The Mukherjee family

The Myadam family

The Narayan family

The Neupane family

The Panth family

The Perera family

The Plummer family

The Rahman family

The Ram family

The Roberts family

The Schafer family

The Semesi family

The Shaddock family

The Shah family

The Tanner family

The Ung family

The Wakefield family

The Warburton family

The Willis family

The Zaman family

I finished 2020 by mentioning how exceptional the year had been. We all looked forward to a very different and brighter 2021 and didn’t foresee that we would be in similar or possibly worse circumstances. It what has been a very difficult six months, I thank our community for their ongoing support of LPS. Our transition to remote learning was successful as a result of the school and community partnership.

During the summer break, take time with your family, rest and rejuvenate.

To all of our community, have a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. We will see you in 2022.

PRINCIPAL

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