Public Education Week 2024

Thank you to our community for coming along and joining us for our Public Education Week activities last Wednesday. We were really impressed with the number of parents and members of our community who came along for our assembly, community BBQ and open classrooms or trivia quiz events. Thank you to our teachers for their organisation and support.

Public Education Awards

As part of last week's Education Week events, I had the privilege of presenting three awards at the Armidale Principal Network Awards Ceremony in Armidale.

Congratulations to our award winners:

Student Award: Déchen Kandro

Staff Award: Jodie Taylor

Community Award: Tony Egan

Senior School Excursion

Thank you to our team of teachers who organised and supervised our senior excursion to Sydney in Week 2. Our students were provided with so many experiences to complement their learning. Thank you also to our Uralla Central P&C who provided significant funds towards making the cost of the excursion affordable for students.

PSSA Zone Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to our students who attended the PSSA Zone Athletics Carnival last Friday in Armidale. Our students competed against students from across the local area in various events. We expect to receive further information soon if anyone has qualified to compete at the North West Carnival later this term. Congratulations again to all students who attended!

Book Week Next Week

We will celebrate Book Week at Uralla Central on Tuesday 27 August. We understand that this is a week later than when other schools will hold their celebrations. This is due to some clashes of events and we want to make sure everyone is able to be involved. Please note that ALL students K-12 and staff are welcome to come to school dressed as a book character on Tuesday.

School Uniform

Thank you to families for ensuring our students arrive at school every day in full school uniform. As a school, we are committed to having every student in uniform at all times. Team based football shorts and jackets are not school uniform. If you need some assistance in providing your child/children with correct school uniform, please contact us at the school. We are more than happy to help you with these items.

Also, we are in the process of purchasing formal school uniforms for students to use when they are representing our school. This is a "work in progress" as we gradually implement this across the school and align it with a revised school uniform policy.

Planning for 2025

All executive staff members are meeting today to begin our planning for 2025. As you know, our school will be returning to a primary and secondary mode where students in K-6 and 7-12 will be grouped. We will always remain a K-12 school, this is so important as this defines our identity as a Central School. Our executive staff will then work closely with all staff at Uralla Central to design a model that provides the best structures for students and their learning. I will provide further information later in the year about what our final arrangements will be.

Assembly Changes

We have changed our assembly calendar for this term. Our whole school assembly planned for Tuesday 17 September will not go ahead. Instead, we will hold a NAIDOC/Whole School Assembly on Tuesday 10 September from 11.25am and our Academy II (Year 12) Farewell Assembly will be held on Wednesday 25 September. Please adjust your calendars for these important events.

Attendance at School

As of last week, our data indicates that 57% of students at Uralla Central School are attending school less than 85% of the time. To ensure continuity of learning, students need to be at school every day to maximise their learning potential and to achieve the best results they possibly can. I am asking all families to please ensure that your children attend school every day. Like all schools, our attendance data is monitored by the Department of Education and there are processes in place to ensure parents are sending their children to school each day.

Of course if your children are unwell, please keep them at home to recover. Everyone is entitled to be at home when they are unwell.

If we can help in ensuring your children are at school each day, please contact us.

Thank you for helping us with this important matter.

Brad Hunt

Principal

Middle School News

Regional Spelling Bee Finals