A message from Margie
Welcome Back!
Welcome back to the 2026 school year. I always love seeing the students coming through the school gate that first week, excited to see their friends and ready to take on the challenges of the new year level.
It's already been a busy two weeks! Teachers made the most of the first week to set goals and expectations for the year, and to work collaboratively with the students to create a warm and safe class culture. This week, we have had swimming lessons for our Reception to Year 5 students down at the George Bolton Swimming Centre, with our Year 6 students attending Murray Bridge Aquatic Camp on Tuesday night and Wednesday. See the 'Round the classes' section for lots of great photos! 💦
Our theme for this term is goal-setting, and we are teaching the children about how to set specific and achievable goals to improve their learning. They've already set a swimming goal, and some have set personal goals too. Please talk at home about any goals you set for yourselves and how you work towards them. This is often a great time of year for goal-setting for all of us -'new year, new me'! 😏
Term 1 is quite a busy term with many events happening, including
- Acquaintance Night - Wednesday 11th Feb
- Pupil Free Day - Monday 16th Feb
- NAPLAN Testing for Years 3 and 5 Weeks 7-8
- Harmony/Special-Grandparents Day Friday 20th March
- Learning Discussions - Week 9
- SAPSASA Athletics Monday 30th March
- Sports Day Thursday 2nd April
Welcome to our new staff and students
We were very happy to welcome our new Reception students in Katie Martin 's class. They have all done a brilliant job with the challenges of the first 2 weeks. I can still remember my first day of Primary School, can you? It's a big moment! We're very proud of them for managing so well. 🦚 Welcome also to Rosalie, Rose, Max and Maxwell's families, who are new to the school.
BOYD, Charlotte
COLQUHOUN, Maya
EVERTS, Francesca
GETTY, Ted
HEATH, Rosalie
LINDH, George
MADDEN, August
MONCK, Ari
NEWMAN, Rosie
PARKER, Rose
PETERS, Jude
POTE, Elsa
SCUDDS, Maxwell
SIMPSON, Clyde
SMITH, Nina
SUTTON, Maxwell
We also welcome our new staff, Alex Agars, Paige Colwell, Leonie Chatfield and Dylan Jones. We published profiles of Alex, Paige and Leonie in our final newsletter of 2025. There has been one change since then- Leonie is now teaching HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) as a specialist lesson to all classes once a week, except the Year 4/5 class, and the Arts are being taught by the class teachers this term.
Here's a bit of information about Dylan, who some of you may know from our OSHC:
Hello, I am Dylan Jones. I am a second-year university student studying teaching. I have been working at Uraidla OSHC for half a year now and recently got offered an SSO position at the school, which I gladly accepted. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone at the school more and helping out in the classroom.
Acquaintance Night- Wed 11 Feb 5:30-7pm
Next Wednesday night, our Acquaintance Night will be held in your children's classrooms. This is a great opportunity to meet your child's teacher and to hear important information about the classroom and learning in their rooms.
I will also be offering a session (repeated in two time slots) about how we support student wellbeing at Uraidla Primary School. Please see the attached flyer for times.
These meetings are for teachers and parents or carers only. School students will be supervised by school staff in the main playground, sandpit and Fairy Garden while you are meeting with your child's teachers. Please let your children know they will not be able to play in the bases or Willow Playground during this time, since those areas will not be supervised. We ask that you please keep toddlers and preschool children with you and keep them on your lap or a chair next to you during the presentations, as we are unable to supervise that age group in the yard, and it is difficult for teachers to present information if toddlers are moving around the classroom. Thank you! 🙏
There will also be BBQ sausages and drinks available to purchase, so plan to bring a rug, come for dinner and join other families on the oval to celebrate the start of another great year at UPS.
School Policies
At the beginning of the school year, you may have questions about different school policies. We have recently updated these to include much of the information you may be looking for. You can always access school policies on the school website, Uraidla Primary – Adelaide Hills – South Australia. The website is a quick way to access the newsletters, too, if you need to check event details, etc.
A few reminders about our Uniform Policy: Please remember no make-up, decorative hairbands or jewellery, including bracelets, necklaces or rings. There have been quite a few items creeping into the school in this category! It makes it so much easier for teachers to monitor the uniform when everyone adheres to it, thank you!
The acceptable items are:
• Wristwatches (N.B. Smartwatches are only allowed if not linked to a phone or wifi).
• Plain earrings- small studs or plain sleepers only, no decoration.
• Plain hair accessories in navy or red or in school uniform fabric, no decoration.
Right to Disconnect
Our staff at Uraidla are here to support you and your child, and to answer any questions you may have. We also need to ensure that we follow the 'Right to Disconnect' legislation introduced in 2024, which outlines workers' right to switch off from work and fully engage in their own lives outside of school.
If you would like to contact anyone at school, please be aware that teachers and other staff will check messages once a day before 8:30 and again between 3:30 and 5:00. They will respond to any queries within 2-3 working days. Please be aware that some staff work part-time, and this may impact their response time.
If a matter is urgent, please message or ring the front office, and we will make every attempt to get back to you as soon as we can.
FrogGO
How are you finding our new communication through 'FrogGo'? This now replaces our SeeSaw communication, and we are hoping that very soon, 100% of families will be connected. We understand that there may be a few glitches with this new system, and we appreciate your patience while we get it all up and running smoothly for everyone. Please ring our FrogGo Guru Tracey at the front office if you have any issues, and she will do her best to get things working for you. 🐸
I wish you all a wonderful fortnight, and hope to see you at Acquaintance Night next week.
