From the Principal
Hello
A great sadness came over our school a month ago when we closed to celebrate the life of our beautiful Toot Keegan. I thank our school community for the many messages of condolence and your understanding at this very difficult time. Our love and support for Toot's daughter and a teacher at our school, Mrs Emily Callaway and her family continues as we remember this remarkable woman. Next year on the 16th February, we will be dedicating the school hall in Toot's name and will have a 'Toot Keegan Champion's Day' as a perpetual memory of a woman who made a difference in every person's life.
In the last few weeks, teachers have focussed on finalising assessments and writing reports, preparing students for the final activities of the year such as Schools Spectacular, Presentation Day, Orange Ex-Services Christmas party and the Year 12 Graduation.
An exciting event on the calendar is the SPARKe Young Archies, successfully lead by Mrs Cathy Huggett and Ms Hayley Marsden. Our finalists were Lewis in Year 2 and Myah in Year 5 who was selected as 2nd place in the Years 3-6 category. The exhibition in the CWA Hall in Robertson Park was a wonderful night, with guest judge Bill Tink.
It was wonderful to see so many grandparents and special visitors at our school to celebrate Grandparent's Day. This was an opportunity to share morning tea, see classrooms and have a tour of the school. Thank you to staff for their organisation and to the school community for visiting us for this special occasion.
To reduce the administration load of teachers, save paper, and be more efficient, we moved to the Sentral Parent Portal to communicate important information to you from our school. The app is free and easy to use. You can access the newsletter, see what is going on around the school via the calendar, give permission for activities, and next year, make payments. If you are not connected, please download the app and contact the school and ask for an access key. Mrs Trish Riley is available for any support you might need, either by phone or face to face. This is an important way of us staying in touch. For the few people who do not have the technology, we will continue to provide paper copies.
Information about the School Spectacular matinee performance, sport choices for Term 1 next year and expressing interest in RDA are 3 activities waiting for your response so that we can be organised at school.
For 2024, we welcome new relieving Assistant Principals Stephen Gross (stage 4) and Hugh Rasmussen (stage 5) as both Mrs Cunial and Mrs Lloyd are on leave. Mr Tabbernor will continue as Sports Coordinator as Mrs Said is also on leave.
A reminder that tights are not part of the school uniform and that students should wear a hat or cap during break times if outside. Long earrings, necklaces and other accessories are also not part of our school uniform. I appreciate you working with us to ensure that students are in uniform when they attend school to show connection and pride in our school.
School Leaders for 2024 have been selected through an online voting process and the results will be announced at the Presentation Day (see calendar at end of newletter). I was very impressed by the student's presentations and look forward to working with the new leadership team.
We have a number of new and exciting projects that we are launching next year, so I encourage you to attend the next P&C meeting when I will be talking about these in greater depth. Everyone is welcome and we meet in the library on the campus site at 9:15am.
Enjoy the last 17 days of term as we head into Summer.
Melanie Meers
Principal
#proudtobepublic
Board Member, Wangarang Industries
Leader, SPC Inclusion and Wellbeing
President, Zonta Orange
DipArts (Music), GradDip (Education), GradCertEd (Pedagogy), MEd (Leadership & Management), GradCertEd (Learning Support), ProfCert (Positive Education)
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