What a warm start to the week we had. The students showed great resilience on Monday and Tuesday to cope with the hot, windy weather.

Moving forward, the Newsletter will be circulated fortnightly. It will still contain all the important information and dates for our school community, but will be only distributed every second Friday.

Farewell Mr Cuttriss

Unfortunately, today we say farewell to Mr Cuttriss, who is taking up a Learning Specialist position at Rochester Secondary College.

Dylan has been a fantastic teacher and leader at our school for the past 5 years. Over this time, he has built really strong relationships with all students and families, as well as being a great support for our teachers.

Dylan has had a couple of stints as an Acting Principal, both internally and at other schools in the region, and will be using these skills to continue to develop.

Dylan's passion and dedication to our students and the school has never been questioned, but the opportunity to work locally in what has been a challenging 18 months for both the community that he is such an integral part of, and for his own young family is too good an opportunity to pass up.

We wish Dylan all the very best for his move to Rochester Secondary College. He will be sorely missed by all.

Grade 5/6A will be taught by Mrs Pearce and myself for the remainder of Term 1. We hope to have a classroom teacher from the start of Term 2.

We also say farewell to Mrs Helen Coughlin, who has resigned from her Art/Science position due to personal reasons. We wish Helen all the best for her future teaching.

School Council

Our School Council is calling for nominations from Parents to take up a position on Council for the coming 2 years.

The School Council 2024 AGM will be held on Monday 25th March at 7pm. School Council meets on the last Monday of each month, with meetings usually lasting about 60-90 minutes.

School Council is a great opportunity to be involved in the governance of the school, through policy and decision making.

If we receive too many nominations for positions available, an election is called:

Election Timeline:

16th Feb - Call for Nominations

1st March - Nominations close

4th March - Council election ballot commences (if required)

15th March - Council election closes (if required)

18th March - Announcement of election.

If you would like to discuss School Council further, please let me know. Nomination forms can be collected from the office.

Swimming

Next week is Swimming week. Thank you to Mrs Young for the organisation that goes into this week.

It does require a lot of co-operation from all staff, students and families to ensure it runs smoothly. We thank those parents who have offered to walk with the students, and jump in the pool to support the program.

Students will have swimming lessons from Monday to Thursday, with our annual House Swimming Carnival on Friday.

Please have a read of the Swimming page in the newsletter to see exact times for your students participation.

Making Friends Performance

Next Friday, we have a special visiting performance called Making Friends. This is a free performance for all of our students and touches on the importance of friendships, making and keeping friends in a fun, engaging manner.

Due to this performance, there will be no Assembly next Friday.

New additions

We welcomed our newest additions to our school this week.

Our fish tank outside Mrs Pearce's office is now home to 4 yabbies, thanks to Brett. These are already very popular and the students love searching for them each day.

Our Environmental Area is now also home to 6 new chickens. A huge thank you to Brooke and Matt Kearney who donated the chickens from local company, Jen's Hens.

Also, thank you to the Maurizi family for the generous donation of the Chicken Coup, that will be home for our new chooks.

We look forward to having some of Brett's famous scrambled eggs for Breakfast Club in the near future.

Working Bee

Friday, March 1st is going to be a Working Bee in the Environmental Garden. We have lots of jobs that need doing, and will require some man power and machinery to get this looking fantastic, and ready for the new year.

If you can help from 2pm onwards, please speak to Brett or Mrs Holyman for more details.

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that Monday, March 4th is a Pupil Free Day. Staff will be further developing their Restorative Practices work with our Real Schools expert facilitator, Sheila Bollard.

The following day, Sheila will be here in person working in the classrooms with staff and students.

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