Principal's Report

All Back on Deck

There is a real buzz about the school today, with lots of grade 3-6 students returning and excited to catch up with their friends.  Whilst we’re doing things slightly differently from early in the year, it does feel like we’re pretty much back to normal.

Once again, congratulations to everyone for the way you have handled the past few months.  It’s really nice that everyone worked together to face the challenges and take the best possible care of our students.  As a result, we are seeing the vast majority of students transitioning back into school with ease.

Like other schools, we have learnt a great deal throughout the remote learning period and there will be aspects of our practice that will change.  One really simple example is the way we deliver daily messages and reminders to staff and students each day at our Buninyong Campus.  For many years, these have been read over the PA system by grade 6 students from the Morning Announcement Team.  The remote learning experience led to a weekly broadcast, which prompted us to consider using a similar format for the daily morning announcements. Sending the messages and reminders in this way is much more likely to engage the students, so we’re giving it a try. 

To help you get a sense of what this looks like, attached is a link to this morning’s announcements. 

As a staff we will be coming together before the end of term to reflect on the whole remote learning experience, partly to gather our thoughts in case we are thrust into a similar situation again, but also to think about the learning that will influence our practice going forward.

We’re keen to get some feedback from parents as well and are currently considering a few options to achieve this effectively.  Keep an eye out for an opportunity to participate in this soon.

Winter Coats

It was very icy this morning and some of you will be thinking about purchasing a coat for your child.  Please remember that if a child wears a coat, a school coat or black coat is recommended. School coats are available from the uniform shop.

All uniform can be purchased using QKR, in which case we deliver the purchased item to your child. If you’d like to come in with your child to try things for size, please call the ladies in the office to arrange a time.

Parking

With all students back at school, things were noticeably busier around the Buninyong Campus this morning.  A reminder to everyone to please be patient and make sure you drive and park in a way that is courteous and keeps everyone safe.  This includes being considerate of residents in the area, who understandably get cranky when someone parks across their driveway.