Principal's Report

Principal’s Report - 1st April 2021

My goodness. What a term it has been! A term of uncertainty with the disruption of the circuit-breaker lockdown and now a term ending in uncertainty with the COVID cases in NSW and Queensland, especially coming so close to Easter holidays. I am sure that there are members of our community who have had holiday plans disrupted because of this situation and I definitely know that several staff have been affected. I just want to, again, thank our community for your support, understanding and forbearance as we continue to adjust to the changing situation around us. Let’s hope we return after the holidays, to a more stable and predictable school term.

SRC

This week, we announced the final selections for our student leadership team for 2021. The class SRC reps were elected and were announced at assembly. Well done to the following recipients. They should be very proud to be selected by their class peers for this very responsible position and I look forward to working with them.

Cross Country

Today, we ran our House Cross Country and what a beautiful day it was to have all of our 3-6 students competing for their house teams in the sunshine and gorgeous wetlands environment that surrounds us. Congratulations to everyone for their efforts, especially to our place getters who will go on to compete at the District Cross Country later in the year. Big thanks to all of the staff who helped to make the event successful and to the team from the PFA who provided a cool, icy treat for all of the runners as they finished. Special thanks to our PE team, Darren Gleeson and Glenn Hamilton, for their organisational excellence!

A New Teacher in Prep for Next Term

Yesterday we held interviews for Olivia Sonn’s position in Prep A in readiness for when she heads off to have a baby next term! The successful candidate was Sophie Crawshaw who has worked at our school on many occasions. We are very happy to have Sophie on board. 

Sophie will commence in early to mid-May.

More Visits by Schools

More schools have been visiting our school to particularly view our P-2 WLA Investigations program but also other aspects of our teaching and learning. Mount Eliza PS, Benton Junior College and Cranbourne Carlisle PS spent time in our classrooms and all walked away thoroughly impressed with the quality of teaching and learning and the level of student engagement in every room. We already have schools booked in for term 2 to also view our reading program and our 3-6 WLA Inquiry program.

School Council Vacancy

I just wanted to remind parents again, that we still have a parent member vacancy on our School Council. School Council is an important and rewarding role for parents to play in our school community. If you are interested, please call me for more information. You would be welcome to attend a meeting as an observer just to see what the role entails.

Government House Business

Recently, I was privileged, as a member of the Board of the Victorian Principals Association, to represent Principals and all educators at a Thank You Concert and Brunch at Government House, hosted by the Victorian Governor Linda Dessau. Represented there were front line workers from both the 2020 bushfires and the 2020 COVID pandemic like police, firemen, nurses, hospital workers and state emergency service personnel. I was very proud to represent educators as front-line workers during both of those disastrous periods in Victoria and very thankful to the governor for her recognition of the amazing work done by so many Victorians. In the photo below, I am joined by my principal colleague, Kathy Arnold, in front of the mural commissioned by the governor for the event.

Enjoy your break and we look forward to seeing you all again in term 2.

Greg Lacey