Mr Irwin's Message
Mr Irwin's Message
Hello Families,
I'm back, and it's wonderful to be back! I am looking forward to reconnecting with you all over the coming weeks once the term starts. I must admit it does feel like coming home despite noticing a few changes across the school. I was itching to get back in the last weeks of term and lend my support which wasn't able to eventuate, however it was great to sneak over for a quick visit to see all of the students before officially returning on Tuesday.
If after the holidays you feel that you or your family need additional wellbeing support following the tragic accident that took place before the holidays, please refer to the wellbeing supports available or seek some support from school leadership. We'll need to continue to navigate this sad time together and looking out for everyone in our community.
Early Learning Centre Construction Begins
Yesterday the site setup was established for the Teesdale Early Learning Centre! Over the next few months construction will begin not only on the Early Learning Centre, but also our new play space of an oval, soccer pitch and staff carpark. This is hugely exciting but will present some preliminary challenges too around space in the yard and traffic management.
Our staff carpark has been surrendered as part of the site setup for the ELC, which does mean parking is going to be far tighter than it already was at pickup times. We're all going to need to work together on this to maintain a safe and orderly departure from school every day.
I have stressed to the building company the importance of attending to our new carpark as soon as possible to alleviate this issue. In the meantime, there's some practical things we need to do together to minimise traffic at 3:15pm.
Carpool - if you have the possibility to co-ordinate with a family at pickup time please give this consideration. Less cars means less traffic! Think about reaching out to neighbours or friends nearby to roster a carpool.
Arrive at pickup later - each afternoon school leadership supervise pickup time for 15 minutes. In the first few weeks of Term 2 we will extend this for an additional 15 minutes to allow parents to arrive later at their preferred pick-up point. This has always been a strategy I have encouraged parents to use to beat the rush. The pick-up rush generally clears in around 5 minutes. This will take longer this term but make a plan with your child to arrive at 3:25pm or 3:30pm knowing they will be supervised by leadership until you arrive.
Chat another time! - unfortunately with parks being a premium this term it will be really important for pickup to be really swift. If you arrive early to collect your child collect them as quickly as you can and vacate the carpark you're using for another time.
Safety first - above all else, regardless of how congested pickup may come there is no place for parking in no standing space, or illegal driving behaviour. As previously i'll be asking for Council and Vic Police to visit and monitor the way cars are parking to maintain a safe pickup at the end of school.
Please give considering to altering your pickup routine to ease congestion. It won't take many changes of habit to ease this issue in Term 2.
Drop Off at School
A reminder that students do not need to arrive school prior to 8:45am, when supervision occurs for the day. If part of your family routine means that students need to arrive at school prior to this, they can be booked into our before school care program.
Yard Constraints
Our oval and soccer pitch will now be out of action for Term 2. The great news is we're going to get a new one of each in the near future, however in the meantime we're going to need to be patient. We will investigate ways to support students to have a positive play experience at school, but I do need to you to talk to your children before they return to school about the following;
- There isn't going to be a soccer pitch and oval available in Term 2 and 3. However, we are going to have a fantastic play space at the completion of the building works, we just need to be patient!
- Students are going to have to think of other games they can play (for example tag, downball, basketball, netball etc)
- At break times it's important everyone's safety is looked after in our yard if its more congested.
-The yard being crowded won't be an excuse for hands on/unsafe behaviour. Hands on isn't acceptable at school and students doing so will have appropriate consequences implemented to keep the yard safe. Everyone at school has the right to feel safe!
Bye for Now, Sam