As we emerge from the chills of Winter having endured the many bugs that are passed around, it is pleasant to wake up in the daylight again and the warmer sunny weather. It has been an eventful term, despite the amount of sickness that has been among us.

The Year 4/5/6 students have some pleasing success in their interschool sports matches this term. Hot Shot Tennis has been introduced as a new sport, replacing Bat Tennis and the students have taken to it like ducks to water. The set up involves a court of 5.5metres by 11 metres with shorter handled tennis racquets and softer tennis balls. Our soccer teams have also been more successful this year with some wins under their belts. We have had some excellent behaviour from the students who display our school values consistently along with great sportsmanship every week.

One of the highlights of the term for the Year 4-6 students, would be our excursion last week to the Regent Theatre to see Wicked. This was the first time many of our students had experienced a theatre production and it was wonderful to see their faces as they responded to the performance and effects in the show. This experience has inspired them in their learning back at school as they are studying Media Arts in their integrated studies this term.

This week the buzz is building around this year’s school production ‘Grease’. Performances are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night and there are still tickets available on Compass or at the door. We warmly invite you to come along an enjoy the show. Our students have been working so hard to bring it all together, so let’s support their efforts.

I would like to acknowledge the work of Cathy Liparota for all the hard work she has done this year on revitalising our Maths Program here in the Primary area. She has purchased some wonderful resources to engage the students in their Maths lessons as well as organising some fabulous professional development for the staff, which has given them fresh ideas, views and approaches to their Maths planning. This area of the curriculum has really benefitted from this work which is ultimately for improving our outcomes for the students.

I am very excited to share with you, news of our return to a sustainability focus in our school. I have been communicating with Jess Campbell who is the newly appointed Waste Educator for Banyule City Council. We are planning a visit from Jess in September for her to conduct some educational sessions with our students to renew our messages about waste and sustainability. We plan to reintroduce our worm farm for food waste, bring back compost buckets into the classrooms, start up some new veggie gardens, and just make a start towards bringing back sustainable practices in our school.

Curriculum Day, Thursday 29 August saw the teachers participating in their final of four days working on the Berry Street Education Model. This series has equipped the staff with lots of practical strategies and trauma informed practices to implement into their lessons and enhance their classroom management approaches. The focus of this final day will be Character and acknowledging Character strengths.

I have been most encouraged by the responses to our tours this term. We have had quite a healthy interest in our school with parents looking for a school for their children across all year levels. If you have a neighbour or friend living locally who are looking for a great school for their child please let them know that tours are running every Friday morning from 9:30am this term.

In the last week of this term, we will be offering Parent Teacher Student Conferences. Tuesday 17th September will be Student Free and interviews will be conducted online and Thursday 19th September will be Face to face interviews at school from 5:00 – 7:00pm. This will not be a Student Free day.

I am presently planning our Term 4 Swimming Program with Yarra Swim School. This will begin on Monday 14th October and run for 7 weeks. There will not be a lesson on Cup Eve, Monday 4th November.

I finish with a big thank you to my amazing Primary staff, who work so hard for our children. We are so incredibly fortunate to have a team of teachers who are so committed and passionate about their work. They go above and beyond so often to provide the best opportunities, resources and learning experiences for our students. We should be so grateful to have them in our school.

I hope you all have a well earned break and enjoy the holidays. We look forward to seeing you back safe next term.

German