Mr Irwin's Message

Hello families and welcome to this week’s newsletter.

I wanted to focus on some of the exciting facility upgrades that will be occurring between now and the start of next year. The works I am sharing with you are in part a result of the hard work our Parents' Club does fundraising and that our broader community so generously support. Because some of these have been on hold, as can be the case, I wanted to take you through them all. It is my hope that by the start of the 2024 school year they’ll all be ready to use.

Locally raised funds have been a large part of being able to undertake these projects around the school, as to is the amount of contribution we receive from families through parent payments. Whilst these go directly to classroom items such as stationery and book packs it does in turn provide us with the opportunity to explore using funds in other areas of school operations. In the coming weeks information regarding parent payments will be communicated to families and I’d ask each family give consideration to these. The strong uptake of parent contributions we get each year is valued highly and allows us to provide an engaging curriculum, hands on learning in our kitchen garden and provide improvements to our grounds.

In the coming weeks our shade sails will be installed in different parts of the school to provide more protected area from the sun for break times and also opportunities for outdoor learning for students. They’ll add great flexibility to our school yard.

Our poor old sports shed is looking more than tired and over January will be getting demolished and replaced by a new, bigger shed. This will have three bays and allow us to additional storage for sports equipment, surplus resources and kitchen garden materials.

Finally, both our sports courts will be resurfaced. This was last done quite some time ago and they are in need of a refresh. They’ll add a freshness to the school yard and be great surfaces for recess and lunchtime play, but also House Sports and Physical Education too.

As these projects are completed, I look forward to bringing updates to you of the works completed. These projects have all been supported by our School Council who support me to ensure of Buildings and Grounds are maintained and opportunities for improvement sought and capitalised on. If supporting these type of projects appeals to you, our Council nomination process occurs early in Term 1 and we will be looking for new members. This is an opportunity for further involvement in the school we’d love parents give consideration too.

For the remainder of the week I am attending the Network Chair Residential in Melbourne. Part of my role as Principal at Teesdale is leading the Central Highlands South Principal Network. The good teaching practices we have in our school means we have a lot to offer other schools and enjoy sharing the work we do across our system.

Bye for now have and have a great week.

Sam

Royal Geelong Show Success

The Royal Geelong Show was held last weekend and a number of entrants from our school community placed very well in the Homecrafts section!

Middle School Camp

Middle School students will be attending Lady Northcote Camp from Monday 27th to Wednesday 29th November.

Families should all have received camp information via Sentral and a separate family statement outlining the costs and any credit on file if applicable. Please contact the office if you did not receive a statement. Families with credit on file or in receipt of CSEF are asked to contact the office to confirm use of these funds towards camp.

Cost: $300 per student

Payment and Consent Due By: Monday 20th November

Payment: The preferred payment method is via BPay using your unique family reference printed on your statement.

Permission to Attend: Please log into the Sentral app to grant electronic permission.

OSH News

For the latest news from Community OSH, please download the attached newsletter.

Book Club

A reminder to families, all Book Club orders must be placed online via LOOP which is the Linked Online Ordering and Payment platform for Parents.

Click here for the Scholastic Book Club Parent Log in page or to register for new users.

How to order

Click on ORDER in the top menu or REGISTER first to save your details for the first time. Select Teesdale PS and your child’s class. Add your child’s name and last initial. Enter the item number from the brochure.

You can order for multiple children at once. All orders are linked directly to the school.

Our school receives bonus points, which are redeemed for a variety of books for the children therefore we thank you for your continued support.

Scholastic Book Club brochures will be sent home soon which will be the big Christmas issue. Books will be distributed through your child’s classroom.

If parents wish to collect them personally from the office, please let the school know.

Please go to www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP and find Teesdale Primary School to order or alternatively you can download the LOOP app via the App Store or Google Play.

Classroom News

Around the Classrooms