Getting to Know You Meetings

Thank you to all the parents who made themselves available to meet with teachers last week and share information about their child/ren. It is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to get to know the students a little better from the experts!

School Council

The final School Council meeting for the 2023 year will be held tomorrow evening (21 February) via WebEx. School Council elections are then upon us. We have Parent Category vacancies for the 2024 year. Please contact me if you are interested in this role.

Further information can be accessed at the link below.

https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/school-council-overview/overview

Nomination forms are available via the Office and are due by Friday 1 March 4pm.

HELP NEEDED – Are you a landscape gardener, carpenter, or do you have skills in these areas? We need you!

We are looking for help in many areas of the school from our parent community. One area where help is desperately needed within the school is the grounds. If you have any gardening or carpentry skills, please consider signing up for our Building and Environment Committee. We are looking for help to develop a long-term plan for various projects that can be achieved at upcoming working bees with direction and plans already in place. You do not need to be able to attend every working bee or be a School Council member, but being on the Building and Environment Committee to attend planning meetings and help coordinate the work would be great. If you or someone you know has skills in these areas, please come and chat with me!

Chess

As part of the Year 1-4 Term One program, students have commenced participating in Chess lessons with their class from a Chess instructor. Recent studies have confirmed that learning to play chess improves academic performance, concentration, logical thinking, judgment, creativity, problem solving, emotional intelligence, and social skills. We look forward to seeing the skills the students learn and the buzz around the school as students spend their breaks using the giant chess set outdoors or the sets in the library to hone their skills.

Bendigo Bank Sponsorship – Wellbeing Values raffle

Bendigo Bank is once again sponsoring our termly wellbeing raffle. Students are able to earn raffle tickets into the draw by demonstrating kindness. At the end of the term three winners will be selected to received a gift certificate for The Leaf bookshop on High Street.

Bendigo Bank also sponsors the school for every person who moves their home loan to Bendigo Bank Ashburton. If you are looking to refinance, please mention Solway to ensure we receive the funds. All money raised helps us with the upkeep of the school.

2025 Solway Fair

After a 5-year gap between 2018 and 2023, we were able to run a Solway Community Fair in March last year. This was a great success with the money raised allowing us to update the junior playground on Taylor Street (work to commence there shortly!)

We are hoping to run the Fair again in 2025, however this will only happen with the support of parents to run the day. Our previous organisers will no longer have students at Solway in 2025, so we are looking for a couple of parents to take over the organisation and oversight of the event.

The Solway Fair is a fantastic demonstration of community involvement and is a most rewarding event to be a part of. This event can only move forward with parental involvement.

If you are interested, please contact me so we can begin the handover with Felicity and Anna. For the fair to take place the organisation must begin by June this year.

The success of the School Fair and other events in the past have enabled us to update the synthetic turf on the oval, the Prep and Senior School playgrounds, and purchase resources for the students. I know these resources have been fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed by our students and their families.

Swimming

Congratulations to the 28 students who represented Solway at the District Swimming yesterday. It was a very successful event with Solway coming second on the day! Seventeen of our students have made it through to the Division event, which will be held on Friday 1 March. Thank you to the students for representing Solway and to the parents and staff who attended and assisted.

Lyn Rodda

Principal

Student Leadership