Principal's Report 

 Dear Parents, 

Ramadan has commenced and will continue for several weeks to come. For Muslims around the world, the Holy month of Ramadan is a sacred time to reflect on and celebrate mercy and love. Many in our Mackellar community will be acknowledging this period, and we hope this is a very a special time for you all. 

Well what a week last week was! A pupil free day on Tuesday where the staff worked really hard on school priorities. NAPLAN writing and reading on Wednesday followed by an amazing Fathering Project event after school, and KABOOM on Thursday to round the week off. I'm exhausted just writing about it!

The week started with a pupil free day where our literacy consultant Stephen Graham joined us, as did our Inquiry consultant Lee Crockett, to further develop our teachers' knowledge in these areas.  Our integration aides spent the morning at Western Autistic School Niddrie learning from their staff. All in all it was a very productive day.

When school resumed on Wednesday, our grade 3 and grade 5 students commenced their NAPLAN assessments. The teachers had completed several practice assessments and had prepared the students well so they knew what to expect. Whilst the results will take time, feedback from the teachers was that the students felt confident about the assessments and all tried their best. These assessments will be concluded this week. 

Then came the main event, our Paper Plane competition as the beginning of our work with The Fathering Project. Whilst more will be mentioned about this into the newsletter, I wanted to pass on my sincere thanks to all of those who worked behind the scenes making the event possible.  From Nicole in the canteen getting our sausage sizzle ready, to Colin getting the barbecue ready, on to staff in the office ordering and preparing everything in advance, and through to all of the staff who contributed on the night.  It was a real team event which is synonymous with how we operate here at Mackellar Primary School. 

And as if that wasn't enough, we all got into the Olympic spirit with an Olympics themed Kaboom morning on Thursday.  Our student leaders did a fantastic job taking the students through a series of tabloid events, each with an Olympic theme and with each group representing a different country.  Kaboom is always a fun morning where the students can get together, have some not so serious competition and dress up in their House colours. Well done to Jaida Bonnici, our phys ed teacher, for organising such a seamless event for us all. 

As this is our last newsletter for the term, I would like to finish as we started this newsletter, but this time wishing Christians in our community a very special Easter period full of family, friends and faith. For those in the community who do not celebrate Easter, we wish you a very happy holiday period as we chalk up another term at Mackellar having had so many exciting experiences.

Finally, a reminder to all that the end of the term is fast approaching on Thursday March 28 as March 29 is Good Friday. On the Thursday, school will finish at 2:30pm. 

Kind Regards, 

Simon McGlade

Principal