Dear Parents,

Our school oval was filled with laughter and lots of colour last Friday. Thankyou to everyone for making our Colour Run such a terrific event. We raised $9665.41 that will go towards supporting our School Spectacular children. A special thank you to Mrs McClements for her organisation of the school colour run. It was a fantastic day.

The warmer weather is well and truly upon us. It is a timely reminder that children should bring a navy blue broad brim hat to school each day along with a drink bottle. Please ensure your child’s name is labelled on all of their equipment and uniform (hats and jumpers). On the hot days, we will be asking children to take jumpers off and may limit time on the oval in the heat of the day if necessary. This is for the health and wellbeing of all of our children.

Congratulations to Lilly Turnbull and Enaya Ibtida Ifsah who competed at the NSW PSSA Athletics Carnival this week. The girls ran extremely well and should be super proud of themselves. We are so proud of both girls and we loved being able to watch them on the live feed. Well done Lilly and Enaya.

Congratulations to the following children who have been elected the Term 4 SRC representatives for their class. 

Support: Harper Rowlands and Xavier Dargan

1/2G:  Abraar Imtiaz

1/2I: Samuel McPhee

1/2M: Pheobe Walker

1/2S: Hunter Jones 

1/2W: Ivy Connell

3/4F: Scarlett Swift

3/4GW: Archie Christoffersen 

3/4T: Lewis Pearson

4/5W: Brooklin Parkes

5/6B: Tucker Cole

5/6C: Mia Higgins

5/6D: No media student

5/6L: Peyton McIntosh

Tomorrow, Friday, 24th October, we will hold Grandparent’s Day. We invite all our Grandparents to visit us on this day. The overview of our Grandparents Day celebrations is;

12.00noon – Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 Dance Troupes will perform under the COLA

12.20pm – Children K-6 will return to classrooms

12.20-1.20pm – Grandparents visit classrooms

12.20-1.20pm – Grandparents and their grandchildren can visit the Annexe to purchase a book to donate to the Library, a wonderful keepsake to leave at the school on behalf of your family.

Next week we celebrate NAIDOC Week. The NAIDOC Week 2025 theme is "The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy". This theme celebrates the 50th anniversary of NAIDOC Week and honours the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by focusing on the strength of young leaders, the vision of communities, and the enduring legacy of ancestors. We are continuing to work on our NAIDOC garden and hope to have the totem poles installed with Auntie Mary Kennedy during the week. Children will also participate in planting in the garden throughout the week. 

• On Monday, we will participate in the NAIDOC March from 9am-12.30pm. 97 children from our school will attend this March in William Street. 
• On Thursday 30th October, children are asked to come to school dressed in red, black and yellow colours. We will participate in a smoking ceremony at 12.30pm and then have activities out of the classrooms from 2pm-3pm. All parents and friends are welcome to attend. 
• On Friday, our Year 6 children will participate in an Interschool Sports Day at Learmonth Park, which is also supported by the Boys from the Bush program. We are sure to have a fabulous week.

SCHOOL SWIMMING UPDATE - ENROL NOW AS ENROLMENTS CLOSE SOON

Recently we have secured funding for our School Swimming Program. This funding has been allocated by the School Sport Unit Student Support and Specialist Programs. This funding supports 288 children attend the swimming program at a reduced rate. That means that each child will pay $40 less, making the total amount payable for the Swimming Program in 2025, $100 for the 10 day program. If we get more than 288 children, we are able to access more funding to ensure each child attends swimming at the reduced rate. Please enrol now so we ensure as many children as possible learn this valuable life skill and access this lower fee rate.

Information for those parents who have already paid the full $140.00 fee; If you have paid the $140 in full for the Swimming Program, this has been refunded to you as per the DoE and Sentral refunds policy. This refund was actioned on Tuesday 23/09/25. You will now need to pay the $100.00 fee for the School Swimming Program for your child to attend. Please contact Denise Noble at school if you have any queries regarding your payment.

Our 10 Day Term 4 Intensive Swimming Program will occur from Monday 24th November - Friday 5th December at the Manning Aquatic Centre. This program will be open to all children from Kindergarten to Year 6. The children will be taught by qualified Swimming Instructors employed by the Manning Aquatic Centre. Sessions will be 45 minutes long and will run for 10 days between 9.15am. and 2.00pm. Children will be accompanied to and from the pool by school staff. The cost will be $100.00 (Please note this is the reduced cost) for the 10-day program, including bus travel, facility entry, and professional instruction. This can be paid through our Sentral Parent Portal or at the front office via cash or EFTPOS. Active Kids and First Lap vouchers are not accepted this year. If you would like your child to attend, please answer the questions through the Sentral Parent Portal. Medical information is not provided or updated through the Portal. Please contact the front office with any medical updates. A deposit of $50 must be paid to secure your child's position in the program by Friday, 26th September. The final balance must be paid by Friday, 7th November. After this date, there will be no refunds. Parents will be informed of the details of their child's classes before the program commences. Parents are asked to contact the school and update their child's medical information closer to the start of the program if necessary. If parents have any further questions regarding this Intensive Swimming Program, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Mitchell, Miss Reedy or Mrs White.

If any parent has any concerns regarding any aspect of school life, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kate White

Principal