Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents & Carers,

COVID, flu, colds and even gastro continues to be something we worry about because of student and staff absences. I would like parents to know that we always do our best to replace teachers that are absent with either one of our existing staff members or an emergency teacher. Unfortunately, we cannot always get emergency teachers and sometimes we simply do not have enough staff to cover a grade. In that scenario we have no choice but to split grades. Something I don’t like to do and I’m sure parents and students don’t like it either. But the teacher shortage is really starting to bite across the whole state. 

BUILDING WORKS

We are nearly there; this week we were able to access our renovated hall and we have most of the new grounds open to the students. Before and After school care have left the German room forever and will now operate out of the new hall. It is just fantastic to look at our buildings and grounds and say ‘how lucky are we to have all of this for our kids?' The basketball courts will be open for use early next week. 

The official opening of our new facilitates and the celebrations for our 150th year will be on Sunday October the 20th. I will keep you informed of the plans for this date closer to the day.

STAFFING

Next week we will say goodbye to the wonderful Ms White who will be going off on maternity leave. We of course wish Mrs Banfield (Whitey) all the happiness in the world for her family and the coming new edition to her family. Replacing Mrs Banfield (Whitey would say this is impossible), hasn’t been easy. We have already tried and failed to hire a full time teacher, we currently have a part time position advertised and we are hoping that we will be able to find a teacher that will job share with Lucy Derix. There may be an interim period where Lucy Derix and Rachel Ward will take the grade. I will keep you updated when I can. 

On staffing, at the start of the term we hired a school nurse. Madeleine Brooks was the winning candidate which I have told you about in a past newsletter. I have always wanted to hire a school nurse as it is the right thing to do for our beautiful children. However, like everything in the world it is a money thing. We are lucky that we can have a school nurse, most primary schools do not have the funding. I hope we can always find creative ways to make sure we have a nurse at the school looking after our beautiful children. 

Madeleine is already doing a sensational job looking after the first aide room and any children that aren’t feeling well. I asked Madeleine to introduce herself to you:

Hello families,

My name is Madeleine Brooks and I am your new school nurse. I have lived in the Yarra Valley my whole life and still live locally with my husband and 3 children.

My children attend Woori and we have been a part of the Woori family for 6 years. My family and I enjoy traveling in our caravan, being outdoors, and spending time with friends and family. We have horses, dogs and chickens. 

I have been a nurse for 16 years. I worked across many aspects of healthcare as a Clinical Nurse Specialist/Educator, from Emergency nursing, Mental health, Surgical and most recently General Practice. I am very passionate about my job, learning and delivering the best care possible to the community. 

I am sure over the next few months I will come across most of you. I have spoken to quite a few parents already and have been warmly welcomed, so thank you. Please, if you have any questions, queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see me. I look forward to chatting with you. I will be working Monday, Tuesday and Friday in the sick bay.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Lately we have had some issues with a few students posting things online that are not appropriate. We talk to our older children often at school about the dangers of being in an online space. I would like parents to help me out here and be aware of what your children are accessing and what apps they are using online. 

TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat all have age limits of 13, primary age children should simply not be using these apps because of the content they can access when using them. Primary age children also do not have the experience to know what is funny or appropriate and they repost things that are offensive or they comment on posts which they think are tongue in cheek about another student. Often upsetting whole families. 

We deal with upset children often at school, when these things have happened at home on social media. 

If I could change one thing in the world it would be that parents do not allow students to use social media until they are old enough to navigate the many challenges that come with them.

READING

Thank you to the parents that came to our sessions on, ‘reading with your child’ run by our wonderful grade 3/4 teacher Penny Fredricks.

Reading is the area that our school is working on this year, to improve results even further. Last week’s curriculum day was teacher learning around the best ways to teach children reading skills no matter where they are in terms of their reading abilities. 

Better ways of teaching are forever being presented to teachers and if I think back to the way I was teaching 25 years ago, I am totally embarrassed even though at the time I thought I was a great teacher. Like all industries we need to change and take on better and new approaches. Our teachers and our school will always continue to trial things that are new so that we can get the best outcomes for our students. 

Have a great week!

And remember when life gets a little difficult, escape to the wonderful world of a book!

I’m currently reading two books, ‘where the crawdads sing’ (no I haven’t seen the film yet) and ‘Sister Viv’ which is on Viviane Bullwinkle a nurse during WW11. 

I will see you around our beautiful school!