Message from Acting Principal

Welcome back to everyone after what I hope was a great Winter holiday break!

A special welcome needs to go out to Tarquin Lisle and Breanna Baker who are joining us as new staff members and will be excellent additions to our teaching team, Tarquin in Humanities and Applied Learning and Breanna in Humanities and Health/PE.

It is always great to come back for term 3 and see the weather improving after the holidays with the days getting longer and warmer.  It is amazing to think that we’re halfway through the year and to reflect on how far the students have come and grown over that period of time, and with even more to come.  For our Senior students we are very much at the pointy end of the year with classes being finalised by the end of the term and the preparation for final assessments and exams very much on the horizon.

It was great to welcome Uncle Rick Ronan to perform a Smoking Ceremony for all our students on Wednesday 30 July.  Rick’s initial presentation about his personal family history and the importance of inclusion and acceptance for all was excellent and well received by all.  The Smoking Ceremony itself was great, and all students had the opportunity to walk through the smoke.  This complemented the activities from NAIDOC week that students were able to participate in and got the beginning of the term off to a great start.

Another special event our students were lucky enough to be a part of was a talk from Legacy.  Peter Fitzgerald from Kyabram Legacy spoke to our Year 5 and 6 students about the sacrifices our veterans made to make the country the place it is today, where we can enjoy the freedoms and liberties which we take for granted.  He also spoke about the important work that Legacy does in supporting those left behind when a service man or woman makes the ultimate sacrifice.  Our students were incredibly moved by the whole event and I have no doubt they left with a greater appreciation for the life they have and those that sacrificed to allow them to enjoy it.

The beginning of term 3 also marked 100 days of learning for our Prep students.  This is always a momentous occasion which is a great celebration.  Over those first 100 days the growth and learning that they have evidenced is astounding – many going from not being able to recognise letters to being able to read!  100 days of Prep is a massive accomplishment for the students, their parents or carers for helping them with everything to get that learning, but also the staff in facilitating such amazing levels of growth.  Well done to all involved and I wish all our Prep students the very best in the remainder of their educational journey!

Finally, a few notices of impending activities and changes coming up.  Firstly, Wednesday 13 August is Parent/Student/Teacher interviews day.  This will be a pupil free day and interviews will run from 11:00am-6:30pm.  Please make sure you book your interviews through Compass.

Lastly, Waranga sports for our Years 3-6 students will be held on Friday 15 on both school ovals.  On this day we’ll be hosting students for multiple other schools and in total we will have 680 students involved in this event.  This will undoubtedly be a great event for our students who will take the opportunity to shine and represent our school values with pride.

Thank you all for a great start to the term and I have no doubt the rest of the term will be even better!