A message from Tami -Jo
We have had an amazing start to the year.
The classrooms have been settled and the students focussed. It was wonderful to be able to have access to our new buildings for day 1. It helped students to be able to claim their space and make it their own.
Transition to the new timetable is going well. The teachers are ensuring that the students have a fruit break throughout the morning to help them to stay focused until the lunch break at 11.40am. It is important that all the students have a good hearty breakfast when it is such a long morning.
A huge welcome to all of our new staff, some have travelled from overseas and interstate. Please make them feel at home here at DCC.
Preparation for the beginning of the year
Our leadership, administration, IT and facilities teams started back at work on the 22nd of December so that the school would be ready for the students on the 31st January.
The administration team prepared all our of systems whilst the IT team helped with the connectivity in new buildings as well as working with parents to have our student computers connected. The facilities team made sure that the buildings were finished and the grounds were ready.
The leadership team participated in professional learning and team building exercises as well as spent time preparing the curriculum day learning for the staff retuning on the 29th of January.
Our new staff, the Professional Learning Team Leaders and the Mental Health Leaders all participated in professional learning as well in their specific areas on the 25th of January.
During the staff curriculum days, there was a focus on planning, our social and emotional learning program
We were very excited to have handover of our new buildings in time for the start of the year. Our facilities team and teachers worked hard to ensure that they were ready for students on day one.
Picnic and Information Night
It was wonderful to see many of you at our picnic and information sessions on Tuesday afternoon. The feedback we received was very positive; you enjoyed having more contact with the classroom teacher and spending time in the classrooms. It is a unique opportunity to learn more about the curriculum being taught and how it is taught; the processes we have in place; how we manage behaviour and how the children are encouraged and rewarded. We will send out the presentations for those who were unable to make it this week.
School Council
Nominations for School council closed yesterday and we will inform the community of next steps shortly.
Early Pick Ups and Lunch Drop Offs
We understand that there are specific reasons that students may need to be picked up early from school, but we ask as much as possible if that could be communicated with the classroom teacher directly the day before or before school on the day as well as including admin into that communication. We do not like to make announcements for children to come to the office as it interrupts learning time and in a school of 1700 children, I am sure you can understand that there would be a lot of announcements around a number of different things so trying to keep them to a minimum is important. This is true of lunches being dropped off as well. Can I ask that parents are patient and respectful in their interactions with the administration staff who work hard to meet your needs but in schools no day is the same as there are a number of moving parts and a number of contingencies can be occurring at any one time? Best laid plans may not always work the way we want but treating our staff respectfully is important so I ask that parents remember this when they may find themselves in a stressful situation.
CENSUS
Our student numbers will be calculated this coming Thursday. It is a very important process for our school as it dictates the funding we will receive for the year. As mentioned previously, if children DO NOT attend school during the month of February, they are not counted in our numbers for funding whether they are enrolled or not. We ask again that people do not organise their overseas holidays at this time or ensure that the children are back at school before the end for the month so we can make sure that we are funded adequately.
Hats, Sunscreen, Water
The weather has been warm at times lately and we ask you to speak to your children about wearing their hats and to remind them to drink water regularly during the day. If you would like your child to apply sunscreen during the day, then you need to provide them with some to keep in their bag and let them know when you want them to apply it. We recommend that you apply sunscreen before they go to school each day and then remind them at this time about re-applying later in the day. Teachers can remind students but will not be applying it for the students.
Working together as a community
I have included a letter that I sent out to the secondary families this week asking for their support and assistance. The behaviour that we have seen is not isolated to just the secondary school and I hope that all of you will read this letter and have the suggested conversations with your children, not once but regularly. Whether you believe your children are capable of behaving in such a way or not, consistent open conversation is important to build their ability to self-regulate and make good decisions when they are upset or under duress from peer pressure. It is important that you support us by letting your children know that it is imperative to report issues which make them uncomfortable, upset or angry and trust in us to follow them up even though they may not always know the outcome. We must work together as a community to help grow a community of humans who care for each other and focus on the similarities rather than the differences and are constantly working to improve not tear down. (Please see letter below)
BYOD Program
thank you ot all of those families who have supported our BYOD program. The students have been learning not only how to use them effectively as a tool for learning but how to look after them; another valuable skill.
For those families who are still investigating the purchase of a laptop, one of our school council members purchased a second hand laptop through the links below which may be helpful to some.
12.5” laptop
14” laptop
Colour Explosion
Our Colour Explosion fundraiser is on Tuesday 5th March. It is not only a wonderful community building event for the students but is a fundraising event also. We are working hard to raise money to erect a cover over our multi-courts. The cost of this is around $1,000,000. This would mean that our multi-courts can become a teaching space in inclement weather but is also then a more flexible play space for our student as well in both hot and wet weather. The class that raises the most money gets to slime me! Big thank you to all those families who have given permission to their children to participate and are fundraising hard for our school.
Preps/ Year 1
Preps will be attending school 5 days week starting in March. It has been valuable for the Prep teachers to have this time to complete the English Online assessments with the students as it gives us valuable information in order to plan appropriately for them. IOt has also given the Prep students time to settle into the routine of attending school.
The Year 1 teachers have been completing the appropriate areas of the same assessment on their students. They have been given some extra time release in order to complete this. Whilst it gives us valuable information, it also is a requirement of the Department of Education that all Foundation and year 1 students complete this assessment.
Thanks for a wonderful beginning to the year and as always, if you have any concerns or questions, do not hesitate to contact us.