A message from Tami -Jo
I am so pleased to be back at school. I have been on Long Service Leave and Malinda Vaughan stepped up in my absence. I want to thank her for the amazing job she did whilst I was away.
There have been so many events this term. Our sports days were a huge success, and the weather was wonderful from what I hear. Some of our students competed in the district sports and represented us proudly. What an opportunity!
I cannot begin to share all the events this term, so I have just touched on a few.
Cheer Toastie Truck Volunteers
Our Cheer toastie truck fundraiser this term was amazing. The students certainly enjoyed their toasties and we raised $2144. This would not have been possible without our fabulous volunteers. A huge shout out to: Rakhi Lakhwani, Dinithi Dassanayake, Suchitra Bharadwaj, Fatima Tayyaba, Meenakshi Singh, Maruli Saputra, April Ramos, Selime Shabani, Ashiana Hussain, Cheynah Maru and Elena Huynh.
Year 1 Exhibition
On the 23rd of August, our Year 1 students held an exhibition of their writing and art work. They had used descriptive language to write a story about an Australian animal totem as part of their Our Land, Our stories unit. It was amazing! Thank you to all those parents who came to support their children.
Year 8 movie afternoon
The Year 8 students have ben creating movies using green screens. Developing scripts and planning cinematic shots has been the focus of their work in performing arts this term. They held a movie afternoon this week to share their movies with the staff and the Year 7/8 students. There were awards that were fought for in good humour. congratulation to you all who partcipated.
Year 2 Sleepover
Last night, five of our Year 2 classes stayed over at school as part of our camping program. They went home in the afternoon and then came back to school to participate in some games and activities. They had dinner and dessert at school then settled in their pyjamas to watch a movie before bed. They were every excited and there was a lot of chatter. It took a while for them to settle but there we many happy faces at breakfast this morning. Today they will participate in more activities together and head home for a nap at lunchtime. For those who didn’t stay overnight, some of the night time activities were run during the day for them so they would not miss out on all of the experiences. Our teachers will sleep very well tonight.
School Council
We held a school council meeting on the 15th of August. During that meeting we spoke about the staffing shortage and what we have been doing as a school to attract staff. We do have a number of international staff due to arrive as soon as their visas are approved.
We shared that we will be receiving 3 new 3 storey buildings and 5 new specialist spaces as well as a staff toilet. These building works will be occurring throughout 4th term in the hope that they will be ready at the beginning of 2024. We are very excited.
We also shared with the School Council, the list of cultural events that we celebrate and acknowledge throughout the year as we wanted feedback about them. The council were surprised at how comprehensive the list was. We all acknowledged that we are not going to make everyone happy all the time, but we were very keen for some more community feedback.
The School Council members act as representatives of our community and bring issues raised to us for clarification.
Parent Opinion Survey
Every year we canvas parents’ thoughts through the Department of Education’s Parent Opinion Survey. The results are anonymous. Over 400 families have received information which allows them to share their thoughts through this survey. The families are randomly selected through the DET records. We look forward to hearing their thoughts and using the information to help inform our plan for 2024.
Celebrations of Learning
As we are coming to the end of the term, the students are preparing to share their work with their families during our Celebrations of Learning. The feedback we receive from the students in all year levels is so enthusiastic. They really enjoy and value this protected time with their parents to share their work.
Please note theses dates for your diary:
Tuesday 5th September 2.30pm
Years 2 and 6
Wednesday 6th September 2.30pm
Years 1 and 3
Thursday 7th September 2.30pm
Years P and 7/8
Friday 8th September 2.30pm
Years 4 and 5
Parent Behaviour.
We are still having issues with traffic around the school. Students are crossing the road at inappropriate spots and not using the crossing. More often than not, they are being encouraged by parents to do so by either doing it with them or not ensuring that they cross at the crossing. We are reinforcing the message at school and need families to follow up outside of school.
Yesterday, we had a parent assisting their child to jump the fence and then followed them, so they didn’t have to walk to a gate. Again, this type of modelling signals to children that it is acceptable to do this. In order for our children to behave safely and appropriately, the adults in the community need to lead by example.
Please support us and your children by modelling the correct behaviour to the students even though it may be inconvenient to do so. We want them to make the right choices and understand that those choices are not always the quickest or easiest decisions. Sometimes the correct behaviour can be challenging but is not the easiest path to take.
We thank those parents who are trying to do so and are consistently looking out for our children and letting us know when unsafe situations are or have occurred.
The weather is starting to get better. I hope you all have the opportunity to get out and enjoy it in the coming weeks. It certainly makes the days brighter and easier to manage when it is warmer and there is more sunlight about.