Principal's Message

Dear parents and carers,

As a busy term 3 draws to a close, I have had the pleasure of experiencing my first ever Open Classroom Showcase as part of our term 3 inquiry learning focus. I am immensely proud of the learning I saw in each and every classroom, where the energy and engagement was very obvious. Whether it was learning about sustainability and protecting trees in K/1H, or young entrepreneurs promoting their food businesses in 6D, there was a strong sense of creativity and passion for learning across the school.

Importantly, we know that this term has been a positive experience for our students because they tell us so. Through a collaboration with LifeskillsGo, our students check-in 2-3 times a week and share how they are feeling. This term, we have seen a consistent rise in students indicating they feel excited and happy. This is no coicidence, and I commend my team of dedicated staff for developing these rich units of work. 

On a side-note, our student check-ins have highlighted consistently high level of students checking in as tired - students must get a reasonable amount of sleep to thrive at school.

We will be repeating our term 3 inquiry focus in 2025, which will be aligned to the National Science Week theme of Uncoding the Universe.

Term 4

Most of the key dates are now in the School Bytes calendar for you to view and I encourage you to take a look. Significant events are also shared below in the calendar section of these newsletter. Term 4 for all students begins on Monday 14 October and finishes on Wednesday 18 December. I will be making consistent attendance a strong focus for the rest of the year and expect students to be at school on time, and ready to learn. 

Reward day

To celebrate the commitment of our students to learning this year, we will be holding a free inflatable challenge day on Monday 25 November. Challenge2bfit will be setting up an inflatable obstable course at school for students to enjoy. We are very excited!

School maintenance 

We have some significant school maintenance taking place during the holidays, including the replacement of the office storeroom roof and tree maintenance across the school. Our grounds will still be open throughout the holidays, except for Monday 30 September.

Share our Space - Cricket workshop

As part of the Share our Space program, Cricket NSW will be hosting a Fundamental Cricket Skills workshop at Tarrawanna PS on 9 October. Spaces are limited so I encourage you to register as soon as possible. See the flyer in community news.

Living classroom

The garden continues to thrive under the careful management of Aaron Sorenson, our garden ambassadors and parent volunteers. I enjoyed the opportunity to cook with students recently, working with Sunny, Bonnie and Asmaa to make Okonomiyaki (Japanses cabbage pancakes). Asmaa also made some tabouli with her older sister and brought it in to share with the class.

We will be holding a garden working bee on Friday 11 October from 10am - 12pm. Come have some fun and frivolity in the rainforest garden! Bring something to share. I look forward to seeing you there.

2025 staffing

I am now in the process of planning staffing for 2025 and developing plans for the structure of our classes. I will keep you posted as we have further information and continue to work with the executive and staff to make sure our plans are focussed on the needs of our students. Miss Rutter has confirmed that she wil be taking leave for 2025 and we wish her the best.

Our enrolment numbers currently sit at 158 students for next year. We need to have 156 students to ensure we keep the current number of classes. If you are planning to move or your child is leaving us at the end of the year, please let us know so we can plan accordingly.

We also need your help to maintain our enrolments, because word-of-mouth is one of the most effective ways to bring in new local students. We are a great public school, offering the best education money can't buy and want everyone to know. Our goal is to have as many of our local students attending their local school as possible. Please keep putting out a positive word for us because it makes a difference. Share our social media posts with your friends and celebrate our successes.

2025 key dates

In the coming weeks we will be adding most of the key dates for next year into the School Bytes calendar so you can plan ahead. If you do not already use the School Bytes app, I encourage you to download it now.

Please make sure you have a wonderful holidays and we will see you in term 4 as we celebrate the last term of primary school for our year 6 students!

Mr Chris Hopkins

Principal