Dear Students, Parents and Staff,

Anzac Day

Thanks to our School Captains, along with a number of other students and families who represented the school as part of the Kangaroo Flat RSL Sub Branch Anzac Day march and service. It was an excellent community service that paid tribute to past and present servicemen and women.

Yard works

Thanks to the local members of our CFA and other families who supported the recent works in the yard. The removal of trees that were an OHS concern and replacement with improved planting and mulching looks great, offering better light to our undercover area and improved line of sight for safe supervision in the yard. Come and have a look next Monday morning when you join us for a coffee and chat from 8:40am.

Open Week & Enrolments

Our Open Week begins next Monday May 13 and follows our Information Event that occurred earlier this week. We have had terrific interest in enrolments for 2025 and look forward to welcoming families for tours next week.

The tours will take place daily at 9:15am and 10am and offer new and existing families with children due to commence school in 2025 the chance to meet with leadership team members and look around the school on a guided tour with our student leaders.

A reminder to current families who have younger siblings due to start school in 2025, please make sure you complete the enrolment steps, ideally by the 24th May, starting with an application for enrolment.

Please contact Paige Cartwright at the office if you have any enrolment or tour queries.

Mother’s Day

We wish all the mother’s (and their mother’s…) all the very best this weekend as we celebrate Mother’s Day. We say a special thanks to our dearly loved women and recognise their amazing love and generosity to support us. The following Mother’s Day Blessing is included for our prayers.

Dear Lord,May we show gratitude for the gift of motherhood. We give thanks for the nurturing embrace of mothers, both here with us and in spirit, whose love knows no bounds. May we honour their sacrifices, their wisdom, and their gentle guidance that have shaped us into who we are today.Blessed be the mothers who have held us close, wiped away our tears, and cheered us on through life's joys and challenges. May their legacy of love continue to inspire us to live with compassion, kindness, and resilience. As we celebrate the mothers among us, let us also remember those who have passed from this world. Though they may no longer walk beside us, their presence lingers in the cherished memories we hold dear. May their souls find peace, and may their love continue to guide us from above. On this Mother's Day, we offer our heartfelt prayers of gratitude and love to all mothers, past and present, for their immeasurable impact on our lives

Amen.

We thank the P&F for their work leading our Mother’s Day Stall this Thursday and look forward to our Mother’s Day Coffee & Bloom on Friday morning. Please refer to the printed invite sent home and included again in this newsletter for more details.

Sleep

We have all heard the saying, ‘Practice makes perfect’.

NO - Practice (+SLEEP) makes perfect.

I’ve recently been learning more about neuroscience and how various elements might impact our students. I need to preface this piece by noting that I am certainly no expert, rather a keen learner. It is with this lens that I share my take aways from a recent podcast by Dr Andrew Huberman and his guest, Dr Matt Walker. In their 6-part series, they explore the key aspects of sleep and how we function. One episode is devoted to the role sleep plays on learning, and they discuss the detailed processes that take place during sleep to allow learning to be stored. In short, without sufficient sleep students (and all people) are significantly less likely to be able to retain new information (learning) for future utilisation. Essentially, sleep takes fact-based memories and saves them - stores them for later so they can be recalled. They note that new learning is ultimately “flushed or maintained dependent on sleep...”. Interestingly, motor skills (physical movements) are enhanced through sleep, but that is a story for another day! Why am I making mention of this in our school newsletter? I have recently been having conversations with many students who state they are tired, and their common answer is that they didn’t sleep/sleep well.

According to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, children should sleep for approximately 10 -11 hours per night for a range of healthy sleep adaptations to occur. We might also consider the impact on learning mentioned above when we explore solid sleeping habits. Some further suggestions from raisingchildren.net.au are provided here for your information and utilisation.

In Faith and Community,

Tim Edwards

- Acting Principal

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