From the Principal

Proud Principal Moments

I was excited to travel to Parliament House on Monday 11 September with Jina, Louis, Saida, Jayla, Shona, Kristian and Hannah to see our students receive the Alicia Katz Award in the 2023 Parliament Prize. 

This is the second year our grade 5-6 students have entered the competition and the judges were impressed by the strong public speaking skills and care shown by our students in their presentations about the issues in our community and country they feel strongly about.

It is thrilling to see the students' efforts being recognised as I know a lot of thought and effort went into researching, writing and recording their submissions. It would have been incredible if all the students who entered could have attended but numbers were restricted and we were only able to send four students, Jina, Louis, Saida and Jayla, who represented our school with pride.

Congratulations to Kassem who received a Highly Commended Certificate.

Focus on the Good - Reward Redemption

There has been a flurry of activity the last few weeks with students cashing in their Focus on the Good tickets for their chosen reward. I have been the lucky recipient of two reward redemptions and have had two very happy lunches in the last two weeks. 

The first lunch was with Chase from Prep and the second with Anastasija from grade 1. We had a wonderful time together eating our lunch and sharing stories about pets and family. Thank you Chase and Anastasija for making my day and choosing to spend your tickets on having lunch with me. I loved our time together!

Behaviour in the toilets

Last week I had reason to speak to the Prep-2 students about their behaviour in the toilets. With the holidays coming up it would be a good time for parents to have conversations with their children about acceptable ways to behave in toilets.  Topics for discussion could include:

• spare toilet rolls are not for weeing on (boys)
• spare toilet rolls are not for shoving down the toilet (boys and girls)
• we wee in the toilet bowl or urinal and not on the floor or in floor drains (boys)
• one person per toilet cubicle (girls)
• we shut the toilet door when we are using the toilet (girls)
• we do not crawl under the partitions, lock the toilet door from the inside and then crawl out (girls)
• waste the soap by using too much or spreading it around the bench (boys and girls).

The behaviours listed above are all socially unacceptable and not terribly hygienic for others using the toilets.

We are extraordinarily lucky to have such clean toilets thanks to the incredible work of Gloria and I find it hard to believe that students would behave the same way at home. Their current behaviour is certainly not in keeping with our school values of Respect, Caring, Cooperation or Personal Best.

Gardening Bee and Happy Holidays

We will finish term 3 at 1:45pm on Friday 15 September. The students have worked hard during the term and are quite tired. A holiday break will hopefully help them recharge so they are ready for a busy term 4.

BUT before we head off on holidays, we would love if you could join us for 30 mins to an hour to help us pull a few weeds from our garden beds. Our Gardening Leaders have been doing a wonderful job trying to keep on top of the weeds but it is a big job and they are a small group. If you could spare half an hour before heading off on holidays, we would LOVE your help. With MANY hands helping we can whip things into good shape before the holidays. We have lots of gloves and tools, so please join us!

Linda Richards

Principal