From the School Leadership Team
It is always hard to believe how quickly each year seems to travel. It only feels like yesterday that we were welcoming everyone back for the start of the year, and our new students for the first time! It has been wonderful to see so many of our students receiving recognition for many of their wonderful achievements this year, including Premier's Reading Challenge, sporting endeavours, Children's University and so much more.
Our Year 6 students were outstanding at their recent Exhibition. It never ceases to amaze me how effective our students are as learners, researching, synthesising and presenting so confidently on a broad range of topics.
A reminder that we are once again holding our annual Christmas Concert entitled ‘Sounds of the Season’ on Friday 29 November at 7.00pm. The children will all be involved in this event and we encourage your attendance to share in the story of Christmas. Each cluster has already begun practising the song they will perform. We also have our next P & F meeting and AGM coming up on Monday 25 November - all welcome!
There are a number of events coming up over the next few weeks that it is helpful to have listed for your convenience.
• Monday 25 November - Foundation 2025 Orientation Session 1, P & F Meeting • Wednesday 27 November - Principal's Tours and Year 6 Graduation Dinner
• Friday 29 November - Carols Evening • Monday 2 December - Foundation 2025 Orientation Session 2
• Friday 6 December - Official Opening of New Buildings - 9.15am - Worship Centre
• Friday 6 December - Volunteer Thank You Afternoon Tea (2.30pm - 3.00pm) in Cafe Connect
• Monday 9 December - Move Up Morning and Foundation - Year 6 Orientation Day for 2025
• Tuesday 10 December - P & F Fun Day (includes sausage sizzle lunch)
• Wednesday 11 December - Closing Service (9.15am in the Worship Centre) and Year 6 Graduation Service (7.00pm in the Worship Centre).
The grounds and facilities are looking great with our courts being resurfaced this week. The students will absolutely love this updated play space! Work on our nature play is also commencing shortly. We are thankful to the P & F for their assistance with this upgrade. A set of stairs has also been installed to make access to our oval a lot easier to navigate. Our gratitude goes to Kylie Myllynen for arranging this update!
Thank you to Mr Kriewaldt for his outstanding leadership as Acting Principal and Mrs Zadow as Acting Deputy Principal whilst I have been on study leave over the past few weeks. This proved to be a good opportunity to undertake the IB Certificate in School Leadership online through Western University in Canada. I self funded this study at no cost to the school. In the first component, we reviewed the four IB programmes from PYP to Diploma level, the PYP standards and practices linking them to the IB School Leadership Intelligences and are reviewing our focus areas for evaluation, developing action plans to address these. There was also an opportunity to interview a number of principals at an IB school overseas about their focus areas, strategies implemented and the impact seen which has been incredibly valuable.
During this time, it was also a pleasure to work with Dr Paul Teys and to have him visit the school for a day and observe my leadership practice, and to provide feedback for growth.
I also undertook a further MBA subject (also self funded), exploring techniques for business planning, which will enable the further refinement of our business plan for our proposed ELC.
The support of the Board with study leave to assist with undertaking this work is greatly appreciated.
Will Wallace
Principal
How to really play with your kids.
In the latest edition from Justin, he talks about playing and having fun with your kids. As your children continue to grow older the importance of building a relationship is important and a great way to nurture this is through having fun through play.
I hope you enjoy the read and perhaps get some good ideas for the school holidays.
Tim Kriewaldt
Deputy Principal