Principal's Report 

PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

What an action packed term we’re having! Despite the colder weather there seem to be plenty of activities and excursions to keep us all on our toes.

Our Mothers’ Day High Tea was a great success with over 70 special family members joining us for a cuppa and a chat, including four generations of one family! I think this event will become a permanent favourite on our calendar. Many thanks to Mrs Carmody, Mrs Partridge, Vicki and the students who helped in preparation for the feast.

Thanks to those who were able to come along to our Education Week breakfast and open morning. It was lovely to be able to show some new families around our school. Several of them were actually past students so I enjoyed catching up with them and hearing their positive acknowledgement of the improvements made to the school since there time here.

As with the wider community, we are experiencing an uptake in respiratory illnesses- colds, flu, RSV and Covid, not to mention intermittent outbreaks of gastro! During the colder weather its much harder for us to keep up our room ventilation processes so viruses spread really quickly. If your child is unwell and experiencing coughing/sneezing/upset tummy symptoms, please keep them at home until they are better and their symptoms have subsided. A reminder that for gastro we have a 48 hour exclusion period after the last vomit or diarrhoea episode, even if the child feels better. Be aware also that many of our covid sufferers are not testing positive until day 2 or 3 of symptomatic onset.

We celebrated Career’s Week last week with lots of fun activities for the students, including an interesting insight into the past working lives of the teachers. The week culminated with a dress up day where we glimpsed lots of future AFL footballers, some vets, teachers, doctors, lawyers and tradies. In the last week or so we’ve also had onsite training for our students in Food Handling and Responsible Serving of Alcohol, excursions to TAFE and university field days, mock interviews and Morrinsby career interviews. We are fortunate to have Liz Fowler working so hard on behalf of our students to help them with their career planning options.

Congratulations to all the students who have gone on to represent our school at network and regional level athletics and cross country recently. As per usual we have been given glowing reports of the sportsmanship and behaviour of our students at these events.

Our current School Wide Positive Behaviour focus is our school value of Kindness. 

“We speak kindly to and about others.”

“We are upstanders.”

“We celebrate the success of others.”

“We are inclusive”

Please take the opportunity to talk with your children about what some of these agreed behaviours might look like at home and in the community.

This week we farewell Eleanora, our Italian exchange student. Eleanora has been with us for 10 months and firmly established herself as a valuable member of the student cohort. She has embraced every opportunity ‘had a go’ at all our strange Australian customs. The year 12s presented Eleanora with a box of Aussie memorabilia, including a wombat (her favourite Australian animal). We wish Eleanora all the best for a safe trip home and a successful return to her school in Italy. We love having exchange students as part of our school so many thanks to the Dennis family for hosting Eleanora. If you are interested in the opportunity to have a fresh international face in your family please get in contact with me. There are lots of overseas students keen to have this adventure and it is a great experience for host families as well.

Anne De Manser

Acting Principal