Mr Irwin's Message
Hello families and welcome to this week’s newsletter.
As you saw in the video, next Monday we will be celebrating World Down Syndrome Day at Teesdale Primary by wearing odd socks to school. Although this day aligns with World Down Syndrome Day, odd socks are used more broadly in schools to promote the idea of difference and inclusivity. Two of the most important behaviours on our Values Matrix are ‘We use kind words’ and ‘Accept individual differences’.
As a school we put extensive time into supporting our student’s academic growth, but we also strive to ensure our students develop into good people. Supporting students with these behaviours goes a long way to supporting this ambition. Across next week students will focus on this theme in their personal learning and it would be timely for families to mirror this conversation at home too.
More and more we are having conversations with students about the idea of using kind words at all levels of the school. Many of these scenarios come from jokes or attempts to be funny gone wrong or students being exposed to the concept of ‘roasting’ (making fun of people by pointing out quirks or differences in an embarrassing way). We reiterate at school that this attempt at humour doesn’t have a place in our school community because it is unkind and would appreciate this message being reiterated at home too.
Don’t forget some odd socks on Monday next week with our school uniform as we celebrate that at Teesdale we are all different and it is a place where it is safe to do so!
Pupil Free Days
School Council has now approved our remaining Pupil Free Days for 2026. These will be added to the newsletter calendar for reference. Every effort has been made to balance these being productive working days for staff and minimising disruption across school terms for families. Please pop a reminder in your schedule for these days as students do not attend school on these days.
Pupil Free Days - Friday June 5, Monday July 13, Monday November 2.
House Athletics Day
A Reminder to families that next Wednesday March 25th is our house athletics day at Don Wallace Reserve. Families are very welcomed to attend and enjoy watching students compete. Our Middle and Senior School students will commence from 9:45 and our Junior and Foundation students from midday. A reminder to families that students will be dismissed from Don Wallace at the end of presentations at approximately 2:45pm.
We hope to see you there!
Bye for now, Sam