Primary

It has been lovely to get back to doing some of the fun stuff we love to do at school this year. Friday 28 October, saw the school ground filled with zombies, witches and all manner of spooky costumes for our Halloween Dress up Day. The students participated in Halloween related activities through the day in their classes and welcomed the distraction from the normal routine. 

The Melbourne Cup weekend was a welcomed break for families to cool their heels before the crazy train ride into the end of the year. I know the staff welcomed this opportunity to get ahead of the game with some planning and admin tasks as they prepare for the assessments and report preparation that happen at the close of the term. 

After the fun of our dress up day for Halloween and the four-day break for Melbourne Cup weekend, the Primary team have been very focussed on keeping the children on track, to ensure that they are completing all the necessary learning required before they move onto their new grades for 2023. There is always a mix of tiredness and excitement as we make preparations for what’s to come as well as tying up loose ends for the year. 

It was wonderful to see the culmination of hard work done by the Year 4/5/6 students at the end of their Plan it, Create it, Build it unit of work. The unit had them exploring the processes involved in building a new house from drawing the plans, submitting them to council for approval (the teachers), ensuring that they contained sustainable features for the future such as solar panels, water tanks and double-glazed windows, to constructing a detailed model from their plans and decorating it for sale. The students were asked to write advertisements for their houses just like a real estate agent as well as presenting their work to the class as part of their Speaking and Listening English assessment for this semester. It was great to have parents come along to see the students’ work and listen as they proudly shared their project with their visitors. 

The Prep/1’s are enjoying their People in our Community unit as they receive visits from Fireman Pat from Greensborough Fire Station, who will be returning in the next weeks with the Fire Truck. They will also receive a visit from Police Officer, Brendan, who will talk to them about how the police can help us and protect us. 

As Term 4 rolls along, the students are enjoying participating in the swimming program. We hope that this will equip them well for the summer ahead when they are around water, although it seems like we are in the middle of Winter again, at the moment. 

We are thrilled to have employed the services of Their Care who will be running our Out of School Hours Care Program next year from Term 1. They will be providing before and after school care 5 days per week and will also be running School Holiday programs. I hope that you were able to tune into their online information session that was held earlier this week. 

Their Care are providing services in many of the local schools and come to us with a great reputation and fresh offerings to students and their families. You will be able to enrol your child with them through the school website soon. As always we highly recommend our parents enrol their children in OSHC even if you don’t intend to use the program, as a back-up if you need it in an emergency. 

Please let us know if you are planning on moving your child/ren to another school next year, as soon as you are able to confirm, as we are in the middle of planning classes and staffing for next year, and we need this information to inform our arrangements. 

Karen Butterworth 

Primary Leader