Principal's Report

Well done to everyone for navigating your way through our first full week of remote remote learning.  From a distance, it all seems to be going pretty well.  Having said that, we don’t want to make any assumptions and intend getting a brief survey out to students, parents and staff on Thursday as a means of checking in at the midpoint of this remote learning period.  Watch out for a Compass notification that will invite you to participate.  

It’s comforting to see the Covid-19 cases levelling off in Victoria, including in regional centres.  For part of last week we were a little concerned at the prospect of heading into stage 4 restrictions, but that scenario seems unlikely now.  Should we be placed in stage 4 restrictions at any stage, remote learning will continue and on-site provision will be in place for those that absolutely need it.

Conference Free Days - As a way of giving everyone a little respite from screens and managing webex conferences, we have factored 2 ‘conference free days’ into this period of remote learning.  The first of those is this Thursday (August 20) and the next is Wednesday September 2.  On these days the children will still be set lesson plans, but won’t be required for the morning check in or any small group or individual conferences.  Hopefully this initiative will help make it a little easier to get through this 2nd round of remote learning.

Yard Projects - We are continuing to take the opportunity to get some projects completed in the yard at both campuses while we don’t have children to work around.  These include:

Scotsburn Garden (Landcare) Shed 

This building is much in need of some love to preserve it for the future, but also to ensure it’s fit for purpose.  Over the coming couple of months, Simon is replacing some rotted timbers, clearing out broken cabinetry, installing new shelves and then giving it a coat of paint once the weather improves.  At the same time Simon will be repairing the hot house, repairing some of the raised beds in the vegie garden and adding a few more.  These improvements will greatly improve our capacity to make the best possible use of gardening as part of the learning program.

Placement of Rocks 

We have taken delivery of rocks of all sizes to be used at our Buninyong Campus.  Some of these will be used to help create a new Japanese garden, others for terracing some sloping spaces in the yard and others dotted around the yard for children to sit and play on.  Thanks to Russell Roberts for sourcing those for us.

Placement of Logs

We have been granted a number of logs as a result of the widening of the Midland Highway between Scotsburn and Elaine.  Some of these logs have been delivered to Scotsburn and will be placed around the yard for children to sit and play on.  We are hoping to get similar logs for the Buninyong Campus.  We are also hoping to be gifted a number of smaller logs, which we would use as both campuses in a variety of ways.