Mr Lindsay's Message
Mr. Lindsay's Message
Hi Families, it’s our final newsletter for 2021!
With only 8 schools days left for the year, there’s a lot going on around the school community that I’m going to talk about.
Today is the Victorian State wide Transition Day. All government schools in Victoria give their students the opportunity to spend part of the day with their 2022 teacher and cohort. It was great making my way around to each learning space and seeing the level of excitement our students had to meet their home group and cohort teachers for next year and spend time in their learning spaces.
Today, all students will bring home a letter where we explained who their homegroup teacher and cohort teachers are.
As they have this year, students will have a homegroup teacher but across their week they will also have an opportunity to work with all teachers in their Junior/Senior school. What this means is during the year your child will most likely connect with all of their cohort teachers and children in their cohort.
Your child’s homegroup teacher will remain the primary point of contact if you wish to discuss your child’s learning progress or need to relay any concerns or have any questions etc.
Camp
Last week our year 3/4 students made their way to Lady Northcote in Glenmore. It was a hot 3 days full of adventure activities and I was most impressed with the way our students conducted themselves. New friendships were made between peers and the support and encouragement students gave each other during the activities was fantastic. All of the staff present made several comments about how settled our students were overnight, particularly given this was the first school camp for everyone.
Lastly, I wanted to pass on the feedback we received from the Lady Northcote camp staff. They said “on behalf of all Lady Northcote staff we wanted to acknowledge the 3/4s who attended our camp. Your students were respectful, kind and enthusiastic throughout their three days here. What really stood out was the way your students supported each other during our ‘challenge yourself’ activities. We thank you for giving our staff the opportunity to get to know your wonderful students”.
Reports
Next week Semester Reports will be distributed to families via the Sentral Portal. This semester these will include progression points which will show your child’s learning progression from this time last year in 2020. Reports will include learning continuum from literacy and numeracy which show the curriculum skills your child has achieved in literacy and numeracy, as well as the next level of learning skills they are working towards.
Special Thanks
Every Primary School relies on its community and there’s a few key groups I want to take the time to thank.
Firstly, I want to thank our parent group for their resilience and support during the year. After last year, I’m sure we all hoped 2021 would bring routine and predictability. Whilst this hasn’t been the case, I’ve been blown away with how each of our families have approached the school year with a positive attitude. We’ve made it!
The work you all committed to at home to support students at home during remote learning was tremendous. Thank you.
To our school staff, how lucky are we! It has been a difficult year but this hasn’t changed your approach to being leaders in education each and every day. We all know, school wasn’t meant to be remote and I couldn’t be prouder of the lengths you’ve all gone to throughout 2021 to ensure all of our families were supported. Whether it was dropping off technology or learning packs to families in isolation, making additional contact to support students who needed regular check ins, providing assessment opportunities remotely or simply picking up the phone to check in with parents/guardians. Your hard work has made a difference and I look forward to working as a team again in 2022.
Finally, to our amazing students. No one could predict that you’d be approaching school in the way you have had to over the last two years. We have seen every students given learning their best effort and have been amazed at the impressive results achieved.
I wish everyone an enjoyable 8 at school before the holidays. Best wishes to our year 6 students as they graduate from Primary School with our celebration on Tuesday evening.
In Conclusion
Our final assembly will be on Friday afternoon at 1pm. This will take place under the Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) and parents/guardians will be welcome to attend.
I wish everyone a safe and Happy Christmas and New Year period. I hope it’s a chance to relax, enjoy the company of family and recharge before we do it all again in 2022!
If I don’t see you before the end of next week, have a great break!
Farewell from Mrs O'Mealley
As most of you know I will be retiring on the last day of school after 21 years.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all past and present staff, students and families and Teesdale community for their support and friendships over this time.
During this time I have had the opportunity to be part of some amazing and exciting changes at school and in Teesdale.
I was lucky enough to be part of the implementation of The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program and help to write a book on our schools history as we celebrated 125 years of education at Teesdale. I have watched the community grow and the school's population increase and new classrooms built to accommodate our continued growth.
I was even lucky enough to participate in lantern making and musical workshops which culminated with the Turtle Bend Festival and Lantern Parade which is still held annually.
Over the years I watched many children grow and excel in their lives outside the school.
I have witnessed as one of our students fulfilled his dream of becoming and Olympian.
I have seen the return of many past students as they return to share their experiences with current students and also witnessed as some our past students return to teach at Teesdale!
Although I will be leaving the school community I will remain living in Teesdale.
I look forward to many traveling adventures with my husband as we start the next stage of our life.
Take care and stay safe
Love Mrs O’Mealley
BYOD Program 2022 - JB Hi-Fi Purchase Portal
A reminder to families, our Bring Your Own Device Program will continue next year to include all students in Years 3 to 6. The school has a Purchase Portal set up with JB Hi-Fi should you choose to purchase through them. The Portal will be activated shortly. Please see the attached information for the portal link and access code. There is also a handy toolkit for parents to answer any questions.