Principal's Report

From Graeme's Desk....

Welcome to the new school year for 2018.  I trust our community had a chance to relax and enjoy the holiday break and make the most of the great weather overall. 

As with every new year we welcome new students to our school.  We have 102 Preps who had their first day at school yesterday.  We also have a larger than normal number of students who have started with us throughout the other year levels.  We have started with 727 students in our 31 classes.

The CHPS community calendar will come home to families today.  I hope that you find it a useful for tracking some of the important school events and family activities. 

New staff we warmly welcome to the CHPS Team are:

• Angela Stevens - Business Manager
• Michelle Collins - Indonesian Specialist Teacher
• David Bouris - Senior Classroom Teacher
• Kelly Gommers – Junior Classroom Teacher
• Genevive Stephens welcome back as Special Needs Coordinator
• Alyssa De Graff – Integration Aide
• Lisa Martin – Integration Aide

New sports program after school

You will find more detailed information in this newsletter regarding a new sports/activity program being offered after school on 3 nights of the week.  Our very large OSHC Program is at capacity on 3 nights and has long waiting list as well.  This program is  the largest we are aware of and cannot expand any further.  We hope that the trial of this idea for a sports/activity program conducted by Popup Sports will be of interest to our whole school community.

Facilities updates

There has been a significant amount of work on our facilities over the holiday period

• The new double classroom has been completed by the Department contractor, just in time.  We had hoped it would be finished earlier to enable us to do some extra work to join the deck areas.  This work will now take place in the first term holidays.
• There was much trenching around the school as part of a major power upgrade to the school.  We do not have sufficient power to run our expanding school, so a new supply is being installed.  It is a big project.
• The area in the junior play area on the hill has new sleeper walls and synthetic turf to make it a lovely all weather area for students to play and relax.
• The path across the side of the main oval below the Pavilion has been asphalted now that that the ground has consolidated.
• An area outside the PAC has been established and covered with synthetic turf.  There is more work to be done in this new area as part of our upcoming 30th birthday celebrations.

Korean Connections

We have students from one of our Sister Schools in South Korea coming to stay in our school and with families for a few days from Thursday Feb. 22nd until Sunday 25th.  We still need a small number of families who could act as homestay hosts for two students or maybe even a single student.  The children will be here for 3 nights from Thursday, with the group leaving from school on Sunday afternoon to head to the airport. 

We have planning underway for our 8th group of senior students from CHPS to the travel on the Korean Study Tour in October.  There will be more information in coming weeks and an information night later in Feb regarding this wonderful opportunity for students in Years 5 or 6.   If there are parents considering this, hosting a student in February  is a great way to start building connections as this is the school our students will homestay with later in the year.  EOI form - https://tinyurl.com/ya34x8l9

Graeme Caudry - Principal