Principal's Report

SCHOOL REVIEW UPDATE

Yesterday was the last of 3 field days and our panel have enjoyed their time at our school.  They have worked through a busy schedule of classroom observations and observations of team planning sessions, along with student, staff and parent focus group discussions. 

A big thankyou to parents who took the time to attend parent focus group discussions. 

Hearing directly from parents is valuable for the panel, helping them to form a complete picture of school performance. 

We now have a final panel day to come on June 19.  Narelle, Nicole and myself will join the panel for this day, as will Graeme Benn (School Council President) if he is available for part or all of that day. On that day we will develop goals, targets and key improvement strategies for a new Strategic Plan, which shape our work over the coming 4 years.

SHELTER IN PLACE EVACUATION DRILL

We aim to conduct an emergency drill of some sort in the first half of each term.  Last Friday we held a Shelter In Place evacuation drill.

Schools in fire prone areas are required to have a Shelter In Place (SIP), which is a space to evacuate to in the event of a bushfire.  At Scotsburn, our SIP is the double portable and at Buninyong it’s the gym.  The double portable is our SIP at Scotsburn and considerable works have been completed on and around that building in recent years to protect it in a bushfire scenario.

The SIP at the Buninyong campus is the gym and there is currently work happening to that building and surroundings to make it fire ready. 

So, a SIP drill is when we train for a situation where a bushfire is threatening the school and there is insufficient time to evacuate students and staff to an offsite location.  In that situation, we gather our classes and head down to the SIP in an orderly fashion, before checking in and accounting for everyone.

It was good to practice this type of drill and there were learnings along the way.  We’ll repeat this drill early in term 4 to increase our preparedness for a SIP evacuation during the approaching fire season.

A PIECE OF HISTORY 

Yesterday we had a gentleman by the name of Laurie McMaster pop in with a piece of school history.  Laurie brought in a photograph of the original plans for the admin building at our Buninyong Campus.  The plan is signed by Henry Bastow, a renowned school architect of the time on December 9, 1873.  This is perfect timing with our 150 reunion coming up later in the year and this is one piece of memorabilia that we’ll have framed and on display.

The attached photo shows Laurie with grade 6 students Riori, Flynn, River and Penny.

WINTER ROLLS IN

Winter officially arrives on Thursday, but the cooler weather has certainly taken a toll over the past couple of weeks.  We have had large numbers of staff and students absent due to illness.  We are having to rearrange classes regularly due to staffing pressures, but the students and staff are taking it all in their stride and getting on with it.  Overall, the classes have continued to be very settled, and the learning routines remain in place.  

As always, thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding as we navigate a path through this period.  Rest assured we are doing everything possible to continue the learning, but also to keep everyone healthy.