Principal's Message
Welcome back to Term Four. I hope you found some time in the school holidays to enjoy some family time, with a few patches of nicer weather scattered throughout. At the end of last term, I received the news that I get to remain on as Principal at Marangaroo. I have quickly come to appreciate how special this school is and am thoroughly looking forward to working with the dedicated team that is the Marangaroo Primary School community, in years to come.
I also wish to extend a well-deserved congratulations to Sophie Bastow, Steph Cross and Carmen Smith, who both recently won their jobs on a permanent basis. Miss Bastow has demonstrated a high level of skill in achieving great outcomes for students at Marangaroo and we look forward to retaining her as a permanent teacher at the school. Over the past year or so, Miss Cross has been working in the role of Lead Education Assistant and has demonstrated her ability to support and work closely with our wonderful team of Education Assistants. We are delighted to have been able to make this role permanent and retain Miss Cross in this crucial role. Mrs Smith has been working at reception for over a year now and has officially won the position. We're so pleased to continue to have Mrs Smith greeting students and families at the front office into the future.
On the first day of term, while the students were enjoying their last day of school holidays, our staff were busy doing some learning of their own. We were joined by Renarta Coyne and Charmaine Clemo, Aboriginal Coordinators from our regional office, who stepped the staff through a history of Australia and the impact of colonisation and legislation on Aboriginal people. Later in the day, staff analysed our most recent NAPLAN data to ensure that our future planning is aimed at improving the academic outcomes of the students at Marangaroo.
This Friday is World Teachers' Day and I take the opportunity to thank our amazing teaching staff for the role they play in the lives of the children in their care. We have a team of dedicated staff at Marangaroo, who go above and beyond their role, and I know I speak on behalf of the community in thanking them for the tireless work they do. I encourage parents and carers to take the opportunity to send your child's teacher a quick message this week to tell them how much you appreciate them.
I would like to thank all parents and carers for supporting our push for all students to be wearing a sun safe hat at school. Since the beginning of the term, we have had almost every student wearing their wide-brimmed or legionnaire hats in the playground, with those forgetting to bring them playing in the undercover areas. Thanks to all for your support!
Our Year 6 students spent some days last week on camp at Dare Adventure Camp in Dwellingup. They were accompanied by Mrs Andony, Miss Cross and Mr Troiani. I was lucky enough to visit the camp on the first day, with Mr Cutting visiting on the second day. The students were having an absolute blast on both days and representing the school with great pride. Well done to the Year Six students who attended. In our next newsletter we will feature their written articles of how they spent their time at camp and share some photos of the many activities they participated in.
We have had an increasing number of students mimicking games in the playground from an MA 15+ rated Netflix program. Given the nature of the games, we have deterred the children from playing them in the playground and encourage parents to speak with their children about the appropriateness of these games, should the conversation arise at home.
I would like to thank all the staff and parents involved in setting up the new parent-run playgroup at Marangaroo. If you have a child below Kindy age, please bring them along to the Possums room from 8:45am each Thursday - we would love to see you there!
We are looking forward to our final school board meeting on Tuesday 9 November. This will be our annual open meeting so we invite all parents and community members to join. The meeting will be held from 3:15pm.
On Friday 12 November, the P&C will be holding a colour run. Parents and families are also invited along to have a picnic with their children during lunchtime, with the colour run to follow. Stay tuned for more details.
Lastly, we have changed the end of year concert and awards date. The concert and awards will now be held from 2pm on Tuesday 7 December. We will send more information out about this closer to time.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me
Adrian Keenan
Principal
adrian.keenan@education.wa.edu.au
9462 9999