Principal's Report
THANK YOU
Once again we have faced a challenging term for our community, and again, unlike anything we have ever experienced before. The challenges that you have faced as families and our school as a community are unprecedented.
We are so proud of our students, teachers and parents for their resilience and positive attitude throughout this term and the year. We thank our parents for their ongoing support and I'm extremely proud of how our students, staff and parents have worked together during this time.
A big thank you to our students, teachers and parents for their ability to manage the live video conferences. In what must be an extremely challenging time for all households, juggling working from home and their children's remote learning, we really appreciate your support to be the important link between school and home.
We look forward to the transition of students returning to onsite learning in Term 4. A strong emphasis will be on supporting students wellbeing and their literacy and numeracy skills. Our teams will work together to identify where students are at in their reading, writing and numeracy and provide focused learning in these areas to support their learning growth.
We look forward to continuing to strengthen our students growth in Term 4 and the events and activities that make our school great.
STAFFING UPDATE
During Term 3 we continued to grow as a school and we welcomed new teachers to our communities. Stephanie to Argus community, Elin to Achilles community, Holly to Ulysses community and Paul to Xenica community.
We say goodbye to Maddy & Stacey, 2 of our teachers who have been with us since the start as they begin their family leave. We wish them all the best and can't wait to meet their new family member! We look forward to their return from maternity leave in the future.
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS UPDATE
New shade sails will be installed next term over the P-2 playground. In 2021 we will look to providing shade to our learning street and other play areas around the school.
A new portable will be installed next term to help with our growing enrolments for 2021.
Thank you to our school council for their support throughout the year with our buildings and grounds as well as other important areas of our school.
SCHOOL REVIEW
Our School Review has been postponed to 2021 and most likely will be during Term 1. The School Review involves a panel of staff, regional leaders and school council members evaluating our school's strengths and areas for improvement and future focus.
Gathering feedback from students, staff and parents is part of the process, elements of this began in Term 1 and 2 and will continue into Term 4 and Term 1 next year. Online surveys will be conducted for students, staff and parents to help inform our School Review.
The School Review is also an opportunity to develop a 4 year plan, known as a School Strategic Plan. This will help us establish our goals, targets and strategies for the next 4 years and ensure we are continuing to improve.
We look forward to working with you throughout this process.
SCHOOL EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
A bit thank you to our staff for organising some fun activities this term! Science week, super hero dress up day, wacky hat day, footy dress up day, health and PE week and Spoonville have been great opportunities for our students and we look forward to continuing this trend in Term 4.
There are a number of events and activities that normally occur in Term 4 each year and we will be doing our very best to continue those traditions.
Certainly orientation of our new Prep students for 2021 is an important part of children's transition from kindergarten to primary school and we aim to continue this in Term 4. Likewise transition to Year 7 and within the school will be a focus for us in Term 4.
Graduation for our Year 6 students is a key point in time for students and we will be continuing with this tradition. So whist they might look a little different, they will definitely be part of Term 4.
As restrictions are eased and other parts of our daily life open up in Victoria, we will look forward to opportunities for our students and our whole school community to be engaged with our school events and activities as much as possible.
A big shout out to our school captains and student leadership team for their articles in this newsletter! We really appreciate your contribution and have definitely missed working with you!
We look forward to some opportunities to work with you in Term 4 and how we can, to quote our esteemed School Captain Olivia, "finish the end of the school year all together with a big bang!
Have a well-deserved break everyone!
Kind Regards,
Pete