a word from our leaders
Together again
For the first time in 4 months, students and staff gathered together as one for Opening Chapel. An obvious sense of excitement was inspired by this reconnection as a community. A staff band played live music, Georgie spoke of God’s love that has remained constant through the challenges, birthdays were celebrated, and new staff and students were welcomed. What a magnificent way to start the term!
Record attendance
It’s exciting to invite parents back into the school as we strive to recapture that true sense of community that is a hallmark of the 'Good Shepherd way'. It goes without saying that we will monitor this closely, along with the overall situation in South Australia. We do ask that visitors to the school continue to socially distance and importantly, do not enter our site if feeling unwell in any way.
My sincere thanks for your vigilance to date. The result of this effort as a community has lifted our average attendance by students to a consistent 99%, up from a longstanding rate of approximately 92%. In real terms that’s about 30 additional children per day who are at now attending school, not at home unwell. These figures are an all-time record for our school. Our community is healthy, happy, and importantly, learning opportunities are maximised.
Staff news
A very special welcome to new staff in Term 3
Lena Harmer joins our Stage 3 teaching team as Anthea Shields commences maternity leave.
Chelsie Cossens-Riches and Charlie Armitage join our team of classroom support staff.
We welcome Viva Phetsikhio to the Curiosity team of educators.
Bronwyn Holliday is enjoying a 5 week period of Long Service Leave this term. In Bron's absence, Bec Ingham has been seconded to the role of 'Director Junior Primary' during weeks 2 – 5. Janine Eggart will assume Bec’s classroom teaching responsibilities.
New students
This week is somewhat of a milestone week as our combined school enrolment (Primary and Early Learning ) surpasses 500. My thoughts, upon learning this, shifted immediately to those hard-working families who pioneered the establishment of our school 39 years ago. I suspect they would never have dreamed that today we would enjoy the privilege of supporting 501 young people and their families with a vibrant future focused curriculum in world class facilities. What I'm sure wouldn't surprise them is that 'relationships' remain at the centre of all we are and do.
A special welcome to the Tran, Stuut, Udagawa, Fieles, Wang, Richardson, Dhull, Gupta and Shephard families who join our community this term. I pray that relationships will flourish and learning will be rich and purposeful.
Aquaponics featured on ‘Behind the News’
Our students were very excited to be invited to share their aquaponics journey on Behind the News (BTN) last term.
If you missed the story, click on the link below. We insisted that no teacher, adult or expert be part of the story. Our students did a wonderful job sharing their passion and learning and learning through the project. Thank you Stage 4 for presenting as wonderful ambassadors for your school.
Professional Learning Week
After enjoying a couple of weeks of leave to round out Term 2, it was a joy and privilege to reconnect with staff during our professional learning week (1st week of students' holidays).
At the close of what had been a term filled with uncertainty and challenge, staff would have been forgiven for presenting to this week feeling somewhat ‘flat’. To the contrary, what we enjoyed was a week of energetic discovery, growth, reflection and solid preparation for the months ahead. I cannot express more strongly the pride and appreciation I have for the professional and collegial team that, when all is said and done, love and care for your children, and who beyond measure, invest passionately in their growth and development.
We are blessed as a community and I am privileged to lead this inspirational group.
Come and see … Curiosity - Early Learning Centre
Two opportunities have been timetabled to give existing primary school families an opportunity to visit Curiosity and be inspired by the learning and spaces.
Join me for a ‘walk and talk’ on Monday 3 August or Friday 7 August at 10.30am.
Please register your interest via Pauline, our registrar, here.
Many existing Good Shepherd families now have younger siblings who are enrolled to commence in our Early Learning Centre in the years ahead. A number of these families have not yet had opportunity to take a tour of the Centre. Child safety and protection is a strong focus in the Centre and spontaneous visits are not always possible. Welcome!
Thank you
We recognize and give thanks to our State Government for the provision of a $50,000 Capital Grant that has given us opportunity to upgrade our complete telephone and personal address systems. Although this project is not an immediately obvious or visible school improvement, we were very pleased to finally decommission old infrastructure. We now enjoy a system that effectively supports the size and complexity of our physical environment.