Principal's News

Dear Parents / Carers,

This week Australia celebrates Reconciliation Week and yesterday our students and staff enjoyed a very memorable day. Dr Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann AM visited with us. Mirriam spoke to 400 silent children about the importance of really listening to one another, to being still and trying to understand other people, about her home at Daly River and her love for the environment for almost an hour. Miriam cracked jokes about her “suntan” fading down here in our cold weather. She had the children spellbound with tales of the crocodiles that inhabit the river where she lives and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

As always, parents, your children did you proud. They were respectful, attentive and enjoyed themselves too.

Miriam’s message to us was that we alone belong in and to Australia. That we are all important in God’s plan. She reminded us that her people have been told to listen and understand the “Western” way of doing things. She would ask that we listen and try to understand her people as well.

During the day Miriam painted on a beautiful piece of timber supplied by Mrs Daffy. The painting was contributed to by our students and depicts our “Place” - the lake, the Otways, local fauna and our Sacred Heart emblem. As I told the children this morning I expect that this painting will hang in this school until these children are old enough to visit their grandchildren in this school. A beautiful reminder of a terrific day.

Miriam told us that the theme of this year’s Reconciliation Week is “Be Brave, Make a Change” It is brave to leave your familiar home and speak and paint and sing and dance in front of so many strangers. I think we made some change too.

As we left school yesterday afternoon I asked one of the Grade 3 boys if he had had a good day at school, he answered “Yeah, we hardly did any work”. I laughed and asked, “Yes, but did you learn anything?” “Heaps” was his reply. He wasn’t the only one.

RELATE Thank you to all families for accommodating our staff Professional Learning last Friday. To a person, our entire staff felt last Friday absolutely worthwhile and we look forward to our commitment to this program over the next 3 years.

Please note our follow up day will be on Friday, June 24th. This will mean that the last day for students this term will be Thursday, June 23rd.

ASSESSMENT CONVERSATIONS This term we look forward to being able to sit down with parents and students to conduct Assessment Conversations as prescribed in our Reporting Policy. Teachers will have prepared a brief report to hand to parents at these meetings, which we hope to conduct during the week of June 13-17. Covering staff for these meetings may well be our biggest issue here so we will all have to wait and see how we are travelling. Details on NEXT week’s newsletter.

GRADE FIVE CAMP Our Grade 5 students are heading to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat for their camp next Monday to Wednesday. As we all know it has been difficult for us to take children on camps for the past 2 years so we certainly wish these students and their teachers all the best as they head off to “have fun and learn stuff.”

ASSEMBLY We will be holding an Assembly again this coming Friday, June 3rd. Unfortunately, we will need to restrict parent attendees to our Award winners only.

These children’s names will be included on today’s newsletter.

COVID-19

Screening requirements

Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. 

Household contacts

Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption.

If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools

Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.