A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

Hi Everyone,

I am writing this on Tuesday afternoon and at this point there are only 35 days ‘til Christmas!!

It’s almost unbelievable, this year seems to have evaporated.

REPORTS

Teachers and therapists are putting the final touches on reports and at this time I want to remind everyone that teachers will be reporting against the Victorian Curriculum. Therapists will be reporting about programs and you will receive a progress report towards the achievement of individual goals. You may remember that we have changed the structure of Individual Learning Plans this year and goals were set in June in the areas of communication, independence and social competencies to be achieved by July next year. The 2019 teacher will report on the achievements of these goals mid next year.

END OF YEAR ACTIVITIES

As we count down to the end if term four the school is alive with excitement and staff are as busy as bees organising end of year treats and excursions. The highlight is often the Variety Children’s Christmas Party and this year there will be selected groups and students going on Thursday 6th of December. You will be receiving notices about the activities planned for your child’s class over the next few weeks.

HEAD START PROGRAM

I am really excited to let you know that we will be running our head start program again this year. In the week commencing December 10th students will remain in 2018 classes and a lot of work will be done to prepare them for the changes in 2019. FRIDAY 14TH DECEMBER  will be a curriculum day and STUDENTS DO NOT ATTEND SCHOOL. Staff will make final preparations for the last week of term which will mean that all students will move to their 2019 classes on Monday 17th of December. Our graduating students will not attend school this week.

Graduation is on Thursday 13th December and that will be our last goodbye and congratulations to graduates of 2018. Head start was a great success last year and I believe students are starting to look forward to it this year. Last day of term 4 2018, for students will be Friday 22nd of December.

ILLNESS

Illness has not yet taken holidays from Dandy Valley. As well as the usual tummy bugs, we are now experiencing a round of highly contagious conjunctivitis. If your child’s eyes look a bit red and sore I would recommend having them checked by a doctor rather than wait for the weeping and crusty yellow substance to form. Our staff do everything they can to prevent cross contamination between students but the only really effective means of preventing this is for families to keep sick children home.

Cheers Sue