From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Colour Run 

What a colourful end to the week we had last week! Our inaugural Colour Run was a huge success and it was such a blessing to see the smiles and joy on the faces of the children (and adults) as we joined in the action! It is wonderful to see the children enjoying school so much and they looked amazing in the white t-shirts generously provided by our P & F for the event. Our thanks also go to Adele McCusker, Kuno Berghout, and Karen Howell for their help setting up on the day.

The Colour Run also included the option to donate towards the work of the Australian Lutheran World Service and we are thankful for the generosity of our school community in this regard. Whilst some donations are still being made at the time of writing, we have raised at least enough funds to support over 150 African refugee children receive an education for a year, which is a wonderful achievement from our beautiful school. 

P & F thank you 

Thank you to our P & F for the great work that they continue to do to support our school and our students. We are appreciative of the many recent initiatives that have really added to our school - from the recent support of our Middle of Term Breakfast and the delicious pancakes as well as our Colour Run, and the generous donation of over $1000 to renew our basketball and netball equipment for the many teams who represent our school, as well as supporting Wakakirri with some props and costumes. 

Appointment of School Counsellor 

We are pleased to be able to let you know about the appointment of our new School Counsellor, Evie Donoghue. Evie is an experienced professional, recently holding the leadership position of wellbeing coordinator at Hallett Cove Primary School where she worked from 2012 up until this year. Over this time, Evie led a range of whole-school student wellbeing initiatives which resulted in improved outcomes for the children there. Prior to that, Evie taught music at Pulteney Grammar for eight years and possesses extensive primary school teaching experience over a number of years leading up to her time at Pulteney in a range of schools.

Evie is highly qualified, holding a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology), a Masters of Education (Cognitive Psychology and Educational Practice), a Graduate Certificate in Education (Wellbeing and Positive Mental Health) and a Diploma of Counselling. Evie is also a member of the Australian Counselling Association.

A key focus of her role will be in working with specialists including psychologists, OT, and speech therapists to discuss different reports on students, and to provide support and resources for teachers and LSO’s in the classroom by implementing the suggested strategies and resources from these reports. Evie will also provide some support with being able to update Individual Learning Plans to reflect different strategies and adjustments. Evie is experienced with different wellbeing initiatives so will be able to provide some support to supplement the excellent work that Jason has been doing in this area already for some time in his Chaplaincy role. 

Evie writes by way of introduction: "I have a passion for wellbeing as well as performing arts and mould these together to implement counselling which is based on Creative/Play Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness. I also have a passion for education and understand that a positive environment is essential for learning. 

My mission at Golden Grove is to foster high-quality educational outcomes for students by developing a proactive and safe learning environment for all students. I look forward to achieving this through providing a preventative and developmental counselling service and developing opportunities for all students to communicate effectively through positive behaviours for learning. I love working with young people, helping them to flourish and supporting their positive mental health. I hope to meet you all soon and am excited to make a positive and long-lasting contribution to your school community".

Our current arrangement with Mary Raschella from Lutheran Community Care is also continuing through Term 3 as she is providing valuable support for students and families. Mary has some valuable parent workshops planned for the coming weeks as well.

Supervision before and after school

School staff are in attendance each day from 8.30 am until 3.30 pm. Parents are reminded that the school cannot take responsibility for students who arrive prior to 8.30 am and depart after 3.30 pm. Very limited playground supervision is available from 8.15 am, however, students must remain seated if arriving at this time. 

In the morning, before school care is available from the school’s out of school hours program (GGOSH) from 6.30 am. Students arriving before 8.15 am must be booked into GGOSH and any students arriving early will be directed there, which will incur a fee. 

GGOSH will be provided at no charge for GGLPS students who come to school with older high school siblings who are catching the minibus to Endeavour each morning. 

In the afternoon, students not collected by 3.45 pm will be directed to the front office where communication with parents will be made. Students may also be directed to GGOSH for care at this time, which will incur a fee.

Uniform Reminder 

It has been pleasing to be around the school and to see students wearing our uniform well. We are proud of our uniform and the way that it presents. A reminder that the transition period for the new uniform over the past two years has now run its course, and we would ask for all students to be in the new uniform, please. With the colder weather, the older style of jacket has been more noticeable around the school, and we would respectfully ask that families upgrade to the new jacket as soon as possible. A copy of our uniform handbook with the descriptions of our range of uniforms is available at the link below. 

https://www.goldengrove.sa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Uniform-Handbook-2020.pdf

COVID Reminder 

As a school, we continue to do all that we can to reduce the risk of coronavirus entering our school or being passed on within our community.

In light of the continued health alerts in Victoria, we ask that you are diligent in following the advice from SA Health which can be found at the following link  https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/

A reminder that if your child has any of the symptoms listed below, please do not send them to school and instead arrange for them to undertake a coronavirus test, returning a negative result before coming back to school.  

• Fever or chills
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Shortness of breath
• Loss of taste or smell
• Diarrhoea and vomiting

We continue to monitor the government's health advice carefully and have a number of management strategies in place as a school which include: 

• Continuing to follow room density requirements with pre-registration for Assembly, Chapel and other school events via the school website
• Reminding students to thoroughly wash hands before and after break times
• Sending unwell students to the office for follow up
• Ensuring that soap dispensers are working and are well stocked with soap
• QR codes are available at each entry point to the school and we ask for all adults to please check in.
• If you are coming on-site for an interview or to help in a classroom as a volunteer, please also sign in at reception as we are required to maintain a record of the names and phone numbers of all visitors to the school in addition to the QR code check-in.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and support in this area. 

Blessings,

Will