Looking at the school’s yearly event calendar, I note that today was intended to be our last Plant & Produce market for the year. While we all lament the lack of some of our most treasured traditions, I can’t help but think with excitement about the opportunities we will (hopefully) have next year and reflect on how well we have all managed the various challenges of this year.

Yesterday I attended a professional development conference on Future Schooling, where it was highlighted that Victorian schools, students and families experienced the longest duration of remote learning across the world (while some countries are still in lockdown, they had the summer holidays mid-year, as their break). I want to commend each and every one of you for engagement, resilience, commitment, perseverance and patience through trying times. May 2021 bring us a smooth and productive year, full of pleasant surprises.

values

At the Future Schools conference, the speakers outlined an imperative and core element of schools that are appropriately preparing their students for the future: shared, understood and explicitly discussed values. As we prepare for our School Review (postponed to early 2020, due to COVID-19), our school values are high on the agenda for discussion. We have long held and celebrated a set of school values, but the list is a long one; limiting our ability to remember, understand and discuss the values regularly. Early in the new year, school leadership, School Council and our Education Committee will be seeking your ideas and opinions on our values, with a view to review and simplify them without losing anything we hold dear.

class formation

As the weeks continue to fly past, our teachers are working diligently on forming classes for 2021. This year we had just over 30 requests from parents and carers through our Google form and it was fantastic to see that more than 75% of the friendship suggestions were already included in our classroom teachers’ considerations. This reaffirms to our staff (and hopefully our community) that our teachers know their students incredibly well and our channels for providing students with voice and choice in their learning and future is effective. We will continue to work on the 2021 classes for the next week or so, and in the newsletter at the end of Week 9, the teaching and specialist teams for 2021 will be announced.

building works

We know that parents and carers are not currently allowed on-site (we can’t wait to have you back!) but many of you will have noticed from outside the boundary line that the temporary fencing on the south-west corner of our land was erected last week. Over the next two weeks the site will be levelled, before services are installed. We hope to keep you informed of the progress of works, and our building team (McColl Smith) have very kindly offered to take time-lapse records of the progress, for our enjoyment!

SunSmart

We have had some warm weather this week that is likely to continue to the end of the year. Parents and carers, please make sure your children come to school with a SunSmart hat and a water bottle (our brand new bubblers are not currently available, due to COVID-19). Sunscreen is available from classrooms and the front office, but if your child is sensitive to sunscreen, you are free to provide your own.

speech competition

Through our Indonesian classes, students in the senior school were encouraged to enter an online Indonesian speech competition. Kasenya Grant, one of our Indonesian teachers, demonstrated how to HAG (have a go) and has made it through to the finals! You can see Kasenya’s entry and vote for her here.

The Nor'Wester

Issue 34 · 20 Nov 2020

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