As I walked around on Monday morning before classes started, I felt that there was a very calm and positive feeling amongst both families and teachers. Rested after the holidays, our school was in full swing by 9:01am on Monday morning and students came ready to engage in their learning and contribute to our school.

It is clear to me that we have many students here that are buzzing with ideas on how they can improve our school and apply their skill set in doing so. Our lunchtime clubs started last term with just me running a Library Lunchtime. This has now grown to include a Dance club, Basketball club and soon to be Pencil Drawing club. These 3 new additions have all been the result of our senior school students taking initiative to approach me and pitch their idea to run a club at lunchtime. From there they have arranged fitting it into their busy sport practice schedules and then eagerly committed to giving them a go. These are run by the students for the students and there is always a teacher there to assist with supervision and to step in if needed. However, generally speaking these leaders are well and truly able to handle the job and model our school values while they do it. We now have 4 clubs at lunchtimes for students to join into this term;

Pencil Club will begin on Monday's - run by Year 5 girls
Dance Club in the Bampi on Tuesday's - run by Year 6 school leaders
Library lunchtime in the Library on Wednesdays - Nieta
Basketball club at the courts on Friday lunchtimes. - run by Dan in 3/4N

I thank all those students who have volunteered their lunchtimes to provide a structured activity for their peers. It is an outstanding achievement by the teachers to have been able to build these students ability and confidence enough that they feel they can achieve the things they put their mind to.

We held our Anzac Ceremony today and it was great to have some families attend and watch the Junior School Council present. They did an amazing job presenting to the school about the significance of Anzac day and its origins. They read beautifully and presented confidently, which is no easy task when presenting to your peers. I would like to thank Nikki, one of our 3/4 teachers for organising the event and working hard with the JSC.

A couple of reminders for this term and dates to put in your calendars

Working Bee: Sunday 2nd May 9am - 1pm

Sausage Sizzle lunch provided

I know these Working Bees are hard to get to sometimes with families so busy on weekends with extra curricular activities but if you or your family members can spare even and hour or two between 9am-1pm on the day we would be very grateful for your help. 2020 Covid-19 restrictions has meant we have not been able to hold a Working Bee for some time and there is much that needs to be done. Most notable is the beginning works on our new Sensory garden area that needs prep work done so we can begin transforming the space into an interactive garden for our students to enjoy. If you have any particular skills or equipment that might assist us on the day, please let me know.

Education Week Open Day: Thursday 28th May 6pm-7pm

We will be running our Open Night which will include a Display of students writing across the school, time to explore your child/rens classrooms and performances from our State School Spectacular group, songs from our 2021 production as well as our Bush Band.

I hope you have a great weekend and I look forward to Week 2 as I am sure it will be as positive and rewarding as this week has been.

Take care,

Nieta

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