Principal's Report 

Dear Parents, 

Welcome to the 2023 school year at Mackellar Primary School, and for those new to our school welcome to the first edition of our school newsletter. It has been wonderful to see so many happy and smiling faces over the past week as students and staff familiarise themselves with their new grade and class members. 

As with the start of most school years, there are a number of reminders for parents to assist us all in making the start to the year as smooth and successful as possible. Please bear with me as we go through some now.

Firstly a reminder regarding school start times. Wherever possible, please be sure to have your child at school 5-10 minutes before the school bell sounds at 9am. This way students can place their bag, lunch order, books and other materials from their school bag into the appropriate location in their classroom. When students are late, this disrupts the whole class and makes the start of the day problematic. 

Please ensure your child has their school uniform on each day and avoid clothing items that are not uniform. This includes alternate jackets and jumpers in place of our school jacket and windcheater, pants and shorts that are not black and as it is term one, all students require a school hat each day to be worn at recess and lunch. Baseball caps and other types of hats, whilst fashionable, are not appropriate for sun protection and will not suffice. Children without a hat will need to be in the shade for recess and lunch accordingly. School hats are available from PSW, our uniform supplier. 

Next, our yard is supervised for 10 minutes prior to the start of the school day and for 10 minutes at the end of the school day. We kindly ask parents not to send students earlier than this in the morning as the yard is not supervised outside of these hours. 

Finally a request for parents to drop off their children in the morning, and pick them up in the afternoon from outside of the building. We are still limiting visitors inside the building as COVID continues to spread in our community. This simple act reduces congestion inside, and allows for for easy movement along our corridors. 

Your cooperation with these reminders would be greatly appreciated for the benefit of all.

Kind Regards, 

Simon McGlade

Principal