From the Principal's Desk

New School Badges

We have new school badges for sale at our office. The cost for each badge is $10.00 This is to cover design, production and postage costs. All students and their families are welcome to purchase these from the office.

Water Upgrade

Recently our school has had some major works completed to upgrade the amount of water we are able to catch and store in our tanks. This will ease the pressure on accessing water when times are drier than others.  This will also result in the small green tank being removed near the Lower Division classroom as this is not needed any more.

Permission Notes

We have been very busy lately with a number of events, particularly for our Upper Division students.  It has become increasingly difficult to organise students when we don't have permission notes returned on time, or at all.  It is very important for the school to have written (not verbal) permission for students to leave the school to attend events. Can I please ask all families to sign and return permission notes when they are sent home, or on the app, as soon as possible, to make sure your children are able to attend such events.  Thanks for your help.

Three-Way Interviews

Just a reminder that we would welcome your input in the form of a 10 minute meeting to discuss your child’s progress at school and to view their personalised learning plan. The process involves an organised time to meet at school, in person or by phone.  We really encourage students, parents and teachers to meet together as part of a three-way interview, however we are happy to adapt this if you wish.

We are holding interviews this week and next week.  We are leaving meeting times open to assist you in managing work and family commitments with staff available at various times between 8.30am and 3.15pm.

If you would like to arrange a time to meet with your child’s teacher, please contact us at the office to organise a suitable time.

Calling all Contractors and/or Tradies!

School Infrastructure NSW (SINSW) are excited to be moving into a totally new Facilities Maintenance Business from 1st July 2023.  SINSW, through the new Facilities Maintenance Business unit is looking for Local Trades and businesses to come and work directly with them in maintaining the 300 plus public schools across the North Western NSW region.

The North Western NSW Asset Management Unit are partnering with Joss Facility Management in a new way of maintaining schools.  The new model has been designed to streamline maintenance of schools, increase response times for maintenance requests and ease the administrative burden on school staff.  It will also actively promote the engagement of Aboriginal people in the maintenance of school facilities and provide better opportunities for local tradespeople. 

The new contract ensures we are directly working with local trades and supporting local businesses in your community, drive economic outcomes in local communities by providing better working conditions for local tradespeople, including faster payment terms.  The Local Contractors will be working directly for SINSW / North Western AMU.  The service Joss is providing is the sourcing, engagement, tendering and procuring this local talent and businesses.

Please find details in the attachment below and also email your details to nwnsw.fmct@det.nsw.edu.au if you are interested in applying and they and will contact you.

Principal Meetings

I will be attending the Armidale Primary Principals Council meeting tomorrow and Friday. These meetings are held in Armidale and will provide us with updated information about new and upcoming programs for our students. 

Uralla Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG)

This week, the Uralla Indigenous community, in collaboration with the schools in the Uralla Shire, have re-formed the Uralla AECG.

Congratulations to the members listed below on their elected positions for 2023:

President - Anthony Green

Vice President - Bianca Walters

Secretary - Dixie Skuthorpe

Treasurer - Louise Upjohn

Elected delegates for NorthWest 2 AECG representation are:

Anthony Green

Peta Weston

Pam Meehan

Bruce Dennison

We will provide further information about upcoming meetings as this comes to hand. 

Anne Miller on Leave this Week

Anne is away this week, so we welcome Denise McGrath to our school. Denise quite often helps us in our office, along with working at other local schools.  Welcome Denise!

COVID-19 Related and Updates

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that we are still continuing our COVID-smart measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses such as the flu in our school community.

Our COVID-smart measures:

While the community continues to live with COVID-19, NSW Health has advised that the unpredictable nature of the virus will continue to present a health risk to the community, especially during the winter months while other respiratory illness circulate. As a response, our school will continue to operate with our baseline COVID-smart measures in place throughout this term to minimise transmission while prioritising student and staff wellbeing. These includes a combination of layered safety measures such as:

• Staying home if unwell and test for COVID-19 if showing any symptoms. Students and staff are advised to stay home until they are well, even if they have a negative COVID-19 test result. 
• Boosted day cleaning of high-touch areas in our schools.
• Strongly encouraging masks to be worn by all students, staff and visitors, particularly when indoors or outdoors when physical distancing is difficult to maintain, and if exposed to COVID-19.
• Strongly encouraging up-to-date vaccinations for our students and staff, including COVID-19 booster shots and flu vaccinations for anyone eligible.
• Maintaining natural ventilation with windows and doors open whenever possible, including when cooling/heating systems are in use.
• Continuing to provide RATs and other hygiene products to our school community, free of charge.

On behalf of our school, we want to thank you for your support in helping to keep our students, staff and community safe.

Have a great fortnight!

Brad Hunt

Principal