Principal's Report 

Dear Parents, 

Welcome back for the 2022 school year. It has certainly been a very different start to what we are used to and for that can I say a very big thank you for your understanding and cooperation. As you know we delivered every child a packet of 5 Rapid Antigen Tests to be administered at home. It is strongly recommended by the Department of Education that students undergo a test twice per week on school days, as it does for staff also. Additional RATs will be delivered in the coming days for students and staff.  When administering the tests, parents only need to notify the school if the test comes back positive.  If it does, and when you notify us, we can provide you with additional information for school. 

On Friday of last week we welcomed our newest and youngest students to our school in grade prep. These students spent the first part of last week meeting with the prep teachers where together they discovered what the students knew and what they are yet to learn.  Now though, it is full steam ahead for them as they join us every day. Coinciding with their start is the revamp of the sandpit which for the first part of the term is just for them. This pit is full of toys where we know friendships will be formed, castles constructed and destroyed, and where adventures will begin. Very exciting for them and thank you to Colin our maintenance man for the revamp ready for the prep students. 

At our outdoor assembly today we congratulated our student leaders for this year.  Whilst Ms Wood is discussing more of that in her newsletter page, I did want to take a moment to congratulate them and to wish them all the very best for their roles this year.  Whilst they have defined roles such as school captain or house captain, all of the students in grade 6 this year will be undertaking a new leadership training program for Mackellar produced by Michael Gross, one of Australia’s most well renown parenting and educational writers and speakers. This program will see all of our grade 6 students become strong role models and leaders in their own right. Stay tuned in the coming weeks to hear of the work they have been doing in this space. 

On a curriculum day prior to school starting, the staff took part in a fun and exciting series of sporting activities with each other to share ideas on how to best develop sporting skills and strategies.  This year, every grade level will take part in one hour (or two half hours) of sport education each week in addition to physical education. For our younger students this will build fitness and develop strategies and skills that can be translated to sport situations in later years. For our older students, they will be training and learning the skills and sports needed for inter-school sport to build their knowledge, experience, skills and fitness.  Ms Wishart will be keeping us all up to date with the progress of this, and hopefully your children come home and tell you of the exciting games they played. 

Finally a reminder to all families that our school has a ‘no hat, no play’ policy in terms one and four.  To ensure your child can play at recess and lunchtime, please make sure they have a broad-brimmed school hat in dark green or black each day at school.

Regards, 

Simon McGlade

Principal