Principal's Report

Acting Principal - Rob Hogan 

Assistant Principal -Anthea Mathers 

Dear Families,

Well done to all students who have been adjusting coming back to school after such a disrupted year. It obviously can be difficult, but it is great to see almost all of our students giving 100% effort. 

School Review 

After 4 days of delving deeply into all aspects of our school, the review process has finished. It has been a great opportunity for all key stakeholders in our school to have their say, and set the direction for the next exciting phase at Echuca Twin Rivers Primary School.

Some of the key discussion points have been around communication, attendance, teacher practice and student voice and agency. All of the information gathered will be summarised and presented in our school's new strategic plan.

Athletics

Thank you to Mrs Campbell, classroom teachers and our senior students who have successfully run our athletics over the past few weeks. It has been conducted under difficult restrictions, but was a great opportunity for all students to showcase the skills they have been practising over many weeks. 

I was extremely impressed by the way all students got involved and tried their best, as well as encouraged other students throughout the competition.

Traffic & Pedestrian Safety 

As many of you will know, the traffic around the school at drop off and pick up time is quite horrendous. We urge all families to please use common sense and caution during these times, especially along Wilkinson Drive. If you do park on the other side of Wilkinson Drive, please take the time to walk your child across the road, and please make sure when parking you are not in the Bus zones or too close to the Bus entrance area to the front of the school. 

All students who are riding bikes or scooters need to be wearing a helmet and slow down until they are through the pedestrian traffic along the footpath. I am speaking to the Shire of Campaspe around ways we can make this a lot safer than it currently is.

I thank you for your increased safety and vigilance around this issue.

NAIDOC Week

It has been great to see the many different ways our school has celebrated NAIDOC week. Students have been learning about Aboriginal culture, observed a smoking ceremony and completed some amazing art work throughout the week. We will show you the finished products in next week's newsletter. 

Graduation

It is great to hear that we can run a Graduation service for our Grade 6 students on Wednesday, December 16th. In what has been a challenging year, we are finally getting the opportunity to give our Grade 6 students the farewell they deserve. 

Transition

It has been so lovely to welcome our 2021 Grade Prep students over the last few weeks to begin their transition. This will continue until the end of the year, with our Prep teachers planning on having visits to the kindergartens very shortly as well.

This week we received notification that our Grade 6 students will also be able to start their transition to Secondary School, which is a very important part of their transition.

Tutoring Funding

All schools in Victoria have received funding to provide tutoring support for students who have either struggled throughout the periods of remote learning, or have thrived in the changed environment. 

This will have a significant impact on many of our students in both Literacy and Numeracy in 2021. The school received almost $100,000 in additional funding to staff this important program for 2021.

It will be exciting to see the outcomes of this funding for our students.

School Photos

All of our students were looking very smart on Tuesday when we had our school photos. It is anticipated that photos will be returned to school in the next couple of weeks. 

School Dentist 

Information went home this week about the School Dentist Van visiting our school . We rescheduled the visit for the 30th of November. Depending on the number of eligible students will depend on how long they will be visiting. Please ensure all forms are returned to the school by Friday 20th of November. If you have any questions, please call the school. 

School Wide Positive Behaviour 

This week's focus area is learning and revising the behaviour expectations of the play equipment. This looks like student's respecting our equipment, going down the slide, taking turns, showing good sportsmanship, helping others, including others and asking before getting equipment from out of bounds areas.

Wishing you all a great  weekend.

Kind regards, 

Rob and Anthea