Welcome Back to School

Welcome back to all students and families.  It was a wonderful start to school with many students keen to see friends and share stories about holidays.  At our open morning last Friday, many families took the opportunity to visit their children’s new classrooms, meet the teachers and bring in their book packs.  Hopefully this made the first day a little less hectic and students were more relaxed about their first day.  Thank you to our staff for ensuring the school was ready for all our students to get off to a great start for 2020.

Enrolment Census – Day 4 & Day 8

During the first 4 and 8 days of the school year, we closely monitor our enrolments to ensure our census data is correct and aligned with our staffing allocation.  Following Day 8 our staffing is confirmed and classes are settled in for the year.    For the first few weeks there may still be some minor changes with timetables and classes.

Our 2019 Day 8 enrolment total was 504 students.  I predict our 2020 Day 8 enrolment will be approximately 540-560.  I will keep you updated on our numbers during this period.

Introducing Synthetic Phonics

We are very excited this year to be implementing a different method of teaching our children to read. This method is called Synthetic phonics and the program that we are using is called Read Write Inc (RWI). Synthetic phonics is an evidence-based approach to teaching children to read and spell and is used in over 6000 schools in the United Kingdom. Students are taught phonic sounds and decoding of words in a systematic and explicit manner. All Prep to Year 3 teachers and teacher aides completed the two-day RWI reading training over the Pupil Free days and are eager to get started. We will be holding parent information sessions over the coming weeks to explain RWI in more detail.

In the meanwhile, continue reading your favourite children’s books at home and foster the love of reading.

Swimming

In terms 1 & 4 our Physical Education lessons focus on swimming, with the exception of Prep who swim only in term 4. Swimming lessons will begin in week 3 this term.  Further information regarding costs, permissions and equipment requirements will follow.

Assembly

This year our weekly assemblies will be held each Tuesday morning 9:15am in our school hall. Parents are most welcome to attend assemblies with our first assembly scheduled for Tuesday 4 February. We remind parents that roll marking is done in classes prior to going to assembly and if students arrive after 9am they must accompany their parent to the office, sign in late and present to their class teacher with a late slip.

Attendance

Every Day of school attendance counts and research tells us that students who attend 85% and higher are more likely to achieve better results and have better social networks among peers. 

For late arrivals after 9am, Parents please remember to attend the office with your child, sign in and take the late slip to present to the teacher. 

For early departure before 3pm, for an appointment or similar, parents must go to the office, sign their child out, take an early departure slip to the classroom, and present it to the teacher before collecting their child.

For absence such as illness, please ring through to the school office or email the school before 8:30am.

For longer-term absences, such as family trip overseas for emergent reasons, please see the office staff and complete a submission for exemption. Please note holidays may not be granted under ‘exemption’ and would be recorded as ‘holiday’.

Please also remember that regular attendance is paramount to high achievement. 

Attendance + Effort = Achievement

2020 Teaching Staff

Leadership Team

This year’s leadership team includes:

We will currently have a vacancy for our Curriculum Coordinator role with Rachael Siebhur successfully being appoint as Head Of Curriculum Bracken Ridge SS at the end of 2019.  It is pleasing to welcome Nick Fenton into our team this year replacing John Rafter who has taken leave for 2020. 

Classroom Teachers

Specialist Teachers