From the Principal
Welcome Back to Year 2-6 Students
Thank you to all staff and student leaders who helped make this weeks ‘welcome back’ a great success. It was exciting for many students and families to return to some normality with school and family routines. Coming back to school after a long period away can also cause some anxiety for others. For this reason, teachers will spend time this week focusing on the well-being of students:
- Re-settling into school routines;
- Re-establishing class and school expectations;
- Facilitating the reconnection of friendships; and
- Re-establishing the highly important teacher-student relationships.
Food and Drink
Our tuckshop will reopen on Wednesday 27 of May. In the meantime students will bring their own lunches and where possible their own water bottles.
For the time being shared birthday treats e.g. cakes and ice blocks will not be allowed.
Staffing Update
We have a few staff changes as we settle back into school again. Ms Zayn Al Abidin and Ms Scott remain working from home and replacing them are Mr Schon Hansen (6Z) and Ms Annabel De Boer (1SC).
Other changes include: Ms Aimee Schouppe (3D)
Welcome back to Ms Blackadder (5B) and Mrs Fletcher (4/5F) who return to their classes this week. Ms Middleton also returns to her role in first aide and classroom support.
Thank you to Staff
Many parents have sent some really lovely appreciation messages over the past week, and I have shared these with staff. The staff have certainly been very grateful for the patience and understanding of all parents and carers during this very unusual period of learning at home. Parents have done a wonderful job with their children and our teachers have continued to impress me with the flexibility and agility they have demonstrated in adapting to a very different way of working in a short period of time. We have all learned so much and our skills have been improved and broadened as we were thrown into the online learning. Despite the initial technical challenges, I would say we had a majority of teachers and parents very engaged with the learning.
Now our teachers will take time to resettle the students back into school life and then begin re-assessing student progress. Teachers will take time to do this over the remaining weeks of this term. Melinda Norman our HOD (Curriculum) has outlined the timeframe and process for assessment and reporting so that parents understand the process and allow teachers the space and time to undertake this work.
Drop Off and Pick Up – LOOKOUT Program
We are urging as many parents as possible to sign up for our LOOKOUT program so that all those who utilize the area fully understand and follow the rules outlined in the program brochure. With so many drivers, using the drop off, it is essential everyone follows the rules in order to keep children safe and reduce driver frustration.
National Reconciliation Week 27 May – 3 June
Each year, National Reconciliation Week is celebrated from 27 May–3 June. The theme for 2020 is In This Together. On this journey, Australians are all In This Together; every one of us has a role to play when it comes to reconciliation, and in playing our part we collectively build relationships and communities that value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures.
Reconciliation must live in the hearts, minds and actions of all Australians as we move forward, creating a nation strengthened by respectful relationships between the wider community, and Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
As part of our Reconciliation Week celebrations, we will talk to students about significance of "National Sorry Day", the 1967 Referendum and Mabo Day.
In class students will be learning more about National Sorry Day. They will hear about the significance of the Day and will make the ‘Sorry Day’ flower. The flowers that represent National Sorry day are the five-petal Native Cotton, Desert Rose, or Native Hibiscus chosen by members to symbolise the scattering of the Stolen Generations and their resilience to the policies of Australia.
Attached for children at home is a template of the flowers which you could decorate anyway you like using the colour purple (e.g. paint, tissue paper, glitter, colouring in etc.). Once completed you can place these in your classrooms around the school or in your home garden.
For further information to share with children also refer to: https://www.reconciliation.org.au/national-reconciliation-week/