Dear families,
Welcome back to a new year.
I trust you had a wonderful Christmas and the school holidays were re-energising.
I begin by apologising for the lengthy first message of the year. For our new families, I can assure you my messages are not usually this long!
It was exciting to be back in classrooms visiting the students in their new environments.
There is already such a calm presence in the classrooms, it was great to experience.
Thank you to our P&F who organised morning tea and a coffee van for our parents this morning. It’s always great to catch up with you all in this relaxed way once the children have all ventured off to their classes.
On Tuesday staff met to set ourselves up for a great year of teaching and learning. We launched our keyword for the year, which is consistency. This year, we’ve also taken up an image/object to represent this keyword. Our symbol for consistency this year will be a duck. I presented staff with ducks of different varieties and asked them to choose one for themselves.
Why ducks? Here is the explanation I shared with staff:
When we think of rubber ducks everyone has a very similar (consistent) view of them. I’ve chosen these ducks to represent our 2025 theme to signify that while we are aiming for consistency, we don’t want/expect to lose our individual flair.
Keep a look out for your child’s teacher’s duck. Maybe you can ask them why they chose theirs.
Our Annual Action Plan for this year looks a little different, as we have chosen specific goals for each year level, as well as whole-school overarching goals.
We will continue to keep you updated throughout the year on how we’re tracking.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank one of our parents, Daniel Moshtagh, who generously donated his time and expertise to clean up our school grounds in time for the commencement of our school year. I’m sure you would have noticed how great the grounds looked this morning. If you need any gardening/mowing done, you may like to consider supporting Daniel’s Jim’s Mowing business (0481948669).
Thank you to parents who took the time to complete the Homework survey at the end of last year. Teachers have begun to look at the results and as expected, there are a wide variety of opinions. We will review our current practices in the coming weeks and decide what homework will look like throughout the school in the coming weeks. We expect to have an updated policy by the middle of this term, after which homework will be set.
This year, as well as welcoming a range of new staff, I am delighted to announce that we will also be welcoming a therapy dog into our crew. Amelia, one of our learning support staff, owns a therapy dog and has volunteered to have him onsite 1 day per week.
We will initially be timetabling Nova to spend time in each class, allowing students to become familiar with her and having her around.
We will then look at a more structured program to help support students.
If your child is afraid of dogs, please give me a call to discuss how we can ensure they are comfortable at school.
Beginning of year reminders
The beginning of a new school year is always a good time to remind our community of ways we can keep our children safe.
Please ensure you park within the lined parking bays at all times.
Do not park across driveways. This includes school driveways.
If possible, please avoid turning into driveways to change direction during peak times. With so many children crossing roads, reversing can be incredibly dangerous. Please consider looping back around to avoid these moves whenever possible.
Gates open at 8:30am. A teacher is supervising from this time. Junior school children, if accompanied by supervising guardians, are able to play on the Junior playground before and after school. Please ensure you are actively supervising your child if they are on the playground. Staff will ask children to leave the playground if their adult is not present.
We encourage parents not to linger at doors and windows from 8:45 and before the end of the school day. This can often be distracting and distressing to children, especially if they have just settled in.
If children are having difficulty separating from you, we will come and assist you. If this continues, we will arrange to meet with you to discuss ways to help your child in the mornings. We have helped many children overcome these difficult mornings.
Gates open at 3pm for the end of the school day.
Parents can enter school grounds at this time. Again, we encourage parents to keep their distance from the windows to ensure the children have a settled dismissal.
Please try and refrain from engaging in lengthy discussions with teachers either at drop off or pick up. Teachers are responsible for their classes from 8:45 and should be in their classrooms at that time. We also have meetings after school which commence promptly at 3:30, so we need to give our teachers time to get themselves to the meeting on time.
That said, if you need to pass on a quick message or let your child’s teacher know about something urgently, please have this chat then. If something requires more focussed time, please contact the teacher to arrange a mutually suitable time to meet without distractions.
Our Get to Know You chats take place on Monday and Tuesday next week. This is always a great opportunity for your child’s teacher to learn all about your child from the people who know them best. It’s also a great opportunity to get to meet your child’s teacher.
If you feel you may need more time with your child’s teacher, please let them know.
Looking forward to a fantastic year of learning,