Dear families,
How exciting it is to be back and to be almost back to pre-COVID practices. It’s been lovely to see the students and families return to school.
While we have had a few students feeling unsettled about their return to school, for the most part, they seem to be excited to be back.
We are working closely with the children who are finding the return difficult. If you feel you need some extra support, please talk to your child’s teacher and we will devise a plan to help your child.
COVIDSafe Updates
I shared the CovidSafe update with families via Operoo earlier this week.
The key points are:
Yesterday we received an update from MACS, our governing body, that parents engaging in work with the school (eg helpers, canteen, excursions etc) are still required to be vaccinated (including booster) or have a valid exemption. Here is the excerpt from the announcement:
As we have many excursions coming up in the near future, I ask that you are aware of this stipulation as you will be required to show your vaccination certificate or valid exemption to office staff prior to attending the excursion. Please note that if you have already presented this to our office staff, we will have a record of this and you will not need to do so again.
With many things returning to pre-COVID arrangements I am pleased to confirm that parents are once again welcome to attend assemblies on Monday afternoons. We ask that parents remain in the office foyer/corridor until the end of lunch time and make their way to the hall once the students begin making their way there after the second lunch bell.
We will continue to have students enter their classrooms independently as we have found them to be far more settled and ready for learning when they are preparing themselves for their day. You are asked not to enter the corridors but please speak to your child’s teacher if you need anything or if you need to arrange a meeting for another time.
Renovations
Bystanders would have thought we’d had a celebrity onsite on Tuesday morning given the amount of shrieking that was heard coming from the toilets as students explored their new surroundings!
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and I am thrilled with the final result.
I had one student come to me and admit that he will now be able to use these toilets as he had tried to avoid them for years. I only wish we had done it sooner!
We now turn our attention to developing our Sensory garden. It is my aim to contact parents of students with ASD and seek your permission to work with your child to develop the garden. If your child is interested in the project I will work with them to ensure that the garden meets their sensory preferences so that it becomes a place that not only they want to visit, but that they feel they own.
Uniform
I am currently finalising the delivery of some pieces of uniform for parents and students to see and vote on. When these arrive, I will let you know when they are ready to view. I encourage you to try and make time to see these pieces. We will have some evenings available for parents who are unavailable during work hours and we will also have photographs for those who are happy to see these online.
It is our aim to have these pieces finalised so we can move to Noone’s services by the end of this year.
Values
As mentioned in our eNews last term, we have finalised St Mary’s Values:
Our next step is to develop a definition of each of these Values so that these can be explored with students in classes and work on how these can and will be enacted/expected throughout St Mary’s. We will also narrow down a list of possible people who can represent these values for us. Once we have shortlisted, this will be shared with students and families for a vote. We will ultimately rename our horse colours in honour of these people who epitomise our 4 Values.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Sonia