St Andrews PS Newsletter

Following a relaxing and safe summer break, it was lovely to welcome our staff, students and parents back to St Andrews PS last week. We were all so very proud of the way the our students walked confidently into class and engaged in their new classrooms eagerly.

A big thanks to those of you who made our school yard look great for everyone's return as well. Thank you to parents that contributed to the works on our mosaic wall! It's looking great. The gardens look fantastic too. A big thanks to the Men's Shed for revitalising our school sign as well!

We were excited to welcome back our lovely staff last Wednesday, with a lovely, familiar face rejoining the team. Carla is right back in her element, joining the 2/3 class on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

In other happy staff news, you may have heard that Nat and her family are excited to announce the safe delivery of Ivy Frances Stock on January 20th. Both Nat and Ivy and doing well and are looking forward to visiting us all soon. 

I've attached some dates in the table below for you to pop in your diary for events and activities coming up this term. In additional to these, you will recieve a letter from your child's teacher this week that will outline any dates or days specific to each class as well as more information about Term 1. 

In addition to our exciting classroom activities, Carla and I will be commencing a tutoring program over the coming month. With the intention of supporting students who didn't make the expected development last year during remote learning, we will be working with identified students a few times a week to focus on the development of specific learning areas. Parents of these children will be notified shortly. 

Today we were excited to welcome a new member of the STAPS team into school. Tracey Jones is our new chaplain and will be at school every second Monday and every Friday. Tracey has 15 years experience in this role and is looking forward to getting to know you all. Parents are welcome to come in and chat with Tracey while she's here. Notices for permission for children to see Tracey will come home tomorrow. 

Along with that permission form, tomorrow you will recieve a large envelope of forms for the new school year. Included in here are;

- Student Enrolment Information -  This form needs to be checked over, signed, and returned for all students

- Outstanding Fees Notice. If you need to arrange for a payment plan please come in and see Michelle from Monday - Wednesday. 

- OSHC Enrolment - Needs to be completed for 2021. 

- Photographing, Filming and Recording notice - Please note that elements of this are currently under review and a revised notice will follow later this term. 

If you do have any questions about any of the forms, please don't hesitate to call. 

For those of you that have come into the office over the last week, you may notice that some of our library books have crept into the main entrance. This is our parent library. We invite all parents to come in for a browse and loan a book to read at home. We're happy for you to loan what you'd like and use it as a swap over place for your own loved books to journey around our community too.  

For those of you who would like to support the upgrade of the library, please get in touch with Hayley, Michelle or Laura. There are lots of different ways that you can help and we'd love some extra hands. 

We are so excited to be able to welcome you all (physically) back into our lovely school! Mask free too! It finally feels like we're getting back to normal!!

We would love to see more of you all around school and we really appreciate that way that you all contribute to our lovely community in your own special ways. Some of the ways you can get involved are;

- Volunteering in the Garden. One of our lovely parents will be back running our gardening program weekly. 

- Volunteering in the Library. We have a lot of work still to go here. if you can spend some time cataloguing or covering books, helping us organise the new system, We'd be greatly appreciative. 

- Join our School Council. In a few weeks we'll be advertising for new members to join our School Council. This is an important and rewarding way to contribute to the school, requiring your attendance at two afternoon meetings a term. 

- Classroom Helpers. If you'd like to come in and support in the classroom, please get in touch with your child's teacher. 

- Join the Parents and Friends Group. The more the merrier here, helping to support the school by raising funds to improve each child's experience. 

If you have any questions or would like to get involved, please have a chat with any of our staff members.