Dear Families,
It has been a very busy few weeks since our last newsletter. The rain finally subsided allowing us the opportunity to enjoy some sunshine and host our ‘Family Movie Night’ concert. The day was filled with excitement from our students as they finally got to practice on stage with that fabulous large screen TV as the backdrop. Students also got to see performances from other classes during rehearsal and we finally got the feeling that things were coming together as originally planned. Before the concert element of our Family Movie Night we welcomed so many parents and grandparents to the school who all appeared very pleased to be on site enjoying the company of other families, having a bite to eat and perusing the stalls. We forgot to be at the gates to collect tickets and handout the Sing-a-Long books but in the end it didn’t matter. Some students and I used this as a good opportunity to personally greet families, and I got to hear stories from many old scholars who could remember when the road ran through the school, when there were two classrooms in the admin block, buildings on the asphalt, original location of the school bell etc etc. Lots of fond memories for many who now have their grandchildren attending the school.
The highlight of the evening of course was the performances of our students. Every class performed with enthusiasm despite the nerves in front of our very large audience. Congratulations to our students and particularly to Ms Emily Brown who has worked with the students to create energetic dance routines with lively music choices. Love a good Disney/Pixar tune! I would also like to make mention of our ‘sofa sitters’ who wonderfully compared the evening with their amusing one liners like, Aladdin doesn’t need a magic carpet when he can drive a lamborgenie! Thankyou Liam, Orson, Petra, Molly, Dylan, Sopie and Bailin. I would also like to thank Patrick and Jack who did an amazing job behind the scenes with the IT (music and screen images). Thank you teachers for supporting your students to practice their dance routines and a huge thank you to our SSOs who worked tireless behind the scenes with prop production, stalls, flyers etc.
We had a few tired students and staff the next day but thanks to Kelvin we all enjoyed an impromptu sausage sizzle at lunchtime to boost our energy levels in preparation for the Angaston Christmas Street Parade. Thank you to Ms Nicole Taylor for organizing the school’s participation in this event, and again to our enthusiastic students who marched and sang their way to the end of the parade. It was great to see many of our students marching with their sporting clubs, scouts etc. The community atmosphere was sensational.
SO with only two weeks left to the end of term and 23 sleeps until Santa visits we have a few things to wrap up!
End of Year School Reports will be sent home on Tuesday 13th December. Reports will be sent home in sealed envelopes addressed to parents. Student’s should not be opening reports until they are home with their parents. The report envelope will also contain a letter indicating your child’s new class and teacher for 2023. We create these classes in consultation with year level and specialist teachers, as well as considering feedback we receive from parents. The process of balancing classes, for a variety of reasons, is a complex task. Our aim is to create positive and productive class groupings, with priority put on placing each child with at least one friend from their classroom this year. As you can appreciate, once the class process is complete and announced to students and families changes are difficult to make without it causing a flow on effect to other students, friendship groups and class numbers.
‘Move Up’ day is Wednesday the 14th December. Students will visit with their new teacher from 9.15-10.15am to hear about the new school year ahead, and participate in some ‘getting to know you’ type activities. We will have eleven classes next year and at this stage most of our staffing for the 2023 school year has been finalised.
A reminder that Sports Day is on Thursday 15th December. There are no changes to the schedule previously sent home.
We have an assembly on the last day of term to acknowledge and farewell our year 6 students. As well, we are introducing year level student awards to acknowledge three students in each year level R-5 who have consistently demonstrated our motto of Be Safe Be Kind Work Hard throughout the year. Families of award recipients will be invited to attend the assembly.
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” Coretta Scott King
Lynda Fitzpatrick-Brown
