St Andrews PS Newsletter

22nd of of June 2020

Upcoming dates

Wednesday 24/6Curriculum Day
Friday 26/6

Reports to go home

Term 2 Holidays Start

Monday 13/7First day of Term 3
Term 3Parent / Teacher / Student interviews
End of Term 34/5/6 Camp Jungai
Start of Term 42/3 Camp to Beechworth
Middle of Term 4Grade 1 sleep over

Principal News

We made it! To start, a huge congratulations to the staff, students and parents of STAPS. We've made it through Term 2 and I'm so proud of everyone's efforts. To celebrate the resilience and persistence that our students have shown, we will be throwing a celebration on Friday for them all! They are invited to dress up in rainbow colours and enjoy a day full of fun activities based around wellbeing and team work. 

As you may have heard, we're sad to be farewell Natalie from Week 3 of next term as she's taking long service leave through to the end of the year. We hope to appoint the teacher that will take her place this week so that we can have a two week transition next term.

We are excited to have heard the news that our camps are very likely to be going ahead for the end of the year. Keep and eye out for more news coming soon. 

Normally, by now we would have run a few transition sessions for new students planning on joining us in 2021 but, unfortunately, Covid-19 has kept that out of reach. Jen and I are hoping to be able to announce some 'Come and Try' sessions for Term 3 soon, and we will be holding a meeting / information session with parents of 2021 enrolments either virtually or in person next term. If you do have any questions about your own child starting next year, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

We have recieved a lot of feedback from parents, students and each other over the past few months and we have all learned a lot about ourselves and those around us. One thing we found was that our teachers loved the ability to create learning opportunities for the whole school, and we also loved working closely together as a teaching team. Over the past few weeks we have trialled a new timetable that allows us each to teach subjects that we are passionate about to each student in the school. We have loved it!! Next term students can look forward to more PE with Ryan, Art with Jen, Cooking and Gardening with Jen and Hayley, and Wellbeing with Nat and Ryan. Kerry and Chan are excited to be back teaching Japanese and STEM face to face as well!

For those interested in helping Jen and Hayley out with volunteering your time or produce for gardening and cooking sessions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Hopefully we will be able to welcome visitors back in soon!

Lastly, I just wanted to say another big thank you. It's been a long and tricky term and I want to all to know that I greatly appreciate each and everyone of you for playing your part in keeping our school running successfully and helping to keep everyone safe. A special thankk to the parents who provided a lovely morning tea for our staff as well. It was thoroughly enjoyed. 

I hope you all enjoy a nice and relaxing term break before we return back to a more normal school life in a few weeks. 

Hayley 

Classroom News

Click on the link to view this week's student report which is brought to you by our Student Voice Captain, Kelly, and House Captain, Tom. 

This week in STEM

We hopped online again this week, but in a different way. Check out what we did on the blog: http://sugarloafstem.global2.vic.edu.au/category/weekly-s-t-e-m-summary/

Now that the dust has settled and the children have returned to school, we would love to hear your thoughts on how your family went with remote learning. You may chose to do this survey with one of your children in mind or as an overall reflection. We thank you for the time taken to complete this survey and look forward to hearing from you. 

Art Therapy Program on offer at Wattle Glen PS

Nillumbik Council are providing a free program for students in Nillumbik Council returning to school after remote learning. Carol Nevill will run the program at Wattle Glen Primary School. She is an Art Therapist Counsellor/Sandplay Practitioner and she has been working with in primary schools for few years already.

It is open for all students in Nillumbik Council, so if you would like your child to apply to take part, please fill out the attached form and return it to school, or send it directly to carol.nevill@live.com.au.

The first session will commence on July 20th.

 The details for the program are :

·         10 groups of 8 to 10 maximum

·         Students from prep to grade 6 participate

·         5 sessions for each group on a fortnightly basis at a set time

·         Sessions run for one hour

·         Students from the same school will be in their own groups

·         Days will be Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, at WGPS

Structure of the Program.

·         Session 1 - Discussion about the Corona Virus and complete page for a book

·         Session 2 - Mandala

·         Session 3 - Clay model

·         Session 4 - Completion of clay model

·         Session 5 - Reflection and completion of model if required.

Download

Psychologist Available Now

Shine Bright Psychology is now providing convenient and affordable, onsite psychological counselling services for all students at STAPS. These services attract no out of pocket expense, as they are Medicare bulk billed services. 

Children will be able to access this treatment service where they have a referral from a General Practitioner (GP). The referral completed by the GP is known as a mental health treatment plan. 

Our fantastic psychologist, Lili, is now attending school each Thursday. An initial appointment can be scheduled by contacting Hayley or Michelle.