Welcome to Week 5! - It was wonderful to invite parents and carers in to the school once again last week for our Parent Information Sessions. We are truly looking forward to the day when the community can visit freely again. For now though, unless you have a pre-arranged meeting, you are picking up a sick child or you are helping with canteen lunches, please limit your visits to the front office. Whilst we didn’t quite have the number of parents/carers that we usually get for parent information sessions, it was great to offer this opportunity. If you weren’t able to make it, by now you should have received a term newsletter and a student information sheet which needs to be returned to home class teachers. If you don’t have either of these, please contact the office or your child’s home class teacher.
School Survey Winner - Thank you to all of the families who completed our recent survey, which was discussed at our parent information sessions and sent out via SkoolBag for those who weren’t in attendance. From the 94 families at our school, we received 18 responses (19%), which is a large increase from previous surveys. Today, School Prefect Jasmine Lieschke drew the winner, and we would like to congratulate Claire Lawson, who won the $50 IGA gift card. Even though the prize has been drawn, we would still like to receive more surveys to help guide the school’s future directions. The community’s feedback and perspective is extremely important to us in our journey towards excellence. Every family has a voice and will be listened to.
AFL Trials - School AFL trials will be held at school tomorrow during breaks throughout the day. Notes will be sent home on Tuesday afternoon. The Southern Riverina AFL trials will be held at Billabong High School on Friday, 26 February. Apologies for the late notice. I believe the hold up in announcing the date was finding a local ground to host the trials at.
NSW AFL Primary All-Schools Girls 12 Years & Under Selection Trial - The Southern Inland NSW Girls u12 AFL trials will be held on Thursday, 25 March 2021 (Week 9, Term 1) at Jubilee Park, Wagga Wagga. These trials are for those who are highly interested and/or showing talent in the sport. Registrations close at 5:00 p.m. Friday, 12 March 2021.
Good Luck Mrs Henderson - This week will be Mrs Henderson’s final week at school for 2021, as she will be taking maternity leave. We wish Chontelle and her family all the best in the coming weeks and look forward to her return in 2022. Due to difficulty in filling Chontelle’s teaching position through multiple state wide advertisements, Mrs Wedgwood has agreed to return in the short term until we can find a teacher to take on the role for the remainder of the year. Further information will be provided as soon as it becomes available. Thanks, Mrs Wedge!
NRL - Values Talk - At school, we have been speaking to the students about values more regularly this year, so it was wonderful to have a visit from the NRL to reinforce some of these positive messages. These NRL talks focus on seven key values: respect, honesty, teamwork, resilience, gratitude, support and inclusion, however, the three we focused on were respect, resilience and gratitude. Some of the key messages included:
- It’s not about how you fall, it’s how you get back up.
- You win or you learn. You never lose if you’re learning.
- Attitude is gratitude. Have a positive mindset.
- Try (new things), Learn (from the highs and lows), Grow (through making mistakes).
Smiling Mind Mindfulness Curriculum Time Sequence - The P&C recently requested that the community be kept in the loop regarding the Smiling Mind focus areas being taught at school so they could also be reinforced at home. It takes a community to raise a child, and wherever we can work in partnership, we should.
Weeks 3 and 4 - Awareness - To build the foundational mindfulness skills of self-knowledge and self-perception.
Weeks 5 and 6 - Attention - To develop an understanding of attention and develop the skills of attention and focus.
Weeks 7 and 8 - The Senses - To foster social and self-awareness by increasing sensory awareness.
Week 9 - Savouring - To foster self-awareness and social-awareness by learning to savour experiences.
Week 10 - Revision
Premier's Debating Challenge - Mrs Pargeter and Miss Morgan have entered a team, the Holbrook Public Submariners, in the 2021 5/6 Premier's Debating Challenge, and will be soon be looking for participants. Being able to communicate and collaborate effectively within a team environment to solve challenges is a highly sought after skill that can be developed throughout this program. I encourage students to consider this great opportunity.
Nathan Fisher
Principal
