ANGASTON PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Dear Families,

Last week we celebrated Support Staff Week. This is a time to acknowledge the work of support staff in preschools and schools across Australia. We have many support staff in our school who work with students, teachers, and families. Their contribution is invaluable and appreciated by all, whether it's administrative support, financial management, curriculum support in classrooms, intervention programs, IT, cooking, gardening etc. Students presented all support staff with a card and a beautifully decorated bag as a token of their appreciation. We also hosted a morning tea. Thank you again to the following support staff: Leanne Wall, Kim Oag, Lou Hadden, Heidi Roesler, Lindy Linke, Faye Hale, Tilly Hadden, Kate Wohler, Kelvin Jean, Richard Geyer, Nat Wood, and Victor Svay.

 Quiz Night

On Saturday 13th August the Governing Council hosted a school community Quiz Night. It was the first community event in nearly three years and was well supported by approximately 90  parents and friends of the school. It was a highly entertaining evening with great company, many laughs, tough questions, and a  drop or two of wine. The community spirit in the room was fantastic. A big thank you to the Governing Council for organising this event and to all the local businesses who kindly donated goods for the event. A special thank you to Kylie Wilshire, and to Shannon Krushel our MC for the evening. Approximately $3000 was raised for the school.

Book Week

We had a fantastic Book Week Parade last Friday with most students dressing up as their favourite book character or connecting to the Book Week theme of Dreaming with eyes open. Thank you to Ms Taylor for organising the many Book Week activities, pre Book Week lessons with classes, the parade, prizes, and disco.

Pupil Free Day and School Closure

Just a reminder to families that Monday is a School Closure day, so students and staff are not at school. Tuesday is the Pupil Free day. Students are not at school while staff participate in professional learning in relation to our site improvement priorities.

Term 3 Data Collection

Our year 1 teachers have finished administering the Phonics Screen Check to their students. Results are collected by the Department as a measure of student progress. Teachers will spend time analysing student results to inform next step teaching practices. At this stage it looks like most of our students have reached the benchmark of 28 out of 40. A significant  number of students have scored well about the benchmark. If you would like to know your child’s score, please contact the class teacher.

Over the next two weeks Year 1-6 students will sit the  Progressive Assessment Tests in Reading and Maths. If students are away, we will make every attempt to catch them up before the testing period ends.

Breakfast Club.

The Breakfast Club is off to a flying start. There is nothing like the smell and taste of warm toast and milo on a chilly morning. Many thanks to the volunteers who are making sure our students can have a bite to eat four mornings a week.

 The beautiful thing about learning is no one can take it away from you. - B.B. King

Lynda Fitzpatrick-Brown

Thank you to those families that have paid the Materials & Services charge of $303 for 2022. The Materials and Services charges are now overdue and need to be paid to avoid debt recovery action by Department for Education. Applications for School Card assistance are still able to be made so please apply online at www.sa.gov.au under the heading Education, Skills and Learning. Please contact the Front Office if you require any assistance.

Payment can be made:

·          via the school bank account BSB 105-021 Account number 104147940 - using your family code or invoice number as the reference.

·          via Cash, Cheque, Eftpos or Credit Card at the Front Office between 8.30 – 9.30am and 2.30- 3.30pm.

·          via Credit Card over the phone between 8.30-9.30 and 2.30-3.30pm.

Any current Direct Debit Payment Plans will continue.

Please contact Kim Oag on 85642215 if you require any further assistance.

Kelvin and some students have been working hard on transforming an old garden area into our Reconciliation Garden this term. The Reconciliation Garden starts near the Breakfast Club kitchen and ends outside the library with a fire pit and seating area. Part of the process is digging up all the old plants so that our native food plants can be planted. Students have researched some native edible plants and identified some ‘wish list’ plants. We have consulted Doreen from the Barossa Bush Gardens who has helped us with planning and plant selection (native bush food local to the area or local to SA) that will thrive in the newly prepared area. She came to share with the students some of these plants so they could see and taste them (students really enjoyed the tasting part), as well as learn about the benefits these plants provide for attracting native insects and wildlife. We will provide progression photos in the next newsletter.

If you have any long gum logs/ tree rounds that you would like to donate as seats around our fire pit please let us know.