Tuesday 15th March 2022
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you all have had a lovely long weekend.
You will all know by now that we currently have a spate of COVID cases in the school. Our grade one class has been the most affected, but there are cases through the school. We have been extremely lucky to have reached this stage without having ongoing cases of COVID and it is now important that I remind you to be particularly vigilant in watching for symptoms. They can be very mild in children. Could I also remind you to use the DET supplied RAT tests twice per week to help us identify asymptomatic students who may still be positive?
Students who are absent due to the pandemic can get schoolwork during their 7 days of isolation. Please just let us know if your child is well enough to undertake work and we will put together kits for them that can be picked up. If you have no-one to pick the work up for you, I will try to drop packages at your front gates.
At school we have moved classroom seating around to provide as much distance as possible between students. All children are being reminded every day about hand hygiene and for the grades 3-6, mask wearing requirements.
Please remain calm and positive (as much as you can) with the children. I have had some verbal aggression from parents in the last couple of weeks and I remind you all that I am not making these rules, just enforcing them. I am trying hard to keep you informed about what is happening in a very dynamic situation. I understand that everyone is tired and a lot less resilient, but I remain passionate about modelling positive behaviour to our children.
Today our school will undergo an OH&S audit around our COVID safety. I will let you know the results as soon as I receive them. I believe that we are following the rules and guidelines well.
On Friday, at assembly we were able to announce the winners of our Athletic Sports Day. It was a very close event but, on this occasion, Mitchell (gold) won on the day. Given that Kulin (green) won the swimming sports, it has been a year of even competition. Well done to everyone.
On Thursday, three of our students, Charlie D, Olive G and Emily M are representing our school at the Division swimming sports. This is a spectacular result for our school and we wish them every success up against all of the schools in our region.
This Friday we are scheduled to have our Cross-Country event for our senior students at Dixon Field. We would love some parent help with this event as our children run either 2 or 3 km and we need parents along the track encouraging and checking in on them.
This year we are being evaluated for our progress in delivering the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. The IB committee will review us remotely as part of the Asia Pacific Region. This will occur in August, but we are already working hard to gather all the documentation required. We will be sending home a survey to find out how you feel about the inquiry learning occurring in the school.
I’d like to finish by talking about the great learning that is going on in our classrooms. The children at this school are generally very committed to their learning and each time I teach them (I try to get into classrooms as often as I can) I am amazed by their ability to articulate their learning and their independence in setting their own learning goals for improvement. They are a very bright group of children.
Have a lovely week and call me if you need to talk about anything.
Kind regards
Trish