Dear Families,
We have had a brilliant start to Term 4, with opening up our Sports Day and Book Week Parade to our parent community and having the Minister for Education, Minister Gardner visit our school! This was an exciting time for us all - parents, students and staff.
We would like to thank everyone for abiding by the measures put in place to ensure the safety of all. We will continue to follow and refer to SA Health's guidelines for all future community events.
Sports Day
I would like to commend all three House Teams - Gawler, Light and Para for the outstanding sportsmanship and resilience displayed on the day. There was a great deal of cheering and encouraging of one another which was a delight to watch - true Virginia PS spirit! Unfortunately due to the weather, we had to postpone the Championships Sprints for the following week, however again, our students demonstrated a high level of understanding.
The scores were close throughout the day and in the end, Light took out first position winning 2020 Sports Day - congratulations Light. I would also like to acknowledge James and Thuy for all their work behind the scenes, to ensure that the day ran smoothly. Our House Captains and Vice Captains, were also wonderful!
Book Week Parade
We had another successful Book Week Parade with a great selection of creative costumes on display. Ms Watts and her sound crew did an awesome job with the Parade and all presenters spoke extremely well. Congratulations to everyone for participating and putting in the effort towards dressing up, especially to our winners on the day - well done!
End of Year Concert
With both Sports Day and Book Week Parade events running smoothly, hosting an end of year school concert is looking promising, in fact we have penciled it in. It may need to look a little differently this year to ensure that we have enough space for spectators to abide by the 1.5m rule. Some suggestions being currently discussed are: limiting family numbers, separating JP and PR items (having two sessions) or families arriving at designated times to watch their child/ren's items (programs outlining the times to be sent home).
No decision has been made yet in terms of what this will look like, however I wanted to share the exciting news with you all so you can mark in the date in your calendars - Friday 4th December.
Minister for Education Visit - Minister John Gardner
What an absolute privilege to have the Minister for Education, Minister Gardner come visit our school last week. This was an opportunity for us to share some of our teaching and learning with him as he had heard a great deal about our reading journey. He visited our Reception and Year One classes to watch some explicit teaching of phonics in action as well as some targeted oral language in the Pre-School. The Minister commented on the high level of passion demonstrated by our teachers and the high of level of student engagement. He was also impressed with our Year One Phonics results which I've previously shared with you all - 92.8% of our students meeting SEA (standard of educational achievement) or above.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge our staff, students and Ilia (previous Principal) for all their continuous hard work, as well as the support of our LET (Local Education Team) and our Community. We pride ourselves on our 'Positive School Culture' whereby we all work and support each other to ensure we provide ALL our students a quality education - 'Learning Together, learning for our future'.
2021 Enrolments/Preparation
Thank you to all the families who have already made contact with us in terms of enrolments for next year. As we are in the process of organising class structures for 2021, it would help us immensely if you could let us know whether your child will or will not be attending next year so we can have accurate numbers.
Also, if you know of any families considering enrolling at Virginia for next year, could you please let them know to contact us as soon as possible and ensure that they are in our zone.
Thanking you in advance.
Swimming
Students are excited and looking forward to swimming next week. If you haven't returned your forms, please do so as we wouldn't want anyone missing out.
World Teachers Day
I'm sure you would all join me in thanking all of our superb teachers for their commitment and dedication. They work hard and are passionate about what they do and we couldn't be any prouder of them all.
We are fortunate that we have teachers who genuinely want to be here and be part of such a close knit community. It is an absolute honour to be able to continue to lead and work in a school which is so driven to provide a high quality education.
"It takes a village to raise a child" is an African proverb that means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.
Learning Together, Learning For Our Future.
Warmest Regards,
Voula Pounendis
Do you have a child who is due to begin Reception in January 2021 but you haven’t filled out and submitted an enrolment form yet? We are now planning for 2021 so it’s really important that we have your child’s enrolment form as soon as possible. If you would like an enrolment pack please come to the front office or call on 8380 9292.
If you know of other families intending to enrol at Virginia Primary School who are in our zone, please pass on this information. We are getting many enrolments for Reception for next year and need to start our planning for 2021 classes soon.
Spread the word and support our schools fundraising by purchasing a digital Entertainment Book which can be downloaded via an app on your Smartphone. Memberships are $70 which 20% of this goes back to our school for our fundraising.
Use the link below to order now or share with friends & family.
https://www.entertainment.com.au/orderbooks/162562
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