Dear Parents/Caregivers,
I hope you are all keeping well and safe as we continue to work through this interesting start to our school year. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our new students and their families. We look forward to working together with you as we start your child’s learning journey at HCEPS.
LATEST COVID UPDATE INCLUDING INFORMATION ABOUT PARENTS ONSITE
Thank you to all parents/caregivers for your ongoing support of COVID restrictions throughout the first 4 weeks. Your cooperation has been appreciated and continues to help us try to minimise positive cases within the school.
We have had a very small number of positive cases where the cases have been at school during the infectious period. As per department expectations, only affected classes are notified of positive cases, so if you haven’t had any official Skoolbag notifications it means that there have been no cases to date in your child’s class.
The Department for Education has now released the next round of expectations for schools for Weeks 5-8. There have been restrictions lifted on some school based activities including excursions, incursions and some in-school extra-curricular and sporting programs, which are all now able to commence. At this stage, adults coming onsite will continue to be minimised. This means that in general, parents are still not able to come onto school grounds. Restrictions on programs that require volunteer support to be able to go ahead however, have been lifted. This means volunteer support for excursions and the canteen can resume. We are also looking at a process for management of second hand uniform sales. Volunteer support for classroom based activities such as reading or the Resource Centre are not yet able to commence.
We thank you for your continued support and understanding and will notify you if any changes to these restrictions happen before the end of Week 8.
(Please see further information about requirements of volunteering further below. Please note that this is almost a repeat of the same article sent out on Skoolbag on Wednesday with an amendment update.)
ACQUAINTANCE MEETINGS
As there are still restrictions on parents being able to access the site, Acquaintance Meetings are unable to go ahead this year. Instead, teachers are currently preparing detailed overviews that will explain what you need to know about class operations, expectations and the sorts of things that would have been discussed had it been a face-to-face meeting. These overviews will all be sent out through either Skoolbag or Class Dojo (depending on individual teachers), during Wk 6 and definitely by no later than Friday 11th March. After receiving the overview, if you have any queries about any of the information, please feel free to contact your child’s class teacher.
SCHOOL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM)
The School AGM will be held on Monday March 21st at 7:00pm.
The way that the meeting will be conducted is still to be finalised but in the meantime, please save this date!
The AGM is a very important event because it gives us an opportunity to share work from 2021 with the school community, through delivery of the Annual Report. The Governing Council for 2022 will be approved. This year there will be a number of vacancies on Governing Council and we encourage you to consider membership of this very important school committee. On Wednesday this week, I sent out more information via Skoolbag, about the role of Governing Council and how you can nominate to Governing Council. Please return nomination forms by Friday 18th March. More information about AGM will be out soon.
NEW DISABILITY BATHROOM UPGRADE
Work will shortly commence on the House 9 girls and disability toilets to add a full disability bathroom facility to the school. This area will obviously be out of bounds during construction time. After the induction meeting with the builders which is scheduled for this coming Monday, we will organise alternative toilet spaces for girls to use throughout the construction process.
NEW PLAYGROUND
Most of you are aware that the playground next to the oval is being demolished and replaced with a new more modern playground. The construction is due to commence in Wk 6 and it is planned it will be completed by the end of Wk 8. After completion we are planning to fence the new playground to decrease the possibility of vandalism.
RECOMMENCEMENT OF VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS
(REPEATED FROM WEDNESDAY’S SKOOLBAG NOTICE WITH AN AMENDMENT UPDATE)
I know that many of you have been waiting for restrictions to lift so you can begin supporting school programs through volunteering. We definitely need support for a number of programs to be able to operate successfully and gratefully welcome volunteers as the restrictions begin to lift.
Whether you are a new volunteer applicant, or a previous volunteer who would like to continue supporting the school, there are a number of steps that all volunteers must undertake before commencing volunteering in 2022.
The key expectations required from this year are that volunteers must be double vaccinated against COVID, have completed the new RRHAN training that is current for 2022 to 2024 and have a current Working with Children Check (WWCC).
The office team can help with advice on how to obtain the WWCC. The instructions for accessing RRHAN training are below. With regard to double vaccinations, evidence of the vaccinations must be sighted by school administrative personnel before volunteering can commence. If you would just like to show this evidence to either Andrea Hayden or myself, please phone the front office to organise a time when we can do this. If you are comfortable to share your evidence of this with a member of the admin team, please phone the front office to organise a way to do this.
All volunteers are asked to please wear a mask when working in the site and with students when on excursions according to staff or venue requests/requirements.
Again I sincerely thank you for continuing to consider volunteering and hope you understand the importance of the new expectations to keep everyone in the school safe.
FOR VOLUNTEERS: RESPONDING TO RISKS OF HARM, ABUSE AND NEGLECT TRAINING AND DOUBLE VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS
On July 1st 2021 a new Responding to Abuse and Neglect training was released. The new training is now called Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care. We call it RRHAN-EC for short. The Department for Education has asked that all current volunteers with the older certificates that expire on or before December 31st 2021 please undertake the new training to receive a new certificate. The new certificate expiry date will be December 31st 2024. This new certificate is required to continue volunteering in 2022. It will part of the required training for new applicants undertaking applications to become volunteers from now on.
As a volunteer, you only need to do the RRHAN-EC fundamentals course. Please use this link to book into Plink to do the course. Please then provide the school with a copy of your new certificate asap. Thank you in advance.
With regards
Anne Rathjen
Principal
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It is exciting that our R-4 Swimming can go ahead in week 6. All students have already received their information, invoice and consent notices. If you have any queries please contact your class teacher through Class Dojo as soon as possible.
I hope you kept the top section of the information sheet but you will have returned the consent slip. I have copied this here:
“I consent to my child _____________________in class_____________ travelling to and from Noarlunga Leisure Centre on a Willunga Charters bus then participating in the swimming program. I understand that payment must be made by 3rd March 2022. I have returned the Water Safety Consent Form to the teacher. I have also completed the 2022 Student Health Care Information for Camps/Excursions e-form on Skoolbag. I understand that this year there are no parent observers. Some parents may have been asked by the teacher to be a designated helper.”
I just need to clarify that it is Noarlunga Leisure Centre who have said that we cannot have parent observers. Obviously all children will travel to and from school on the bus so no one will be able to be collected from the swimming centre.
Also we realise that you will feel like you have to fill out and sign consents and health care information twice. The Skoolbag health form and the tear off paper slip are for us at school and cover the bus travel whereas the Water Consent Form is required, and kept, by the swimming centre. The bonus with having filled out the Skoolbag health form is that, for the rest of the year, you only need to inform us if information changes.
Could all children in Group 1 please ensure you are in the classroom well before 8:40am because as soon as the roll is completed at 8:45am you will be heading towards the bus?
| Group 1 | Mon-Fri 9:15am -10:15am Bus departs school by 8:50am | 4E ( Gully) +3S Year 4s ( Cram/Stanfield)+ 3N( Marks) |
| Group 2 | Mon-Fri 10:15am -11:15am Bus departs school by 9:50am | 3S Year 3s( Stanfield/Cram)+ 2S( Burgess) + 2N ( K Evans) |
| Group 3 | Mon-Fri 11:15am -12:15pm Bus departs school by 10:50am | 6E ( C Evans) + 6W ( Webb/ Belshaw) |
| Group 4 | Mon-Fri 12:45pm -1:45pm Bus departs school by 12:10pm | 8E ( Fisher) +8W ( Galloway/Schenkel) |
| Group 5 | Mon-Fri 1:45pm-2:30pm Bus departs school by 1:10pm | 7W (Clews) + 7E ( Burford) |
As we said all students will get changed back into their school clothes at school except for Group 5 who will arrive back at school very close to home time.
On Thursday 3rd March we will have our Year 5 and 6 students go through their yearly Traffic Monitor Training. This is conducted by SAPOL and only those who attend the session can be a monitor for our school. The Year 5 students, who do the training but are not yet ten, will be able to be a monitor when they turn ten. This means we will shortly be able to have monitors on the Quailo Ave traffic lights before and after school.
We hope all of our year 5 and 6 students will offer to help keep our school community safe.
And finally, it has been such a pleasure to see so many students in their classrooms actively engaged in their varied learning programs. We are hoping that our COVID numbers continue to stay low and there is minimal disruption. Thank you again to all families for supporting our health measures, especially the high compliance with wearing masks in primary classrooms.
Kind Regards,
Andrea Hayden
Deputy Principal
Reminder it is only one week until swimming starts for Reception to year 4 students. Consent forms must be completed and returned to class teachers.
Full payment must be received prior to allowing students to attend and participate.
If you have not settled your account please forward your remittance as a matter of urgency. Please call the Business Manager if you are having difficulty settling this account.
Imelda Jolly
Business Manager
What’s the difference between a feeling and a mood?
A feeling or emotion usually refers to what is felt in the moment when something happens. It might last for a while and then it generally fades. Feelings that don’t fade can grow into a mood. Moods can last for an hour, a day, a month, even into years.
Hormones can also play a role in moodiness. This is a normal part of growing up. Think of common phrases like “teenage angst”. However, just because it is normal doesn’t mean we need to close our eyes to it and wait for the end of this “tricky stage”.
As parents we can support our children to develop their life skills and tools to be able to take more and more responsibility for managing their mood. The earlier a child is taught to identify and safely express emotions, the better they are at monitoring their emotions before they progress into a lasting mood.
We can teach children 3 important parts of identifying and caring for our feelings:
One of the key learnings from the Kimochis program is: All feelings are ok, all behaviours are not. It is ok to feel mad, it is ok to feel sad, it is ok to feel excited. Continuously experiencing these feelings where they progress into moods, makes it much more likely that we will exhibit harmful behaviours to those around us. Continuous mad might result in physical harm or property damage. Continuous excitement will impede class learning. Additionally, if we constantly live in heightened emotion, it is exhausting. And this impacts on our learning, physical health, and relationships.
Let’s teach our children to name their emotions and to care for them at every age so that we proactively prevent or lessen some future moods.
If you would like any more support with this, or anything regarding social and emotional development or mental health please feel free to contact me by calling the front office to leave me a message, or sending me an email.
Joey Traeger
Pastoral Care Worker at HCEPS Wednesday and Friday
Volunteers are important to our school community. Our canteen relies on help from volunteers to deliver a meal service to our pupils.
To enable us to provide a varied recess and lunch menu offer to our pupils we really do need your help.
If you have a spare hour or more we would welcome your support.
Not registered with the school as a volunteer? Volunteer application packs are available from the front office containing all the information you need to submit your registration as a volunteer...... WE NEED YOU
At the moment the second hand Uniform shop is closed, but hopefully will reopen soon.
In the meantime, if you have any uniform items in good condition that are now surplus to your needs our volunteers would appreciate donations.
Donations can be left at the administration office. Thank you.
Hallett Cove East Primary School:
Our Mission is to ensure that our students are able to successfully interact and achieve within andbeyond their own community, now and in the future.
This may be evidenced by:
A Strong Sense of IdentityThe school Values identified by the school community are reflected in the everyday language atschool by staff, parents, students and community members. The Values are
Our ongoing commitment to our Values is reflected in our Student and Staff Wellbeing programs including the Year 7 Student Leaders program, Buddy and assembly programs.
Qkr App (pronounced quicker) is Hallett Cove East Primary School and Out of School Hours/Vacation Care preferred form of payment.
Please click for more details Qkr App
Download on the App Store or Get it on Google Play
