School Pick Up:
Thank you to parents and carers for transitioning quickly to our new school pick up process. A reminder that we are aiming for all parents and carers to enter the school grounds, in the afternoons, via the rear gates on Galgabba Street, so we eliminate congestion in and around the front office. Parents and carers however are encouraged to use both gates to leave the school grounds once they have collected their child / children.
Future Aspirations for Swansea Public School - Community Conversation:
Our simple survey will be coming out this week. The survey is literally two questions; list three things you like about Swansea Public School, and identify one thing, that if changed or addressed, would make our school even better. We will get this out via our SkoolBag app. Please click the link and give us your feedback.
Special Religious Education (SRE):
Year 6-7 Transition:
Year 6 students will be issued their ‘Moving into Year 7 in a NSW Government school in 2021’ booklet on Wednesday, March 4th. Parents and carers are asked to read this information, complete the expression of interest form, and return to Swansea Public School as soon as possible. While all expression of interest forms are due by Friday, March 20th, we encourage parents and carers to get completed forms in sooner than the Friday, March 20th deadline, so we can provide assistance where needed. If you intend to send your child to our outstanding local school, Swansea High School, parents and carers only need to complete Sections A and B of their expression of interest form.
Student Leadership:
On Monday, March 2nd, our School Leaders attended the National Leaders Conference in Sydney. Our students did a fantastic job of learning more about leadership and developing plans for projects they will lead in 2020. Our school is strongly committed to leadership development, and we look forward to working with our Year 5 students in our aspirant leaders program commencing in Term 2, in preparation for school leadership elections for 2021 later in the year.
High expectations for happy and high achieving students
The following information relates to our commitment to maintaining high expectations to promote happy, high achieving students;
Attendance:
Our attendance motto is SHOW UP, STEP UP and STRIVE. To assist parents and carers with providing explanations for absences we have changed the text message we send out. The message now asks parents and carers to provide a reply text to explain your child’s / children’s absence. We encourage all parents and carers to provide a detailed explanation for absences via reply text so all absences are explained. Parents and carers only have 7 days to provide an explanation from the day of absence, so please reply promptly to our texts. If your mobile number changes, don’t forget to contact the school to update your details.
In 2019 our average attendance rate for Term 1 was 92.73%. We are putting the challenge out their to our students, parents and carers to help us beat this average in Term 1, 2020. I’m delighted to report that we are currently beating this in 2020 with an average attendance percentage of 94.49%...let’s keep this going! Kindergarten are leading the way with an average attendance percentage of 97.03%!!! I’m putting the challenge out to Stage 2 to SHOW UP, STEP UP and STRIVE and improve their current attendance percentage of 92.66%.
Uniform:
The P&C continue to work hard to ensure we have new jumpers available to purchase in the coming weeks. As soon as we know more we will get information out to parents and carers. We value all students wearing full school uniform and we are so proud of how our students look, ready for learning. If parents or carers have any issues or need assistance with providing uniform for our growing cherubs, please contact the school.
Closing
In closing, I’d like to acknowledge the ‘partners in learning’ relationship we share with our parents. Thank you so much to our parent helpers who get dirty in our gardens, support reading groups and assist with excursions…your support is what makes our school great.
Regards,
Brett Carr
