Schools Plus Fair Education Grant – Building a Restorative School:
Earlier this term I wrote a newsletter article letting our school community know we’d been shortlisted for a $70,000 3-year grant for professional learning. This grant was built around the exciting work we are doing in partnership with external consultants, Real Schools in 2021-2023.
Real Schools is an evidence-based consultative group, made up of educators, for educators and their communities. Our partnership with Real Schools is very exciting and we look forward to introducing our consultant, Simon, to our broader community very soon as we work through our long-term ‘Building a Restorative School’ project.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the integrity and aspiration of our long-term ‘Building a Restorative School’ project has captured the interest of external investors, resulting in our school being chosen to receive the $70,000 professional learning support spread out over 2021, 2022 and 2023 through the Schools Plus Fair Education Grant.
We are so proud of the team for the massive work that went into the application process. If we work with the same level of commitment throughout the implementation of our project, we anticipate amazing outcomes for our schools, our students and the broader community!
For more information about how Real Schools support transformational change to schools and their communities, visit: https://www.realschools.com.au/#aboutrealschools
SUPER GRATITUDE is also extended to Schools Plus in their belief in our school and our project. We are very grateful for this amazing support across the three years and look forward to turning our aspirations into visible achievements!
STEM Classes 2021:
Our first round of STEM Class nominations were reviewed last week. As there were still limited spaces remaining in both the Stage 2 and Stage 3 Classes, we opened up a second round of nominations that closed on Wednesday 2nd December. We will endeavour to inform parents and students about confirmed STEM class placements in 2021, once we have reviewed all nominations and have finalised the class lists.
Possible $100,000 Library Upgrade:
Our school has been selected as a priority school to be considered for an NSW Department of Education grant as part of the ‘Co-Funded Regional Renewal Program’ worth $50,000. To be eligible, schools needed to have an existing approved long-term project signed off at the director level, meet certain socio-economic criteria and have the ability to contribute to the project from community funds.
If selected, the school will invest $50,000 of school and community funds to receive a $100,000 upgrade to our library in return. If this grant is supported by the NSW Department of Education, we essentially will have a new-look future focused flexible learning space early in 2021 for our students and community. Thank you to P&C members who attended our special meeting to learn more about this exciting project via Zoom last week.
School Presentation Day 2020:
Our school Presentation Day will be held on Tuesday 8th December. The Department of Education is allowing end of year events to take place with strict social distancing guidelines in place. This year our event will be held outdoors, within our school grounds and will be a staff and student only event. Highlights of Presentation Day will be distributed for parents and carers via Facebook at the conclusion of the event.
Show Up, Step Up and Strive:
We have had a massive reduction in students arriving to school late or leaving early this term as part of our improvement focus. We would like to extend our thanks to parents and carers for assisting the school with maximising student attendance by making appointments outside school hours where possible. This term, students who access NDIS specialist support at school has also increased, which means students accessing this support are not missing additional schooling due to unnecessary travel time, travelling to and from appointments. Teachers have also had the opportunity to liaise with NDIS specialists on-site allowing us to strengthen our approach to provide coordinated support. Again, we are going from strength to strength in our efforts to have over 90% of students attending school more than 90% of the time. Keep it up!
Regards,
Brett Carr
Principal – Swansea Public School
