We have come to the half way mark of the year. It has been a short term comprising nine weeks and we are proud of our students for their efforts and general positiveness. I would like to acknowledge the ongoing commitment of our teachers in working hard behind the scenes to ensure inclusive access to education for all their students. We experienced a few bouts of student illness and absences across year levels. Teacherabsence has been a difficulty as we struggle to find replacement teachers.  The importance of consistency of teacher in front of the class is very important but the CRT shortage is dire and it is extremely rare to be able to get the same CRT for even two days in a row. We have had to introduce combined class groups at times during the term.  This situation is not ideal for the students who wanted their regular teacher and consistency of routines.

The school will close at 2.30pm Friday 23June for the term break. The start of term three is Monday 10 July.

Reports and PST Conferences: A soft copy of your child’s report was sent home and via Compass and Parent Student Teacher Conferences were held Tuesday.  Family attendance was great on such a cold evening. Thank you for participating and thank you teachers for your efforts.

Lego Masters Competition: The Lego Design competition is on this week. Children compete in various categories according to the type of design and construction. Families have been visiting our Mindfulness Centre to view wonderful student lego designs as part of Lego Masters. Go to Photo Gallery

Year 3 Inventions Display:  This week parents and classes were invited to go into the year 3 classes to see a display of the inventions each child hasproduced as part of their project work. Each inventor was available to explain how their invention works.  The inventors also prepared a report that explained the process they undertook to create their invention.  Lots of parents attended and thank you foryour enthusiasm and support.  Great workkids !  Go to Photo Gallery

Life Education Program was a key feature of the term as it was spread out over a number of weeks.  I feel the children were really engaged with the instructors who provided the program.  As a follow up parents can register with the Life Ed information sessions. All parent information sessions areconducted online this year. 

https://www.lifesmartkids.com.au/parent-sessions 

Bring Your Own Device Program
Up to now the school has supplied all devices for students to use in their classrooms. Unfortunately, our ipad fleet is ageing and replacing large quantities of ipads is no longer feasible with the school’s available funds.  We plan to introduce the Bring Your Own Device program at year 3 for 2024.  This means parents will be asked to buy an ipad if they have a child starting year 3 in 2024. Introducing the new device at the year 3 level will enable these students to use their own device for four years until they complete year 6. As a staged progression, the year 3 students for 2025 will do likewise and so forth in 2026 etc.  An easy purchase portal will be available through a trusted retailer later in the year once the newest iPad model has been released. We expect this to be sometime in October.

TO better understand how the program will operate we have prepared an information booklet for parents to read.  We also include a feedback response form for parents wishing to ask questions or express opinion. This booklet and feedback form will be available on Compass for families upon our return for term 3.  

School Web site: Our website is. key communication tool that is valuable and friendly to navigate. It includes the latest features in IT innovation. Have a look at our photo gallery of special events if you haven’t seen it before and all newsletters including general new, wellbeing news and Principal news are included. Go to school website to scroll

Prep Enrolment Intake for 2024:   Would any existing families who have a Prep child for 2024 please enrol now so that we can define our enrolment intake and would parents please pass on information to friends at Kinders and Child Care Centres that we will be contacting andapproving applications from Monday 31 July.

Tours can still be arranged through the school website using the ‘Trybookings’. button

Have a lovely break everyone.

Cheers. David Foley

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