From the Principal
Welcome back everyone to 2023. Our new Kinder students are settling in well as are our other new enrolments across years 1-6. To help make our new families welcome, we are having a Welcome BBQ between 4-6pm next Tuesday 14 February. We will run a free sausage sizzle for students and their families, and we hope you will call in at any time that afternoon to meet the teachers & other parents and have a look around the school. This year we have 13 classes and 287 students enrolled. Despite this we still have some spaces in our K-4 classes, so if you know of families looking for a school in 2024 encourage them to go onto our website and follow the enrolment link to apply.
NEW STAFF
A special welcome to our new staff: Mr Owen Gerrard teaching 5/6, Miss Esther MacGregor teaching Year 4, Mrs Emma Huggett in Kindergarten, Mr Roger Myers teaching 5/6 & library. We also welcome Mrs Emily Delaney 2 days a week as a permanent relief teacher and Mrs Sophie Brown is returning from leave 1 day a week on Year 1. Mrs Lauren Whalan has joined the staff 3 days a week as a Classroom Support Assistant. Finally, welcome to Madelyn Burns who is our new school counsellor and will be at the school on Mondays. Further information about the counselling service is in this newsletter.
SCHOOL DETAILS
- School hours are from 9.20am to 3.20pm. Staff supervision begins at 8.30am, with car line supervision until 3.45pm & bus line until the last child is picked up. If you need your child to be here outside of these hours please ring the office to make a reasonable arrangement.
- Please take care in the car line and be aware of the rules that apply to traffic on Princes Ave. Many people received traffic fines in that area last year. Later in the newsletter there is a diagram to study about traffic & parking restrictions in that area.
- Please ensure your child brings a hat for outside play and a full water bottle for the day to limit their contact with the school bubblers.
- I encourage you to keep in touch with your child’s teacher by email. You can find this in Compass by:
- opening the app and tapping 'more'
- choose 'open in browser'
- select the link 'send email to child's teachers'
- Please be respectful of staff hours and allow a period of time for teachers to reply. If the matter is urgent let the office know and they will bring it to the teachers attention.
SCHOOL UNIFORM
We have begun the school year with a strong push for children to be sun safe & wear their hats, hence “No Hat, No play”. Those students without a hat will be limited to a small shaded area, so please make sure your child has a school hat with their name clearly on it.
Last year some students started wearing parkas & over-coats that were not school uniform. This is not acceptable.
Students in Year 6 can only wear their special jerseys on Thursday & Friday; we will let you know when the order arrives.
Please pay attention, both boys & girls, to having hair tied back out of your eyes if it is shoulder length or longer. It also helps stops nits spreading.
SCHOOL FEES
School fee statements were emailed to families on Tuesday; please contact the office if you didn't recieve it. A reminder that when you enrolled your child at our school you signed an agreement stating that you agree to pay all school fees, levies and surcharges while your child was enrolled. The enrolment form also states no student will be refused enrolment because of inability to pay, which is distinctly different from a parent or guardian's unwillinginess to pay or meet the fee commitments. Please contact the school if are having financial difficulties. If repeated requests to make arrangements for paying fees are ignored, this could result in using outside agencies to collect the fees (adding extra costs) or a reason to cancel a child’s enrolment. I urge you to take this matter of school fees seriously.
We are looking forward to a great 2023 and please keep safe.