Dear Families,
Welcome to Term 4. I trust that you had the opportunity to spend some quality time with your child(ren) during the school holidays. I spoke with many children about their experiences. Some went away, some stayed home, some enjoyed sleep overs or going on day trips to the city, to grandma’s or some other place. Hopefully the children formed some good memories of having fun and building relationships with others. This term we welcome Chase Taylor who commences in Ms Hill’s Reception class.
While this is a short term, only 9 weeks, it will still be a busy one with lots of things happening. We will have our Reception Transition visits, school reports, Christmas concert, Graduation, SMM’s Got Talent and various excursions and other events throughout the term. We will also celebrate Multicultural Day on Friday 8th November when children and staff are invited to dress up in their national costumes for the day.
On our first day back our students were pleased to see the new sandpit full of sand and ready for use. For the first couple of days I think we had about half of the school playing and digging in the sand at each break. It obviously had the big tick of approval from our most important people. Thanks once again to our parents (Scott and Liam) who helped to clear away the old bark and to our grounds staff Andrew and Chantelle. I have invited our children to return any sand that they take home each day in their socks!
A number of our students have accepted the offer of being involved in “Children’s University”. They have already received their passports and will start recording their various activities and progress through the various levels. A big thank you to one of our Co-Educators, Kathy Keough, for doing the ground work in organising this program for our school.
Please remember if your child is late to school, or is picked up early, they should be signed in and out through the front office. There are two sheets for recording … one for the parents to record the children’s names and one for the students to record their name if the parents have already gone. This is especially important over the next few weeks as Lisa Daniele has taken some leave and there may be a few different people working on the front desk who might not know all of the children’s names. We look forward to seeing her again in Week 5.
We would like to remind students and families to be wary of approaches from strangers, especially when they are unaccompanied or travelling to and from school. If they are approached, students should not respond and should not accept offers of rides or gifts. Students should seek the assistance of other nearby adults if they feel unsafe and should report any events to a trusted adult (parent or school staff member) as soon as possible. SAPOL advises that taking out a mobile phone and calling police can deter an offender and they recommend the student making a formal report to their closest police station.
We will be having a Christmas Carols / Concert at 2pm on Friday 6 December. Please mark this in your diary.
Please remember that we have the following dates set aside as Pupil Free Days for the staff to undertake professional development, staff reflection, complete hand over activities, etc. Our remaining set dates are: Thursday 12 December and Friday 13 December. Please mark them in your diary and book in to OSHC if you require this service (spaces will be limited).
Kind regards,
Peter Mercer
Head of School
‘Shaping our Future Together’
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