Newsletter – Term 3, Week 8, 2021

Welcome to SPRING! We have had some beautiful weather to start spring and hopefully more to come in the future! I hope everyone was able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine while it lasted.

We are at the end of Week 8 of Term 3. As this is written, no return date has been set in stone, with a decision to be made at a later date dependent on the trends over the next few days and week.

While the news isn’t entirely surprising given the rising case numbers in Melbourne and local exposure sites in Geelong, it is not the news that any of us wanted to hear. We remain in the ‘unknown’ and this is an extremely difficult place to be.

In light of this, I must again acknowledge the remarkable efforts and resilience of our students, staff and families over the past few weeks and congratulate everyone on doing the best they can under these trying circumstances.

In particular, I sincerely thank our staff who continue to provide an outstanding Remote Learning Program, while balancing their own family needs during the lockdown and supervising students on site. It is an amazing effort by our staff – teachers, education support staff, leadership and office staff and I’m sure you are all just as appreciative of their efforts as I am.

This week we had an extra special event for our community with a performance from the magician and entertainer Tim Credible organised by Mrs Loney. We received fantastic feedback and hope it was a great way to break up the week for the children and gave everyone something special to look forward to. Next week we hope to organise another exciting event for our families – Mr Canny is currently undertaking preparations (it may or may not involve Pokémon’s!). More information about this event will come out next week.

We all need news to make us smile at this time and I am very excited to announce that Mrs Casey Hawkins, along with her husband Jake, have welcomed (three weeks early) their daughter ELKIE MAY. Mum and bub are both doing well, and we wish them the very best as they start their life as a family of three.

As stated above there was confusion around the announcement made on Wednesday. As it currently stands, we are continuing with Remote Learning for this term unless told otherwise.

As per every other lockdown our staff are endeavouring to do all they can to cater for the needs of all students in their class. However, teachers do not know what they do not know! If you have questions, concerns, need further information or just want to speak to the teacher please reach out. They are more than happy to speak to parents, students and offer any extra support they can. We are here to help – please reach out if you need. Mr Raidme (P-2 Assistant Principal) and Mrs Loney (3-6 Assistant Principal) along with Mrs Prendergast OR Mrs Ellis (P-2 Learning Specialist) and Mr Normington (3-6 Learning Specialist) are always available to contact as well. We are here to help!

NAPLAN results were released this week, as you may have seen on the news. Victoria led Australia in the NAPLAN results which is an amazing reflection on the resilience of our students and the ability of our teachers, with the fantastic support of families at home, to ensure our students continued to learn through a global pandemic.

In saying that we need to remember that the NAPLAN tests are only one aspect of each school’s assessment and reporting process, and was completed on one day (for different subjects). NAPLAN testing does not replace the extensive, ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance. A child’s teacher will have the best insight into a child’s educational progress. Along with other school assessment reports, NAPLAN reports can be used to discuss a child’s strengths and areas for improvement with their teacher.

I am proud to say that as a school our results exceeded the state average in Year 3 and Year 5 in nearly every learning area – which is an AMAZING achievement. Individual results, due to lockdown, have been mailed out to the Year 3 and Year 5 families. I am sure these families will celebrate their child’s individual achievements just as we have.

As mentioned above, Mr Canny is in planning for a whole school event for next week. It may or may not involve Pokémon’s – stay tuned

We hope that all of the Father’s or Father figures in our students lives celebrate a special day on Sunday.

The School Council has been working hard during this time on many things including –

• SOUTH VALLEY ROAD CROSSING – Meeting with Vic Roads and Geelong City Council around the South Valley Road school crossing.
• TERRACE WORKS – Working on the plans for the upgrade to our terrace. We are nearly ready to go to tender and are hopeful that these works will begin before the end of the year.
• BUILDING WORKS – Meeting with the architects, VSBA and the Department of Education around progressing our building works program.

Our students and our community wellbeing is always at the forefront of our minds. Please take care of yourselves and each other. The one thing we can control at this time is how we can treat each other and care for each other. Pease know we are here, please reach out to us if you need.

Year 1 and Year 2 students can collect an extra book if required (if the current books are full) on Monday at 10.30am – 11.30am in the kiss and drop zone.

Principal

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