Newsletter – Term 4, Week 3, 2021

What a week. We welcomed back all students on site today – the first time in what seems like forever! The staff are so excited to have all the students back on site, as I am sure you all are.

We are hoping to utilise all entry points to the school to ensure parents can maintain social distancing during drop off and pick up times. We would prefer not to have to stagger end of day pick up times however this may be something we need to implement if it becomes too congested around the school gates. Please consider walking to and from school, riding bikes or parking further away from the school and walking. We also ask that as soon as you drop off or collect your child you move away from the entrances straight away. We have found there are some people who have been staying and talking, and while this is wonderful to see, we ask that you move away from the busy entry and exit points if you wish to have a conversation. Thank you

We are thrilled to announce that Mrs Andrews is expecting her first child at the start of 2022. As the baby is not due until 2022 Mrs Andrews will be working until the last day of this year.

Within the next month the process of organising students into classes for next year will begin. Our schools’ enrolments for 2022 are stable with 625 students and we will be operational with 28 classes.

This year will be different than the last few years as there are no ‘pods’, and last year was moving from composite classes to single year levels, which we will continue in 2022. This actually makes constructing classes an easy task than previous years.

If there are any issues, we need to be aware of when allocating your child to a class, please make sure you put this in writing to via the school email address (ATT: Suzanne Prendergast) by no later than Monday 1st November. The teachers and I will be meeting soon after to begin sorting children into classes. The students will be given the opportunity to indicate five students who they would like to be in a class with in 2022 and they are guaranteed to be put with one of these students. You may wish to have a conversation about this with your child.

It is not my intention to provide parents with the opportunity to select a teacher of choice.  We have a quality teaching team and parents can be confident the needs of their child will be met by any member of our team.

Developing well-balanced classes is best for everyone and that can be made difficult if there are large numbers of requests – as such, it is important that placement requests be founded on significant reasons and not related to specific teachers.

I will endeavor to accommodate parent requests regarding student placements, but you will understand this is not always possible.

It is also important when we come to organise classes that we know of students who will not be at our school next year. If your family is moving on for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible by contacting the front office. Thank you to those families who have already been in touch

As we all return to school, we have noticed that a number of students are not wearing the school uniform. We ask that students wear the correct school uniform to school. Our uniform policy states uniforms need to be worn, hair tied back (safety reasons), hats in term 4 and no excessive jewellery.  Although the uniform shop at school is still not able to be opened Beleza in town is open.

Just a reminder to parents that all communication regarding drop off, pick up or other information needs to go via the front office. There have been a few incidences in the younger years with students who have ‘smart watches’ where parents or students have messaged or rung each other thereby interrupting the class.

Schools are encouraged to limit the mixing of cohorts and limiting onsite visitors to essential visitors only. A reminder that currently parents are not permitted inside school buildings unless an appointment has been pre-arranged with your child’s classroom teacher.

Thank you to all families for your support with this and I look forward to when we can all meet face to face.

The Department is delivering air purifiers to schools for higher risk areas and in the meantime (we have not received ours yet), we are ensuring adequate ventilation of all buildings (it’s been a little cold on some days). Our COVID Safe cleaning is also continuing for all of Term 4 for inside buildings, high touch areas and playground equipment.

We are continuing to encourage and promote physical distancing, regular hand washing and the use of hand sanitizer to ensure the safety of all students and staff.

With the success of Link becoming a member of the Bellaire Community School Council have approved Vinnie joining Link to be trained as a Therapy Dog. Vinnie is Mr Raidme’s 5 year old Groodle. They are a cute pair – Link is black and Vinnie is white. Now that Link is nearly eight months old, Link and Vinnie will begin their training with Lead the Way in December. More information (including photos of the dogs) can be found on our Website under ‘About’ – ‘Therapy Dogs’.

We have created a space on our Website for the Kinder to Prep transition information. This information is found under the About Tab. We have also created a 2022 Seesaw account for the 2022 Preps. Invitations to join this space have been sent to the 2022 Prep families. If you know of someone who have not received this please ask them to contact the office.

Principal

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