Dear Families,

Welcome back to term 3, great to hear stories from staff and students about relaxing and adventurous local holidays. Whilst times are still challenging and unpredictable we have begun term 3 with optimism and positivity, embracing a return to some volunteer opportunities, playgroup, and school sport, putting a smile on many faces.

We thank you for your continued understanding as we carefully manage our school learning environments. We will continue with additional cleaning, a focus on social distancing, and careful hygiene practices.

A very special welcome to our new students and their families; Jack, Elken, Lucas, Jaxon, Gemma, Lycan and Izzak

Staffing changes

Welcome to Leah Osborne who will be working with Yr 5,6 and 7 students to provide additional literacy support and also some classroom support.

Deb Zeuner will take leave for the rest of this term as she recovers from surgery. Jackson Roberts will teach her Yr 2 class for the remainder of the term. We wish her a speedy recovery.

We also welcome Brody Virgo and Praveena Murlthan who will provide additional student support across multiple classrooms for the remainder of the year.

Welcome to Jack and Dinh who will be with us for the next semester on the Social Work placement.

Pupil Free Day

Part of our site improvement plan includes a focus on writing. This year staff have used two main resources to support and improve student learning outcomes.

Brightpath moderation is a tool that we use to carefully analyse many aspects of student writing in order to identify strengths and future challenges. Seven Steps to writing success is a model that strives to provide students with a set of tools to bring excitement and depth to writing. On our pupil free day staff had a chance to look carefully at student work samples, moderation results, and then explore teaching practice to support future writing growth.

In the afternoon we examined our International Baccalaureate Programme of Inquiry looking for a balance of concepts and themes both across units and from Reception through to Year 7. Staff found the opportunity to reflect, discuss and refine valuable in setting goals for the rest of the year.

School Grounds

As school sport resumes and OSHC numbers increase we are asking the general public to refrain from using our school grounds whilst these activities are occurring. We have also noticed an increase in families walking their dogs through the school while students are present. Dogs are not permitted on school grounds.

3 Way Discussions

Great to have the opportunity to share time with families at our 3-way discussions this week which are an important part of developing strong support and relationships around student learning and goal setting. Thanks to staff and students for the work that has gone into preparing for discussions.

Liz Pelling