Welcome back- We would like to welcome all our families back to school for Term 4. We hope you were able to enjoy a break and time with your family during the spring holidays. We look forward to a productive and settled term for the end of what can only be labelled as a very interesting year! As some of you may be aware Mrs Gorham is on Long Service Leave for the first two weeks of this term and we wish her all the best whilst she is away visiting family.

Inspiration Day with James Nottingham- On Tuesday, staff were fortunate to spend the day completing professional learning with Education Specialist James Nottingham. We did this via ZOOM as James is from England. The day consisted of our staff revisiting and learning about the effects of quality dialogue, questioning and feedback to enhance student engagement and learning in the primary education setting. Research has shown that James’ ideas around the Learning Pit and Challenging Learning lead to: 

• Increased staff engagement and satisfaction;
• Improved student motivation, resilience and curiosity;
• The development of a shared language for learning within and between different organisations;
• Better use of feedback, questioning and dialogue to enhance student learning;
• A healthier attitude towards challenge, progress and achievement.

COVID Update: During the break COVID-19 restrictions were eased slightly to allow certain events to go ahead. I will do a quick breakdown of the restrictions we still have in place so that parents are aware and can follow and adhere to these accordingly. We would like to thank all our parents for the support you have shown our school throughout this year. It really has been one for the record books!

STILL THE SAME AS LAST TERM:

• No parents or carers on site unless the meeting is considered essential and should be by exception. This includes sporting events, assemblies, and any other school events.
• If students, teachers or family members present with flu like symptoms they MUST NOT attend school and will be sent home to be tested for COVID-19 if they are present at school. The student/family member/teacher must self isolate until a negative result has been returned. This negative result must be presented to the school to be kept on file. Any child or teacher that does not produce a negative result will not be allowed back on the school grounds until this is sighted.

CHANGES THIS TERM:

• Year 5/6 camp will go ahead and there will be more information coming home about this shortly. The camp is scheduled for Wednesday 11 - Friday 13 November.
• Sporting events (NRL Gala days, swimming) can go ahead without parent spectators. We will be participating in the Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 gala days and more information will be coming home about this shortly.
• Kinder Orientation will commence from the 1^st November. Families will receive more information early next week. Parents are ONLY permitted on school grounds for a combined 10 minutes to drop off and pick up their child. This can only go ahead if parents and children remain free of COVID-19 like symptoms.
• Information sessions and school tours for parents continue to be run virtually.
• Any school assemblies are to be limited to 15 minutes maximum. We will continue to do these virtually and in class-based groupings.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at school.

Book Week and Book Fair: Thank you to those parents who have already supported our Book Fair. Mrs Doolan and Mrs Parker were busy setting it up this week and I want to thank them for their efforts!

Next week is also Book Week and Mrs Doolan has already sent home information about this. Wednesday will be our Parade day; this will be live streamed on our Facebook page from 1pm and will be recorded on our YouTube channel as well. We look forward to seeing all the wonderful costumes from our students on the day.

A reminder that unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions we are unable to have any parents attending these events.

God Bless and have a healthy and happy weekend,

Rebecca Cooper

Assistant Principal