Dear Parents and Caregivers,
It has been a busy first week of term, with students and teachers jumping straight back into learning and the finalisation of
preparations for our external school review to be conducted this Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 July.
Teaching and learning
It has been great to walk through all of our classes in this first week back and hear students and teachers talking about learning and
referring to student goals for improvement. Keep an eye out for further information shortly on how to book a time with your child’s
class teacher to continue these conversations about individual student progress and next steps. Please note that these three-way
interviews will be held from Monday 17 to Friday 21 August, Week 5 this term (not July as incorrectly communicated in the
Welcome to term 3 communication uploaded earlier this week!).
External School Review
With regards to the review, all Department schools are externally reviewed in three year cycles to evaluate school performance and
effectiveness. Our assigned review officer is Debbie Grzeczkowski. Debbie will be supported by Review Principal Lynette Simons
from Williamstown Primary School. A number of students, staff and parents/caregivers will engage with the panel over the two
days. The overarching review question is: how well does our school improve achievement, growth, challenge, engagement and
equity? Some deeper lines of inquiry focusing on improvement planning, teaching and learning, and leadership will also be
investigated. This process is a great opportunity for us to receive some rigorous feedback about our current improvement structures
and actions to help inform our action moving forward. Our student leaders Niki, Solly, Maria and Mia will officially welcome and tour
Debbie and Lynette from 8.15am on Monday morning.
COVID-19 and food provision at school
With the easing of some COVID-19 restriction in South Australia, a number of extra-curricular programs and activities can resume
this term, including our breakfast club and out of hours school sport. However, we must all remain vigilant with respect to physical
distancing guidelines (1.5m outdoors and 1 person per 2sqm in indoor spaces) and continue to practice good hygiene and health
protection measures. BBQs and sausage sizzles are now classified as “take away food” rather than communal food, and can now be
held at sporting venues and community clubs, with measures to reduce the risk of infection, including:
- People being served must practice physical distancing when lining up to order and practice good hygiene.
- No self-service of condiments etc. (person serving the food must apply condiments).
- Cooked food must be protected from contamination and stored away from the area where orders are placed.
- Shared food (i.e. oranges, lollies and recovery food) is still considered communal food and is not permitted.
Safety, security & wellbeing
Thank you to our student crossing monitors and duty staff who have now established an effective daily routine to secure our
perimeter gates during school hours. This is helping to keep all of our students safe and has increased the efficiency of our signing in
process for students who arrive after our 8.50am start time. With parents/caregivers now able to enter school grounds if necessary
for drop-off and pick-up, the gate to our Diagonal Road carpark (behind our early years block) will now be secured at all times. We
continue to encourage as many parents/caregivers as possible to drop off and collect their children from the front of the school to
continue the development of greater student independence and responsibility observed during the height of COVID restrictions.
Already this term, we have had a number of annoying cases of minor vandalism and destructive behaviour that has impacted staff
and students. This has included writing on toilet walls/cubicles and damage to computer keyboards. I kindly ask that all
parents/caregivers talk to their children about the importance of looking after and out for school resources and facilities.
Remediating damage to our facilities takes valuable time, money and energy away from teaching and learning and negatively
impacts student and staff learning and wellbeing.
On a positive note, a big shout-out to our wonderful Arts teacher Natalie Scheepers who invested a significant amount of her own
time and energy over the holiday period to provide some of our toilet areas with some much needed TLC! With a lick of paint and
some thoughtful interior decorating, Natalie has certainly demonstrated a huge amount of care and respect (as always) towards our
students and school. Thank you Natalie.
With warm regards,
Josh Vick – Principal