From the Head of Junior School – 26 July 2019

New members to our community
Welcome back to all families from what I hope was a rejuvenating holiday break. We welcome some new students to the Junior School: Vaani Solanki into Year 4, Shamir Khan into Year 2 and into the ELC: Zoe Fielding, Senuk Stembo, Arya Rathnayake and Parizay Khan. I know I can rely on our current parents to embrace these new members into our community and get to know them.

One of our Music teachers Ms Emily Bermingham is away on Sick Leave and requires an eye operation. She will be away for most if not all the term. We wish her well for surgery and her recovery. In her absence the following staff will cover her Junior School teaching commitments. Year 6 choir will be taken by Marten Visser; Year 4 and Year 5 choir will be taken by Naomi Heyden and Year 6 classroom music will be taken by Marten Visser and Jazer Lee.

Stephanie Cormick, who is an Early Learning Assistant in our ELC, has resigned effective as of last week. She has accepted a full-time position at another Centre. We will miss Stephanie in the Kangaroos room; her warm manner, willingness to help and the great care she gave to all of the children. We wish her well in the future.

Fundraising
Thank you to all our ELC and Junior School families who sent gold coin donations to our school on Casual Dress Day in support of the Sea Life Trust to which we donated just over $500. We have also counted our Woolworths Earn and Learn stickers that all families collected and, combined, we have in excess of 17,000 stickers which should allow us to buy materials and equipment for both Junior School and ELC. Thank you for your generous support of both endeavours!

Drop Off and Pick Up arrangements
All families received notification from Ms Rome and myself about our new Drop Off and Pick Up arrangements at the front of the Junior School. Those safety arrangements are effective immediately and we thank you in anticipation of your support.

The Lunch Box (Canteen)
All students can gain access to our School Canteen known as The Lunch Box. Our staff have agreed to no longer allow students to go to ‘Tuck’ and buy treats during some lunch times. There are many valid reasons for this decision. Too many students used this opportunity to buy food that was only of the ‘sweets’ category; some students were buying food for friends which goes against our ‘no sharing of food’ guidelines; others were bringing large amounts of money from home that we did not think was authorised by parents etc.  Our students are still able to access this wonderful facility and order treats if they are allowed, through the daily lunch orders system. In this way we feel more confident that parents can supervise their child’s purchases.

eConsents
Our Junior School children are fortunate to go on a variety of curriculum excursions throughout the year. The details of the excursion are always sent to parents well ahead of time via a notification email. I wish to remind parents of the importance of promptly accepting the eConsent through Parent Lounge. If you do not complete/action the eConsent prior to the notified excursion date we cannot allow your child to attend the excursion on the day, which would result in your child staying at school. Thank you for your support in this regard.

ELC Rating- Exceeding
We were so thrilled to receive the news in the holidays from the Department of Education and Training (Early Childhood) that our ELC service was recently rated for our education and care as ‘Exceeding National Quality Standard’. This is the highest possible rating a Centre can receive. Our extensive report indicates that we met every one of the 7 standards. This is excellent news for our wonderful ELC and the School. A note of thanks to the Director of the ELC, Mrs Sue Eden and to our hard working, dedicated and energised team of ELC educators and assistants. Congratulations to all!

We look forward to our ELC Parent Forum on Monday 29 July where parents are warmly invited to participate and give feedback on our ELC and practices. Best wishes to everyone for a happy and successful Term 3!

Ms Louise Sayar
Head of Junior School