Hi everyone,

I hope you have had a great week.
Our F-2 students have settled in really well and we are all looking forward to welcoming our year  3-6 students to school next Tuesday 9th June. it's been a long time since we have seen them.

Don't forget there is no school next Monday 8th because of the Queen's Birthday holiday.

​Work continues at school on the external walls and the workers have just about finished adding the new metal frame to the existing building.

Stay well and we will see you soon.

Best wishes,

Paul Kenna
​Principal

13/05/2020

Hi everyone,
I hope you are all doing OK. A few things have been happening around the school since my last blog. Firstly, our staff continue to do an amazing job of remote learning. With the exception of only a few students we have everyone actively engaged each day, completing tasks, communicating with their teachers and their friends through SeeSaw and also Webex.
It has been amazing to see how far the skills of everyone have come in such a short time.

We have learned a lot and there are many things we can learn from this experience that we might be able to continue in some way into the future. We will be doing a survey of teachers, students and interested parents on what they thought about remote learning and what worked well for our students. It should be interesting to get this information and we will try to make positive changes in the future and act on the feedback where possible.

Last weekend the wall cladding on parts of the main building was removed. This weekend we will have more cladding removed from the junior school building. We will be putting new cladding on these areas. The cladding is called Exotec and it should look great. We will have a similar colour scheme to what we havew at the moment with a few accent colours which should look fresh and clean. Thanks to School Council for approving this project. (see photos)

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. Today we had our first ever School Council meeting using the Webex video-conferencing app. It was different but it got the job done. Our School Councillors are great supporters of the school and do a lot of work behind the scenes.

Today Council provided additional funding to upgrade the external cladding around different areas of the school. We discussed lots of things including our 2019 Annual Report and how we are progressing with remote online learning. Despite some technical hitches our teachers, students and their families are doing a great job implementing the online learning strategies.

We received some good news this week... we were successful in applying for a $10,000 grant from Schools {Plus and the money will be used to purchase another 10 laptops and to provide more elearning training for teachers. How cool is that!

The SeeSaw platform really supports our Self Organised Learning Environment philosophy and many students are very active and enjoying the opportunity to be creative in their learning, especially in how they apply their knowledge, how they show evidence of their learning in a variety of ways including, photos, video, reports, online forms, diary and journal entries to name a few. 

I can see the school continuing to offer our students a variety of ways to learn, including online platforms  once school resumes fully.

Currently the state of emergency declared by the Premier remains in place till May 11th when the government will review the situation. They may decide to resume to normal schooling, or transition to a different model combining at school and remote learning. We don't know.

What we do know is that our teachers will successfully implement what is asked of them. They have already shown they can. 

I know these times are difficult for everyone but they will pass soon enough. Do your best, be patient and kind to each other.

Stay well people. 
​Cheers

Paul

15/04/2020
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the Principal's blog.
I thought it would be a good idea to keep you informed of what is going on and the latest news whilst we have remote learning in place across the state. I have been very proud of our fantastic staff who have been really outstanding getting things organised for our remote learning strategy.
I have been impressed with their planning and their positive, creative response under pressure to learn new skills and strategies. It is not easy to convert planning documents that were developed for our "normal" face to face  school day to a remote learning environment, but they have done it and done it well. 
By now most students who have a device and internet connections are now doing their learning on line using SeeSaw and also Webex for tele-conferencing. We still have a few families that are waiting for devices and internet connection which should happen soon.
Another positive has been that we have two playground spaces getting new sunshades. The poles are in and the shades go up in a week or two. We have also been informed by DET that a lot of the external cladding on our buildings (where the temporary fencing is) will be removed and reclad which is great.
At times the technology might drop out, the app or program may not work as well as we like but early indications are that it will perform well. It is important for you to stay positive, to encourage your child in their learning, talk to them and give them assistance when possible.
Their lessons are well explained by the teachers with clear learning intentions and success criteria which makes it easier for them and you.
​It is not easy so just be positive, do your best and keep calm :)
Cheers everyone...stay well