Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

Welcome back to all of our existing students and families to what we hope will be a different year to that of 2020.  I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new students and families.  

Much has been happening since school closed for the vacation - and in some cases - not happening.  Nonetheless, we are underway with what is certain to be a very successful 2021 school year where we are Good at learning - Good at life.

In the first week

Prep and Year 1

Year 2 and Year 3

Year 4

Year 5 and Year 6

Book packs

I am disappointed that the service that was promised to our families has not been able to be met. A large number of our families have been affected and book packs have not been received as promised. I am not privy to any details as to what has caused the delay this year and any communication we receive is passed on to our families.

I recognise and share the parent frustration with this as book packs preparation is part and parcel of starting the school year and to be packing the stationery with your children and taking it into school is a special moment.

This matter has nothing to do with the P&C or the school except that both groups were part of the selection process. The public sector is expected to conduct all business with transparency. This means that all business arrangements require a tender process. A selection panel of P&C and school representatives then select the best offer to our school. They compare offers to match service promises, price and ease of ordering. A contract is then set for a three (sometimes four) year period. Kookaburra recently won this tender process.

Some families have questioned why the school promoted Kookaburra this year, given the delays of the 2020 orders. The answer to that is simple - we were contractually obligated.  While I agree with parent opinion that the book pack delivery delays are very significant, I also recognise that the company has provided a strong business service to the school in other areas over many years.  

A new tender for 2022 - 2024 is due to be advertised at some point this year. And once again, a fully transparent process will be followed and families will be informed later in the year, once a decision on the tender has been made.

If you would like to offer ideas - other than those listed on Facebook sites as I completely understand the general consensus of the posts - please email them to me and I will pass them onto the P&C to be tabled with general business at our first meeting this year.  

Student Code of Conduct

Last year, all schools were required to create a new Student Code of Conduct policy. Consequently, we invested many hours in its development to ensure that the policy reflected the Department requirements. Families, staff, our P&C and School Council were all provided opportunity for input and in December last year, the policy received its final endorsement.

There are some really important changes to legislation that might impact on some students and families, particularly in the area of bullying and cyber-bullying - either at school or outside school. Essentially both situations are required to be managed by the school and school consequences may be applied where it is appropriate to do so. Where once there was a grey area between school and what happens outside the school day, this is no longer the case.

Essentially it comes down to respectful use of social media outside of the school by students. This will require increased levels of supervision on devices at home in some circumstances.

Please click here for the link to the policy.  

Homework

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback to me in the survey late last year regarding homework. What I learned was that a wide opinion existed on the importance placed on homework by our families. This ranged from doing none to ensuring that homework was part of the afternoon routine. I need more information on which to build a policy for our school so that homework this year is effective for families and teachers alike.

I will be sending home a survey with teachers in Week 3 this term regarding what you would like for homework. Once we have this information, a team of parents and staff will work with me to develop the policy.

The school is not setting homework for the first 5 weeks of the year. This might extend should it become necessary. Please note that despite there being no written homework in this period, READING AT HOME WILL CONTINUE EACH NIGHT. I anticipate that home reading for the early years and library borrowing will commence as soon as possible.

Day 8

With just the first three days of the school year completed, I can already see that we will need to complete a restructure in some areas of the school. However, I cannot begin to create a finalised 2021 class plan until after Day 8.

When our revised structure has been decided, we will contact families before we make any changes. Please know that we aim to keep any changes to an absolute minimum.

COVID and our NEW normal

Kind regards

Vic