Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Term 3! We are slowly returning to normal but the Director-General of Education on the advice of the Department of Health has still insisted that adults remain off school grounds for Term 3. This is not an ideal situation for us as I am sure it isn’t for you.  The operation of gates is a large human resource commitment for us and time away from other things. However, the up side is our connection and service to members of the community to whom we may not have had the chance to connect with every day in the same way. Being the first person to welcome your child to school every day is a privilege for us. We hope that this is a positive for them as well.  I have certainly gained comfort from the saying “It is what it is.”

Our academic focus currently is ensuring we have assessed every child’s reading and writing in the school so we can ensure they are meeting current targets and set goals to move every student forward from where they are. Teachers meet fortnightly to plan the next step for writing for each student and reading goals will be shared with parents at Parent/Teacher Interviews in Week 3  or through other means, so these can be discussed and supported at home where possible to progress their learning. Teachers will also invest time this term in professional development and planning around writing through watching others’ work and gaining feedback. Additionally, the leadership team (being the Principal, Deputy Principal, Head of Curriculum and Head of Inclusion) will do walkthroughs to provide teachers with feedback around the implementation of the Literacy Block in their Classroom. I have attached the school’s Literacy Framework to this newsletter for your perusal as this drives much of our work.  Click here to download the Literacy Framework document.

Sadly, we have had to cancel Year 5 Camp to Currimundi and the Year 6 trip to Canberra. The uncertainty around venues being CoVID safe and the school’s ability to obtain refunds if these trips couldn’t go ahead at the last minute, made it impossible to proceed. In the coming weeks, we will be discussing some scaled down and low key alternatives that students will learn from and enjoy.

Finally, some good news is that we have re-scheduled the following events:

• Junior Sports Day to Wednesday September 9 (Week 9)
  
  
• Cross Country to Friday September 11 (Week 9)
  
  
• Senior Sports Days to Monday September 14 (Day 1) and Thursday September 17 (Day 2)

Though these events will be modified and there will be strict guidelines under which we need to operate, we are hopeful that parents will be able to come along and observe their children in action if cases in Queensland keep trending in a positive direction. More details will follow later in the term.

Finally, please email me on kcana2@eq.edu.au if you would like to join our virtual Cuppa Morning (via Zoom) on Friday July 31 at 9.30am as this is an opportunity for parents and carers to provide the leadership team with ideas to improve the school and find out more about our policies, programs, events and facilities.  Education Queensland has recently funded an educational version of Zoom that has safeguards that aren’t available in the open environment so it will be safe version of the app.
I encourage those who are interested to attend.

Have a good week,


Kathy