Dear Craigslea Community,

Welcome back to Term 2!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday break and are looking forward to a fabulous term ahead. Term 2 is always one of the busiest of the school year and I am looking forward to the adventures we have ahead of us. 

Coming up this term we have:

• ANZAC Commemoration Assembly
• Principal Afternoon Teas
• Active School Travel Walks: Meander with Mum, Mates and Others Walk; Litter Walk linked to World Environment Week
• P&C Mother’s Day Stall
• Enrichment opportunities including Wavell SHS Middle School Problem Solving Challenge; Readers Cup; ICT Explorers and Year 4 Hackathon
• Choir, band and strings virtual and pop-up concerts.
• National Simultaneous Storytime
• 2025 Prep Open Mornings
• Under 8’s Morning
• Parent Connect and Coffee & Connect mornings/afternoons
• Junior and Senior Athletics and Cross-Country Carnivals
• Gala Interschool Sports
• Show & Shine Afternoon
• Issuing of Semester 1 Report Cards

As you can see, we have lots to look forward to however our main focus will continue to be providing quality learning for all our students. Our Schoolzine calendar is up to date and captures all the dates for these events.

Administration Building Update

We are very excited to have moved into our refurbished building on Wednesday.  Whilst the leadership team and office team have enjoyed the collegiality of sharing spaces, we are very much looking forward to having our own spaces.  Whilst our teams will continue to move and settle in all parents are asked to visit us in our new space from Thursday 18 April. 

Our Learning Focus in 2024

This term as a school team we will continue to focus on:

• Deepening our collective knowledge and understanding of the Australian Curriculum and how we are teaching, learning and assessing using Bump It Up and Learning Walls in English
  
• Strengthening the consistency of Positive Behaviour of Learning processes and developing a whole school approach to building students social and emotional capabilities.
• Ensuring we have high expectations for all our learners and the provision of support to ensure every student experience’s learning success
• Strengthening our connections and partnerships with our community to enhance opportunities for our students.

Term 1 Parent Teacher Interviews

Last term we trialled a new format for our Parent Teacher Interviews.  We received lots of positive feedback from families on this new format on the night.  Although, it was a long day for our teachers they also shared very positive feedback with this format.  They especially loved the community feel of doing interviews in this way. 

As this is a new way of working for Craigslea I am keen to collect broader feedback from our community.  Please complete a quick survey by CLICKING HERE for the school to consider in planning our next Parent Teacher Interviews in Term 3.  

Prep Playground Upgrade

I am pleased to let you know that I attended the start-up meeting for the redevelopment of our Prep playground just before the holidays.  Over the holidays the construction fencing was installed and some work has commenced.  The contractors are currently waiting for the manufacturing of the playground equipment to be completed.  The plan is for this project to completed by the end of the term.  Once again, I would like to acknowledge and thank the P&C for providing the funds to enable this project to be completed for our students.

Phone Away Policy

As parents and carers, you play an important active role in helping your children have a safe and positive online experience. The Phones away for the day website has a number of resources and strategies to help you be proactive in protecting your children online as well as ways you can support them if things do go wrong.

ANZAC Day Kedron Wavell March and Service

We will be participating in the Kedron Wavell Sub Branch ANZAC Day March and Service on Thursday 25 April.  Our school captains will lay a wreath on behalf of our school community.  This is an important community event of remembrance and it would be great to see lots of our students participate in this event.  The details I have for the event are as follows:

• 7:40am            Assemble at Chermside Historical Precinct, 61 Kittyhawk Drive
• 8:00am            March to Kedron Wavell Services Club
• 8:30am            Main Service, KW Services Club.

Students who attend must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and must also represent our school in full school uniform.  I look forward to seeing our students there.

Partnership with Craigslea SHS

In the last week of Term 1, I met with members of the Craigslea SHS leadership team to discuss ways our schools can work together to enhance learning experiences for our students.  Some of the early ideas we discussed were:

• Strengthening transitions from year 6 into year 7 giving our students more opportunities to experience and learn about high school to prepare them for a successful start. This included high school staff coming along to a Parent Meeting to discuss positive transition strategies, key skills and knowledge students and families need to be high school ready.
• Harnessing the Global Citizenship Program to provide more opportunities for high school students to support learning and activities. Currently, students of this program are working with our year 5 students modelling fair play through games.
• Collaboration, professional learning and moderation of student work between our year 5 and 6 teachers and teachers of year 7 with a focus on English and Maths.
• Strengthening transition programs for our students with additional needs to set them up for success.
• Opportunities to access learning resources at the high school.

“If we want to give children a gift, the best thing we can do is to teach children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.”

Have a fabulous fortnight.

Yours in Learning,

Melanie Rehm

Principal