In this week's Principal Piece

Change of collection procedure for the end of the day
Wheels Day
Teacher Only Day
3 Way Conferences
Departing staff
Employment Opportunities
Science Enrichment Programme
COVID Update
Changes coming for COVID Protections Framework

Near Miss Accident out the Front of School

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a near-miss with an under-five child nearly being hit by a vehicle out the front of our school.

As you are all aware, out the front of the school is very busy at the end of the day. We have a real ‘choke point’ beside the raised pedestrian crossing. Many parents wait here and it is very hard for a driver to see if a child is crossing. I appreciate people are trying their best to support our system, but we need to trial a change.

From Today

Children in Years 1-4 and their siblings

If you are going to be collecting your child/ren (excluding using the kiss and go/collect area and staying in your car) please assemble on the concrete area outside the Hall. We have included a map in this communication of where each class will meet. You may well need an umbrella and raincoat today!

Teachers in Year 1-4

Will walk their class through the Hall or around the back of the school and stop for a minute or two at their designated spot and ‘hand-over’ any children to their parent/caregiver. They will then proceed around to the front of the school with the remaining children.

Children in Year 5-8

Will continue to release their learners from their class.

If your child/ren are in Year 5-8 and you are waiting to collect them from the front of the school, please do not congregate at the entrance to the crossing area.

We will review how this change impacts safety out the front of the school and make changes as required.

Our intention is to further review our collections systems as we move back down through Alert Levels.

This is our new collection area for Rooms 1-9 — Image by: John Western

Wheels Day

It has been tremendous seeing such a high level of participation in Moving March. We anticipate needing to postpone the Wheels Day planned for tomorrow until Friday, April 8. We will confirm the decision at 7am tomorrow (Friday morning).

Teacher Only Day - NEXT FRIDAY - 1st April

School is closed for instruction on this day.

Three-Way Conference video invitations will be sent out on April 1. In Year 1-6 these will all be via a Zoom video link.

In Year 7&8, teachers will send the invite to your child via Google Classroom.

Departing Staff

This week we farewell two support staff that are heading back to the corporate world.

Rameela Patel has been one of our fantastic team members for the past seven years. She has been a Learning Assistant and Sports Coordinator for the past two years. In both roles, she has gone over and above to support the students and staff in our school.

Teresa Young has worked as our school gardener for a number of years and for the last 18 months as part of our ASC (After School Care) team. In her role with the After School Care Team she has been instrumental in developing the positive, caring and supportive environment our students experience each and every day. Teresa has also played a large role in keeping our grounds and gardens tidy and attractive.

We thank both Rameela and Teresa for all their assistance and contributions, will miss them both considerably and wish them every success in furthering their careers.

Employment Opportunities - two positions

Sports Coordinator -- this is a fixed term, part-time (up to five hours per term-time week) position. The role is to assist the school with the administration, organisation and communication involved in our after-school sports programmes and some of our in-school events. This is not a coaching role. Much of the work can be done from home. The successful candidate will need to be available at some time during a school day each week, to complete some in-school duties.

The person needs to be well organised, system focussed, familiar with or quick to learn Google Docs and able to see a task through from the beginning to the end.

School Gardener - four hours per week - term time

This is a fixed-term position.

For the past five years, we have had a term-time gardener doing weekly gardening tasks such as pruning, weeding, tidying areas and very occasionally lawn mowing. You will see for yourself the positive differences this makes! The work can be done anytime over the week.

If you are interested in either of these positions, please make contact with John Western. We are keen to have these positions filled as soon as possible.

Science Enrichment Programme

Currently, the students are learning some basic chemistry. A chemical reaction is just the particles rearranging. Learners are doing practical experiments, observing, inferring, critiquing and creating science models.

COVID Cases

Over the last ten days, our COVID numbers have remained very consistent. Today we have

six active student cases (Year 5/6 and Year 7/8)
ten students isolating as household contacts
zero active staff cases

COVID Protection Framework

In light of yesterday’s Government announcement, we will need to review our practices and decide what is required next. We will let you know about this as soon as we can.

Changes to the Traffic Lights from 11.59pm 25th march — Image by: John Western

Steeple Rock - 24 March 2022

Principal's Awards 24 March

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