Sports Day
Our Sports Day will go ahead on Thursday 24 September (second last day of term). Plans are being finalised for a condensed program, with a slight shift from regular eating/break times and events concluding around 1pm. Unfortunately, we will not be inviting parents/caregivers to join in the fun this year due to COVID, but we appreciate everyone’s understanding and support with this so our students can still enjoy a sports day experience. With the daily UV rating slowly rising, we will be encouraging all students to wear a sunsafe hat and plenty of sunscreen on the day. The canteen will be open for students to make over the counter purchases at the first break and lunch orders will be available from a special sports day menu. All students will be expected to return to their classes after the second play break, with the school day still finishing at the regular time of 3.10pm.
Book Week
This week we have celebrated the 2020 Book Week theme of ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds.’ Students and staff have been involved in a book character parade, the creation of amazing displays, whole school activities such as mask making, and a variety of other class-based learning activities.
Phonological Awareness Parent Sessions
Our Speech Pathologist, Lis Beltreme, has this term delivered two information sessions for parents of early years students. Complimenting the Phonological Awareness project we are developing with our R/1 staff and students, the sessions have aimed to educate families about the importance of students learning to recognise the sounds of language. Phonological awareness refers to sounds not letters within language and is a listening based skill. For example, the letter “D” has the letter name “dee” but the spoken sound is “d”. This important foundation literacy skill also involves being able to break words into syllables, recognise and produce rhymes, elicit the initial and final sound in words, and blend and segment words. Further parent sessions will be offered early 2021.
Parking and Traffic
Multiple incidents of concerning driver behaviour have been observed/reported on Keynes Avenue this week. We have contacted SAPOL to request an increased patrol presence around our drop-off and pick-up times and also alerted Marion Council to the fact that local parking restrictions are not being observed by all. While we acknowledge the reservation some have around involving police and council in this matter, it is their respective roles/jurisdiction to enforce local parking regulations and traffic laws and the safety of our children is too important to leave to chance. Please support us by reporting any illegal driver behaviour directly to SAPOL.
Nature Play Development
The first stage of our nature play redevelopment works on our Western Oval has now commenced. This includes an upgrade of the existing sand pit space, with additional water course, bushland and interactive elements. Students are enjoying watching the transformation of the space and we look forward to its completion before term’s end.
Warm regards,
Josh Vick – Principal