Changing circumstances in our lives can be accompanied by a range of emotions.  It may depend on the change itself, who instigated it or the perceived or actual consequences which will result. At this time of the school year, our minds naturally turn to transition - pre-school into Prep, Primary into Secondary and even class to class.  Next week we will welcome the Prep students for 2022 for the first of two 'Practice Mornings'.  The relationship between a teacher and a student of any age is crucial to ensuring that the latter feels that they belong and are valued.  Without this feeling of safety, a child’s ability to learn is compromised.  Mrs McNichol has already started to build that bond with her students for next year and the practice mornings will consolidate this further.   

Congratulations to all those students who received academic or sporting recognition at our recent Awards Night. These occasions are a great celebration of achievement and it was lovely to see so many Primary students involved.  However, we should not forget the work that every student has put into their learning this year.  The ongoing work to develop the independence within our learners and the focus on our learning dispositions is becoming more and more evident in each of our classrooms and I hope that parents are hearing this in conversations with their children about their learning. 

We are now in the final weeks of the academic year and teachers are busy analysing collected data in order to complete each child’s report.  Much thought goes into this and also into the comments written and I thank the teachers for their commitment to this process.  During this time we will also be considering, from a campus and also school perspective, what has gone well this year and what we can make even better next year.  It is important to reflect and make necessary changes if we are to heed Mr Kendall’s words during his speech at Awards Night to ‘do the ordinary things, extraordinarily well’. 

Sarah Yates
Assistant to the Principal Primary