Dear families,

Once again, this term appears to be flying past us. On Monday of this week, we farewelled the two 5/6 classes to their camp at Wirraway Homestead at Strathalbyn. On Tuesday of this week we have three classes going to Parliament house, and on Wednesday we have Reception to Year 2 classes going to the Patch Theatre performance of ‘I Wish”, at the Hopgood theatre. On Wednesday and Thursday we have four year 3 and 4 classes travelling to the Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village for their excursion.

These are just a few of the activities that our students are involved in. We are in the very fortunate situation of not having to cancel activities due to Covid-19, but at the same time we know that the situation may change very quickly. Because of the nature of the Delta variant, the instructions given to us by SA Health to minimise the number of adults on school grounds is still in force. We all appreciate how you have managed this as parents, and caregivers. In addition it continues to be quite a learning experience for our younger students. Thank you.

We do include a limited number of volunteers on excursions and camps, which is essential in order for them to occur. Social distancing, sanitising and mask wearing where appropriate are still required.

Of course, if you have to collect your child such as if they are ill, or make a payment or have some other specific reason to come to the front office, that is quite permissible. We just ask that you use the QR code to check in or use our paper version on the small table inside the front office. Masks must be worn at all times when on the school grounds.

Last week we had a very successful Book Week Parade, which was filmed and placed onto our Facebook page by Dave Aparicio, for everyone to enjoy. The theme ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”, gave lots of scope for children to dress up in many different ways. I know from the comments on Facebook, that many of you enjoyed watching your child as they moved past the camera.

Plans for our new building development, due to start early in 2022, are moving ahead nicely. We are now at the stage of determining the finer details in order to be able to go to tender later in the year. The timeline for completion of the project is approximately October 2022. The Project Control Group have been meeting on a regular basis which includes myself and the architects, as well as a range of people from the Department for Education.

School tours have recommenced, with the appropriate mask wearing and social distancing, along with a highly modified tour agenda. If you know of anybody who would like to come along on one of the tours, they will need to ring Kerri at the front office on 8322 6422, in order to make a booking. Many of our tours are fully subscribed, however there are still a number of spaces available. Due to the year sevens and year sixes leaving at the end of the year for high school, we will be relaxing our zone for the next two years for new reception enrolments.

Each of the year six and year seven cohort this year are creating their own Memento with the help of Jess Ottewell. This is an important part of their transition at the end of the year, with each year level leaving behind something that they have designed and made, to add to our school. At the end of the year, we will share the finished product.

This is a reminder that next Monday, September 6, is a School Closure day where only OSHC will be operating. You need to get your bookings in promptly if you do require your child(ren) to attend OSHC for that Monday.

Please keep safe during this time,

Kind regards,

Steve

Steve Freeman,
Principal