Dear Families,

Welcome back! It is wonderful to see everyone returning refreshed and ready to start a new term.

We have had some exciting news over the break with Mrs Hooper giving birth to a healthy baby boy, Alfred (Alfie) - photo below. We all look forward to cuddles when they are able to visit.

Yesterday, staff participated in The Management of Actual or Potential Aggression (MAPA) program. This system-wide training is part of the school’s holistic approach to managing student behaviour through both positive reinforcement, explicit teaching of appropriate behaviours and the setting of clear and known boundaries. Staff will continue this training over a series of twilight staff meetings.

Today we had a visit from Dr Jennifer Buckingham, Director of Strategy for MultiLit and Alison McMurtrie, Product Development Manager. They were here to see how we were implementing Initialit across Kinder to Year 2 as well as our various literacy intervention programs. They were both very impressed with the work we had already done and were able to offer some helpful advice about where to go next. I thank the teachers who so warmly welcomed her into their classrooms.

As restrictions continue to ease, we can now allow shared food and home-cooked cupcakes! We still have to be conscious of numbers within the school and everyone will still have to enter and exit via the Front Office, except for assemblies where you will enter through the hall. I thank you for your continued support and everyone’s using the Canberra Check-In App.

The shade structure was erected over the play equipment over the break. Sadly, we were not able to move the original structure, but I think you will agree the new structure does the job very well.

I would like to remind families that all students who come to school late will need to be signed in at the Front Office. Our new system requires parents and carers to sign in using the new kiosk which will be located in the Front Office. We will no longer be able to accept the old sign-in slips. We will also require parents and carers to sign-out students who are leaving using the same kiosk. I encourage students to come to school on time as even just coming 5 minutes late to class each day adds up to over 16 hours of missed schooling every year!

I will be on leave from this afternoon through to next Tuesday. During this time Mrs Carmen Myles will be Acting Principal.

God Bless