Principal's Report
What a fabulous time we have had seeing all the students back at school and getting to know all our new students and families! It has been quite a disrupted start but we have been incredibly proud of our students, settling into classroom routines with wonderful positivity and energy. It is wonderful seeing them enjoying their time with friends and also having the opportunity to make new friends with so many new students across the school.
While we are grateful for the blessings rain brings to our community, the amount we have had has certainly created challenges, even devastation across our wider community and so we continue to keep people in our prayers throughout this time. Please keep an eye out for your neighbours and make sure you stay safe.
Thank you to our P & F group who arranged for the ‘Feel Good Foodie’ van to be here last Tuesday for our first day and for organising the shared morning tea for our families. It was a lovely opportunity to meet some new families (and quite a lot of new babies). I hope we can see a few more families involved with the Parents & Friends group as it is an easy way to build our community especially with some of the social events they organise. Our students and staff were very appreciative of the sausage sizzle we came back to school with this week as well. It’s hard to beat a warm bbq sausage on a rainy day.
Please note that our P&F Meetings for this year are scheduled for 7.00pm on the second Tuesday of each month. They will be held in our staffroom which is at the back of our Administration Block. All parents and/or friends of our school are welcome to participate. We welcome your input.
Wed 13 February (only this date) Tues 13 August
Tues 12 March Tues 10 September
Tues 14 May Tues 8 October
Tues 11 June Tues 5 November
Car parking
I would like to sincerely thank all of our community for your patience and pre-planning with the car parking issues, exacerbated by the torrential rain. I can certainly appreciate your frustration with the lack of parkings spots available and a lack of off street parking either. Unfortunately due to our location, we do not have surrounding streets to spill into like other schools in established areas which puts added pressure on our carpark. Please be assured we do not dismiss your concerns lightly and will continue working with our architect, our Catholic Education office and the council to consider further improvements moving forward. We do have an extension being built this year in both directions from the current car park but that will not be complete until the end of this year. I’m sure you can appreciate that the way funding works for schools is generally in stages and therefore things are developed in parts accordingly. All schools do however, experience difficulties with car parking especially during the beginning of the year and even more specifically in weather like we have had this fortnight.
As we do move forward over the next few weeks, I do expect the car park will become more accessible as more parents return to their routine of dropping and picking up in our drop off zone. Please remember that this area is for dropping off and picking up only and is our best support in keeping the traffic flowing safely. Please do not park here to walk your children in. Please also note that once we do dry out a bit and we can return to using the dirt areas off Dalrymple Rd and Bishop Putney Avenue to please park back from intersection so we don’t block the view of oncoming traffic. At all times, safety is of utmost importance and patience, consideration and flexibility is key to building and maintaining our positive school community.
Always be mindful that children can be a bit wayward with their thinking and are not always reliable for making good choices around traffic, so let’s watch our speed and keep an eye out at all times.
Sacramental Program- Good Shepherd Parish with Fr Dave
Children from Years 3 - 6 are invited to participate in the Parish Sacramental Program due to begin very soon. The Parish Sacramental Program guides children through the learning required to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation), Eucharist (First Holy Communion) and Communion which are the next steps in their catholic faith journey after Baptism. For those families wanting to be a part of the Parish Sacramental Program, you must attend one of the Information and enrolment nights- either Monday 11 February at Ryan Community Centre at 7.00pm or on Tuesday 12 February at the Good Shepherd Centre at 7.00pm. Our APRE, Mr Nick Christie will also assist with any of your enquiries.
Looking forward to a fabulous dry week ahead (fingers crossed).
Cheers
Penny