We are now well and truly into the second half of Term 3 and a lot is happening in preparation for Term and beyond!
School Development Days Term 4
Next term we have two School Development Days scheduled:
Monday 12 October (The first day of Term 4)
Friday 13 November (The end of Week 5 – what would have been Show Day)
At the height of the Covid pandemic, our Director General asked all schools to have a School Development Day on the first day of Term 3 to update staff on how the term would begin and to plan for this. As we already had a day scheduled at this time, we have been able to plan a day in lieu, hence the additional day next term. Students will return to school for the start of Term 4 on Tuesday 13 October.
Home and School Communication
This year has certainly brought some changes and challenges for us all. I would like to address some questions raised lately concerning these restrictions and our\ implementation of these at Albany Primary School.
Schools are required to ensure all visitors maintain the 2 square metre rule for social distancing. This unfortunately means we have not been able to have parents back at our assemblies. Our covered assembly area does not have opening doors at the rear or sides to allow all visitors to socially distance. In lieu of not being able to attend the assembly, parents of the hosting classes are being sent home a DVD courtesy of the school.
Excursions and incursions are able to go ahead, which is fantastic. We have a few events lined up over the next few months so please keep an eye on the diary (to the left of this page), and look out for notes and Term Planners sent home. Our school choir has also resumed practice, and on-site visits for occupational therapists, speech pathologists and other services have been continuing all term.
Parents have been allowed to drop off and pick up from the classroom door for some time now, however the restriction of not being able to go into classroom is still active. For that reason, we have been conducting parent-teacher meetings in our office area and have had a lot of these meetings throughout the term.
Parents have always been welcome to phone or email the school to make an appointment to see the classroom teacher so please do so if you have the need.
The school staff are all conscious that the informal chats in the morning and being able to pop in to see your child’s work is sorely missed. Many staff have been keeping in touch via Connect, however, please be aware of the additional workload this places on them. Our main focus is always teaching and learning in the classroom.
In all decision making over the past two terms, the health and safety of staff and students has been a priority. Whilst this has obviously created challenges, some changes have been unavoidable. We are looking forward to the possibility of restrictions being lifted at the Premier’s next announcement of October 24. Until then, I encourage you to talk with us about any queries you may have.
Parent Interviews
This term we had planned to open our classrooms for Learning Journeys. We have been thinking about how this might work, but with restrictions on parents in classrooms, we have decided to schedule parent interviews instead. A letter should have come home on Wednesday afternoon regarding this. Some interviews will be scheduled in our office, and others in the classroom. This will only be permissible because we will not have multiple parents in the classroom, children will not be present, and we can do our cleaning straight afterwards. Hand sanitiser will be outside each classroom to use before entry.
End of Term RISE Reward and Special Lunch Day
Students with Good Standing will be invited to participate in a disco for their end of term reward. These will be staggered across the day (Friday 25 September). Our P&C will be sending home information shortly as there will be a special lunch day on this day as well. Keep an eye out for this information.
Walk to School Day
Our Active Transport Committee will be encouraging all students to walk to school on Friday 11 September. More details are in our newsletter on page 6.
School Uniform Survey
Thank you to all families who sent back the survey for new polo shirt and jacket options. This survey was extremely well supported. We are excited to announce our new polo shirt and jacket will both be Options 1 (see newsletter). Thank you to our wonderful P&C Uniform Committee for driving this initiative. It looks as though we are in for a fabulous day of weather on Saturday. I hope your weekend is enjoyable!
Ms Cathy Willis, Principal