From The Principal's Desk

Dear Families                                

We celebrated Harmony Day this Monday along with our Flag Presentation Ceremony when Jessica Stojkovski, Member for Kingsley, presented the National, Western Australian and Aboriginal flags to our community. Our invited guests included Councillor John Logan from the City of Joondalup, Ian Bradshaw from the Wanneroo Rotary and Isobel Bevis a member of the Catholic Education Aboriginal Education Team.   In recognition of Harmony Day, our students were invited to wear an orange accessory to acknowledge multiculturalism in our school and celebrate the importance of PEACE and to spread the message that EVERYONE BELONGS! Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity and reminds us that as a country, many cultures call Australia home.  Australia is the most successful multicultural country on earth and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it.

Our Parent-Teacher Interviews, scheduled to begin next week, will still be going ahead, but parents have the option to  change it to a phone interview.  If this is more suited to your needs,  please contact your child’s class teacher.  A Skoolbag notice went out to all families earlier today containing more detailed information.

PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS - EARLY CLOSURE

On Tuesday 24 March, the school will be closing early so parents can engage with the teachers to go through their children's Interim Reports. The students are expected to be collected at 12.00pm, to allow teachers time to have their lunch before beginning the interviews.

Parent-teacher Interviews are a great way to find out about your child’s progress at school.  By engaging in a parent-teacher interview, you also show your interest in your child’s learning and school life.

Throughout your child’s time in primary school, you’ll be invited to attend parent-teacher interviews, twice a year.  These are usually just short meetings – about 10 - 15 minutes—between you and your child’s teacher or teachers.  Every parent is invited to attend at least one interview a year.  Being  invited to a parent-teacher interview doesn’t mean there’s a problem with your child’s progress.  Interviews might be held during school hours, before or after school, or in the evening.  It’s good to make a time when both parents can go along, if you can.

Parent-teacher interviews give you a great opportunity to:

• Learn more about your child’s academic, emotional and social development
• Meet and get to know your child’s teachers
• Help your child’s teachers understand more about your child
• Make plans with the teacher about how you can both support your child
• Build a relationship with your child’s school

If you don’t have any particular concerns, you might wonder whether it’s worth scheduling a parent-teacher interview.  But engaging with the teacher during an interview is one way to show your child that you’re interested in his/her learning and what’s happening for them at school.   Of course if you do have concerns, it’s a chance for you to raise them with your child’s teacher, if you haven't done that already.

It’s useful to have a few other questions in mind too.  For example:

• What are my child’s strengths?
• What does my child struggle with?
• What can I do at home to help my child with schoolwork?
• What can you tell me about my child’s behaviour in class?
• How is my child getting along with other students?

If you don’t get through everything you want to discuss, you might need to arrange another meeting with your child’s teacher.  Being open and friendly will set you up for positive communication with the teacher.

The creche from 12.00 - 3.00pm is still taking place.  However, the planned incursion has been cancelled in keeping with the notification sent out via Skoolbag on Tuesday March 17th with regard to outside presenters.

End of term Citizenship Awards

The end of term Citizenship Awards will still be awarded as planned. On Thursday 9^th April, Mrs Millar will congratulate all individual recipients over the school public address system and will then go to each class to hand out the medal and certificate, personally. Class teachers will be taking photos of each student receiving their certificate and medal and the photos will be sent out to the proud parents.

PRE KINDY PROGRAM 2020

We currently have 15 students enrolled for our Wednesday program and can take at least 5 more, so if you have a child who has already turned three and are interested in enrolling them in our Pre Kindy please ring the Enrolment Officer, Karen Rosser.

Our Friday Pre Kindy session currently has a list of 6 students but to make it financially viable we can only start once we have at least 12 students enrolled.  If you are interested in your child joining the Friday program, who has already turned three or will be turning three soon,  please contact the front office as we will run the second session once our number increase.

KINDY 2021

If you have a child who turns four before the 30 June 2020, and you haven’t yet filled in an enrolment form, please contact the Enrolment Officer, Karen Rosser and add their name to our Kindy 2021 interview list.

NAIDOC WEEK

The National NAIDOC Committee has decided to postpone NAIDOC Week 2020 (5 July - 12 July) in the interest of safety for our communities. This decision was not taken lightly.

We have taken on-board the advice from the Federal Government, health experts, our key partners and from leading national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations.

We all believe that an escalating COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis as we head into winter would have disastrous impacts on our mob - especially for our elders and those in our communities with chronic health issues.

The National NAIDOC Awards scheduled for Saturday 11 July in Alice Springs will not go ahead as planned.

We have suspended the nomination process for the National NAIDOC Awards 2020 and announcement of the winner of the poster competition until further notice. The 2020 NAIDOC Local Grants Round has also been closed until further notice.

We are in the process of finalising a new date for NAIDOC Week 2020  - towards the end of the year  - and we’ll continue to work closely with the National Indigenous Australians Agency and our partners for NAIDOC Week 2020.