Principals Report
Welcome to Term 2, as always there is a lot happening and also coming up this term. In this Newsletter you will find outlines our teaching programs for term two and other important events.
We have had a busy start to the term with our NAPLAN testing for our students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 happening over Tuesday to Thursday, May 11 - 13, with a few extra tests to be done in the week following. Students participating in NAPLAN as in 2019 completed all their tests online, except for the Year 3 students who completed the Writing test on paper, as all Year 3s do across Australia. In all the other tests, students in these year levels worked on iPads (Year 3 and 5) or their laptops (Year 7 and 9) with no bandwith interruptions occurring – all students were able to complete their tests without delays. With the online set up data from NAPLAN tests should be available by the end of term two or the beginning of term 3, a much quicker timeline than in previous years.
As the newsletter comes out our students will have participated in the Athletics coaching program which has been accessed through our School Sports funding program. Our students were divided into three groups based around their classes, F – 2, Year 3 – 5 and Year 6 – 9 for the Athletics coaching program, receiving a 45 minute session each day. Our students from Foundation to Year 5 participated in the program ‘Kids Athletics’, while the Year 6 – 9 students participated in the ‘Active Aths’ program. This will be good preparation for our upcoming sports day set down for Friday June 18th where we have invited once again students from Leigh Creek Area School, Marree Aboriginal School and the School of the Air to participate.
The school crossing on Arkaba Street should be in soon. We are very appreciative of the efforts of the council to get this up and running. Already in the interim parents and students would have noticed the visible ‘Children Crossing’ signs which have been installed down the street. Once up and running the crossing will look like as in the picture, with Crossing Flags to go up each morning and afternoon and go down after these before and end of school timeslots. In addition to this Stop Bars will be installed parallel to the last red and white post for vehicles to stop at when children are present at the crossing and this will be supported by the embankments which can be seen on the photo. Once the signs are up at the beginning and end of the day, by law children are allowed to cross and motorists should obey, but as in previous times this is something which we will continue to monitor.
Term Calendars have gone home to all families to complement our digital calendar which can be found on our school website. This is in response to feedback from our parent survey in 2020, the idea being that this is something which can be readily available at home and can be put in a prominent location such as the fridge in the kitchen. To support this further as school dates come up we will sending out any updates which can be then added to the calendar at home, these being called ‘Date Alerts’ and ‘Sports Alerts’. As information comes in ready for publication these alerts will be used and built upon in more detail later if needed. An example of this is the Athletics Coaching program mentioned above.
This week our students went to the Errappa Blue Light Outdoor Adventure has come out this week. Students got the chance to experience something unique. Errappa is a is a Blue Light Outdoor Adventure Camp and aims to establish positive relationships with police officers, provide recreational opportunities and increase participants self-esteem. Errappa’s Mission Statement is ‘Working in partnerships with young people, the wider community and agencies to promote leadership, team building, self esteem, a sense of responsibility and respect for oneself and others in the community.’
As stated on the Errappa Website the camp programme’s utilise ‘physical and challenging obstacle courses and other positive self improvement activities. The camp was supervised by fully qualified police officers. Errappa’s Supervisors are sworn South Australian Police who are fully qualified Camp Facilitators, accredited in outdoor areas of expertise, continually updating their qualifications to be at the cutting edge in their field.’ If you have any questions in the lead up to the camp please contact the school on 86484003.
As always if parents have any questions I can be contacted at the school on 86484003 or by my email at daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au