Dear Parents
This Sunday is Father’s Day and I’m sure that you will do your best to spoil all of our fathers and grandfathers. Due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, we won’t be having the usual Father’s Day breakfast. However, our fantastic P&F have organised a gift stall to be held in all classrooms today where the students get the opportunity to buy something for their dads. Don’t worry if your child misses out, as they have until Friday to buy something.
Athletics Carnival
Our annual athletics carnival will go ahead next Wednesday 9 September unless we have terrible weather (we have a back up date of next Friday 11 September). It will be run a little differently this year as the Kindy and Pre Primary will hold their events first up at 9am. Once they are finished, they will go back to class to resume a normal school day. Mr Power has positioned the spectators’ area and students’ tents differently this year to maximise the amount of social distancing to make the day as safe as possible. He will put markers out to give you an idea of the distances to be maintained. Also, I recommend that all families bring a large picnic blanket and use that as a guide. If each family remains on their blanket throughout the day, we should be able to maintain the two square metre rule.
As we are moving very close to being a double stream school, the day should be shorter as we don’t have as many students as we once had. Mr Power is also just having one track down the middle instead of two. As usual, Mr Power has put a lot of thought into his preparations and I’m sure this carnival will be very successful. I would like to thank him in advance for all his efforts.
OSHClub
We had a very positive response to the parent information session last week which is encouraging. Please remember that they are an outside provider who will only stay if it is viable. This means we need as many parents as possible to support them over other providers. They have signed an initial two-year contract and I’m hoping it proves to be successful and is here for many years to come. Enrolment details have been sent home if you would like to sign up now. The first day of operation in on Monday 12 October where they are offering a full day of care as it is a student free day. Please make sure you support this initiative which will benefit many of our families.
P&F Movie Night
It has been a very challenging year for our P&F because of the disruptions caused by COVID-19. However, the good news is that we can proceed with our movie night on Friday 11 September. It commences at 5.30pm and the students will be encouraged to play outside until just before the movie starts at 6.30pm. This makes it easier with social distancing. Once the movie starts, families are asked to sit on their own blankets which will help with the two square metre rule. It is amazing how much our lives have changed in the past few months. It appears to be the new normal, however, we are still a lot better off than most countries, especially India, Brazil and the US where they are in states of emergency. Please do keep these people in your prayers.
Camp
The highlight of the year for the Year 6 students is just around the corner. We are going to Ern Halliday from Monday 14 to Wednesday 16 September. It was the only booking left, so we took it. The students won’t miss a single thing as we have crammed everything from the four days into three. As usual, I will be attending with Mr Power, Mrs Haynes, the Year 6 teachers and we will have a couple of others popping in to visit and support us. I’m sure the Year 6 students are thrilled that they finally get to go. Ern Halliday is a wonderful venue and they run awesome team building activities that will certainly challenge the students.
Fr John’s Anniversary
On Monday this week, Fr John celebrated his 46th anniversary as a priest which is a remarkable achievement. If you see him, please pass on your best wishes as he has been a tireless servant of our community for a very long time.
I wish all fathers and grandfathers a wonderful day on Sunday. I hope you get to enjoy it with your families.
Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli