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Term 3 Week 10, 2020 Grapevine

What’s on

Mon 12th Oct

Term 4 Begins

Friday 16th Oct

School Photos

Tuesday 20th Oct

Kindy Expo

Tue 20th Oct

Book Week

Principals message...

Dear parents, carers and community,

This week our school has been involved in two awards ceremonies,

one at a State level and one at a Regional North level. On

Thursday we had the honour of being involved in a Zoom

presentation of the Executive Director's awards for Regional North.

Only three schools in our Lake Macquarie East area were

recognised and we were one of them. This award was given to

Miss Michelle Drummond and Ms Joanne Turnbull, two of our

talented teachers who are recognised for their exceptional work

during the COVID-19 'at home' phase of learning. These two

teachers gave an extraordinary amount of support to both our

students and our families, both at home and at school. They also

worked tirelessly to support all of our teaching staff and

non-teaching staff as they underwent the steepest curve in

professional learning in one term ever!

We are so fortunate in our school to have their incredible talents in

this field working for us which helps keep our school in the

innovative space in ICT. Our Director of School Education, Sharon

McFarlane was so proud as she described the work being done at

our school in this area. Congratulations Ms Turnbull and Miss

Drummond, recognition from beyond the school gate.

On Wednesday we had a small intimate ceremony to celebrate

our 'Parent of the Year' Mrs Deb Radvan. Being a State

award, normally we would’ve been invited along with Mrs Radvan

to Sydney for an awards ceremony but it was kind of nice having it

here at school in front of our children and with Mrs Radvan's son

being able to be involved. This award is testimony to the role that

Mrs Radvan has played in connecting our community to the

decision-making processes in our school that really matter. In her

acceptance speech Deb honoured all of the other parents in our

school that work hard to create such a wonderfully positive

community. A well-deserved award and an honour for our school

to be in the mix of such prestigious state wide award winners.

Congratulations Deb.

Please note that you will be able to view both of these ceremonies

by connecting to our school Facebook page and watching the

video of each occasion.

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I hope you have had a chance to connect with Skoolbag in regards to the latest Term 4

guidelines which have come down for school staff. Most importantly, we will be able to go

ahead with our Canberra excursion for Year 6 and will be able to start to prepare our Year 6

Farewell (which may be a little bit different from those in the past but what is important is that

the children will be able to celebrate). We have included the entire set of guidelines for you so

that you can see what rules apply to Term 4 for our school sites.

One of the most important things to note is that visitors to the school site are still being highly

monitored and Principals are guided by a document called Community use and Visitor

guidelines. This leads me to share my feelings about our community in this space. It has been

an extraordinary experience when one must drop their child at the school gate and then get

along with their day. Our entire school community has shown nothing but support and grace in

how they have abided by the Governments rules in terms of parents on site. Thank you so

much for your collective responsibility and safe actions on and near our school site. This

arrangement will continue for Term 4.

I have some rather huge P&C news to share. Our P&C has decided that they would like to take

over the management of our school uniform shop. They have submitted a Business Plan that

will serve as a guide throughout the transition period and beyond. Recent meetings have been

held with Bernard, the owner of CIS, our current uniform supplier. It has been decided that the

P&C will take over on 1st December 2020. They are very busy acquiring uniform stock at the

moment.

Bernard has been very gracious during this process and is negotiating with the P&C around

held stock. Bernard has ensured that our school shirts for our incoming kindergarten are

ordered and has just advised me that they have arrived. This is a bold move from the P&C in an

attempt to give more ownership to the school of our uniforms and possibly become a future

source of income for the P&C. They have guaranteed that there will be no difference in our

uniforms and that the quality will be very high.

I would like to personally thank Bernard and his company for 10 years of service to the school

and ensuring that we had quality uniforms. He has always worked with the school to ensure

consistency, high standards and community service.

It's been an incredible term in so many ways. I am so proud of the ship I am steering. We have

been able to adapt at a point of need and our ship has remained steady despite the waves of

constant change. THANK YOU COMMUNITY, together we are strong. We will go to shore for a

while now and rest our ship.

Enjoy the holiday break with your beautiful children. I have encouraged them to spend time

outside, play and then play some more and we will see them back on-board next term for a

strong finishing term for 2020.

Regards,

Mrs Saurins Principal

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Connect Respect Inspire

P B L Focus this week...

Week 10 - CONNECT

I am thankful for the tough times in my life for they

help me appreciate the good times so much

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2021 Coco’s Crew

Our Kindergarten transition interviews are in full

swing. If you haven’t booked an interview yet,

please contact our lovely office staff to secure

a place.

You can contact us on 4942 8211.

Congratulations Ms Turnbull & Miss Drummond

Staff Changes for Term 4

Mrs Summers will be on leave each Wednesday

and Mrs Winterbine will be replacing her.

Mrs Nicholls will be returning full-time as Assistant

Principal supervising Stage 2 and will be teaching

2Y on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Mrs Winterbine will be teaching 2Y each

Thursday.

Mrs Faulkner will now be replaced on Thursdays

by Mrs McCurdy.

Mrs Kristy Bone will be returning to KM on Thursday

and Friday and Mrs Main will be on KM Monday,

Tuesday and Wednesday. Mrs Rich will be on

leave on Fridays and Mrs Main will be relieving

Deputy Principal.

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