Term 3 has begun with a very settled student cohort and fantastic learning occurring in all classrooms. We have however been affected by this years Flu season and had large numbers of students and teachers at home sick. Whilst we strive to have the best student attendance possible, we must acknowledge that this year the Flu strain is particularly bad and many students need to take their time to recover- some up to nearly 2 weeks! Whilst this seems extreme, there are cases all over the country where children have become severely ill, and unfortunately some have died. We need to take this illness seriously and ensure that we look after our children (and ourselves) appropriately.

Term 3 is often seen as the “least busy”, but it seems we still have a lot going on with 5/6 Sport, Esk Band cluster rehearsals, Country Gold Trials, training and competition, Young Scientists Excursion, Terrapin puppet theatre, Bravehearts, Fire Ed, Year 6 transition program and Book Week to name some of the things happening. We also enter the survey season and information around the Student Wellbeing survey has been sent home.

We continue to build and refine our knowledge on the DECYP reading priority. As stated many times before we have been working in this area for some time, however, we are now working with mandated aspects (such as DIBELS and Word Origins), and determining where they fit within our way of working. Miss Cameron has been working on a suite of different professional learning activities that we will be undertaking through this term that explore the new cutting-edge research around student learning and the teaching techniques that best leverage that learning. Much of the shift that we have undertaken over the past 7 years has been based on this research and it is affirming for us that the department is aligning with our way of working.

Our redevelopment group is meeting fortnightly to get some of our ideas into preliminary designs. The architects are using the work from the initial consultation and the education brief that the department has constructed to guide their thinking. We’ll keep you updated as things progress.