What a privilege it was to attend the launch of 50 Gems of George Town on Wednesday. It was truly inspirational and refreshing to be around such enthusiastic and community minded people. So often we are drawn into focusing on the negatives that surround us, without looking further out towards the wonderful people and environment we live in and miss those “Gems”. I encourage you all to follow the social media updates (we will continue to have links on our social media pages) of the Gems as they are released. We will also be showing some in our foyer at school.

We have a busy week coming up with our Athletics carnival on Monday and bike education for grades 3-6 on Tuesday. We would love to have as many parents as possible come on Monday. Please be aware that you will need to sign in at  our office and that only students and staff will be allowed on the inside of the track on the oval proper. All spectators are asked to physically distance on the outside of events. Please bring a common sense approach to spectating as we adhere to the department’s COVID-19 requirements.

On Tuesday all year 3-6 students will have bike education supported by the George Town council, celebrating the development of the mountain bike trails and pump track development. If your child has a bike (in safe service) and a helmet they are more than welcome to bring them to school on that day. The bike education people have bikes available as do we so it is not a necessity.

I would also like to acknowledge the enthusiasm we have for Esk band this year. One of our aims at South is to connect students with a passion at school and that is clearly evident with this program. At the time of writing this article, we had around 24% of our grades 3-6 enrolled in the program. This is reflective of the amazing work of our music teacher Kylie Long, as well as the enthusiasm of our students to “lean into learning” and challenge themselves.