Hello everyone,
Here we are at the end of term 3 and heading into the Spring term break. I hope that there is lovely weather over the fortnight that allows you to be able to get out and about and enjoy the sunshine. It feels that when the sun comes out and we all receive that boost of vitamin D, that moods lift and we seem to be in a better place. I hope that is the experience for you and your family.
Splash and Dash
What an amazing day we had on Friday! It was lovely to have our whole community together. Our students were able to participate in fun activities that our fabulous staff had organised – Splash and Dash, King Cole’s Challenge, Jivin’ with Jennion and Zen with friends. I hope your child has come home and given you a recount of the day.
The fundraising component of the day saw our community raise over $50,000. What an outstanding amount! The money that Beacy will receive will go towards a new playground that will be built near Kiss’n’Go. Our students were asked earlier in the year for ideas for the space and we have had playground designers present options for the space. The designs have been scrutinised by staff and school captains and we have agreed on a design that has been presented to school council. I will keep you updated with when the playground will be installed.
We need to acknowledge the staff that make a day as big as it was, happen and be successful. A big thank you to Shoana Carey and the wellbeing team for organising. A special mention to Nick O’Shea, Anthony Cole, Rhys Buckingham, Bianca Katsiavos, Qui Clayton, Hannah Spratt, Layla Baker and Emma Jennion with their participation in activities. Linda Amos and Tyson Buckingham for all their work on the day and organising the icy poles. The lovely office staff for helping with all the phone calls about times, donations and prizes.
We had a new event happen this year, with staff getting drenched as fundraising targets were achieved. The House Captains had a lot of fun tipping buckets of water over the teachers and staff. Thank you to those staff that volunteered. I thought I was off safe when the staff led me to believe that I would not be getting drenched and had absolute pleasure at announcing at the assembly that we had reached our target and the principals were getting drenched as well. All I will say is that it was very cold and I felt that there were more buckets drenching us!
Covid-19 isolation requirement
Here is some information from the Department of Education and Training about the new isolation requirements:
Any student or staff member who tests positive to COVID-19 must now isolate for a minimum of 5 days instead of 7. If they are asymptomatic, they may return to school on day 6. If they are symptomatic, they must remain in isolation until day 7. If they have symptoms after 7 days, they are strongly advised to stay home until their symptoms have resolved.
As an additional risk mitigation, the Department of Health strongly recommends that those leaving isolation wear a face mask when away from home, both indoors and outdoors, and when they cannot physically distance. Those leaving isolation on day 6 should wear a mask for 5 days but particularly the first 2 days. Those leaving isolation on day 7 should wear a mask for 4 days but particularly the first 2 days.
Those leaving isolation should consider taking a rapid antigen test before attending school.
Assessment and Reporting
We have just completed our parent-teacher interviews. I hope you were able to take a moment to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their learning, engagement and wellbeing. I hope that it was a time to celebrate achievement and to discuss future learning goals.
NAPLAN reports have arrived and we are asking parents of grade 3 and 5 students to come past the office to collect their child’s report. If you are unable to collect them in person, then we will post out your child report. Please make sure that your postal address is correct. Please place these reports in a safe place as you will be asked for them when enrolling your child into a secondary school.
Peace Day
On Friday, we have a group of grade 5/6 students organising a wellbeing day with an anti-bully message. Our grade 5/6 students have formed into groups to investigate problems and have an impact on four social issues that they see as important to make changes in their community.
The equity group have asked that we dress in blue on Friday and they have organised an activity for the school to participate in. A great example of student voice and agency in their learning and impacting our school’s curriculum and values.
Term 4
We have lots of learning and engaging activities happening in term 4. As the weather gets warmer, we will be able to hold more of our whole school activities outside and have parents part of them. We are currently working with our students to how assemblies will look but we will be able to have parents back. We will let you know of dates and how these will look next term.
We will also have our traditional events in the last weeks of school – celebration concert and grade 6 graduation. Our Celebration concert is back and will be happening during the school day. The date is Tuesday 13th December. We still need to confirm times and will send out at the start of term 4.
Grade 6 graduation will return to the evening. You will receive a ‘save the date’ tomorrow with more information to come.
We also with have Prep transition, Remembrance Day ceremony, Family movie night and more. This is very exciting for our community.
As we head off to our holidays, please remember that we have a 2:30pm pick up on Friday. Don’t forget the Curriculum Day on Friday 28th October. Looking forward to see you all after the break.
Heidi Inglis
