Dear Families,
Last newsletter opened up with a photo of the hail in the school yard and yesterday it was the windy conditions that meant students could not go outside to play because of the debris flying about the yard. We lost a couple of branches out the front of the school causing damage to a car. The wind also made it very difficult for a brown snake in the yard. Sokhan and I watched the snake being blown across the pavers near the hall. Thankfully it was being blown away from us and eventually gained control of its movement once it hit the grass and slithered away. It is a timely reminder to our students that if we see a snake in the yard we need to stay still, be calm, move away slowly, and tell a teacher.
RRHAN-EC
In the last newsletter we mentioned that as per department policy all volunteers including people on a governing council to update their Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect - Education and Care (RRHAN-EC ) training by 31 December 2021. They must do this if:
· their current certificate has no expiry date, or
· they have no certificate.
All volunteers in education do the same online fundamentals course. Volunteers need to access the course in Plink. Volunteers who work with children (under 18 years) are mandated notifiers and are now required to update their training every 3 years. They must understand how to notify and report child abuse. For more information, visit the organising RRHAN-EC for volunteers page on EDi or email education.rrhanec@sa.gov.au.
COVID-19 UPDATE & VACCINATION
On November 16, the Commissioner of Police, acting in his role as the State Coordinator responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the Emergency Management (Education and Early Childhood Settings Vaccination) (COVID-19) Direction 2021.
Under this Direction, COVID-19 vaccinations will be mandatory for all people who work or volunteer at our school, except those who have a medical exemption endorsed by the Chief Public Health Officer. This includes:
· All of our staff and contractors
· Anyone who visits our schools/preschool/children’s centre for work purposes
· Our Governing Council members
· All volunteers and parent helpers (people who assist with reading, camps, excursions, canteen, fundraising etc).
Under this Direction, all of the above-mentioned people must receive at least 1 dose of a Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) approved COVID-19 vaccination and a booking to receive a second dose by 11.59pm on 10 December 2021, which is the last day of term.
The Direction does not apply to students, parents dropping off or picking up children, attending parent teacher interviews, events or similar, as long as they are not working or volunteering at the event and COVID safe measures are followed.
More information about the Direction is available on The Department for Education website: education.sa.gov.au
Our number one priority is providing a safe environment for our students and for our staff, and this new measure aims to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
2022 CLASS PLACEMENT
We have just about completed the class placement process for 2022. We create these classes in consultation with year level and specialist teachers, as well as considering feedback we receive from parents. The process of balancing classes, for a variety of reasons, is a complex task. Our aim is to create positive and productive class groupings, with priority put on placing each child with at least one friend from their classroom this year. Over the remainder of the term some students will participate in additional classroom visits while all students will visit with their 2022 teacher on the Thursday of week 9. Before the week 9 visit we will be relocating the upper primary to the middle primary building. This means the middle primary classes will now be located closer to the Junior Primary providing greater opportunities for collaborative learning with like year levels.
The Year 7 to HS move means we will lose 80 students at the end of this year. We anticipate starting the 2022 school year on just over 240 students which will give us 10 classes. The configuration of these classes is just about confirmed, and families will be informed about their child’s class placement via their school report which will go home on the Wednesday of week 9.
TRANSITION
Transition for our Year 6 and 7 students to Nuri HS took place last Wednesday. The students returned and spoke positively about their experiences on the day and are very much looking forward to Year 7 & 8. Students attending other local high schools have also spoken positively about their transition visits which is great to hear.
Our preschool children are about to have their third transition visit to Angaston Primary School and we can already see their level of confidence and engagement growing as they begin to feel more comfortable with staff, students and the school. We really look forward to having the children and their families as part of the Angaston school community next year.
SCHOOL CAMPS
The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy. We have the Year 6 and 7 camps next week as well as the Year 2/3 and 3 Zoo Snooze. Sokhan and I will be attending some of the camps next week. Week 8 we have our Year 4/5 camp, the Year 6 Graduation, followed by the Year 7 graduation in week 9.
NEWSLETTER
We will send home another newsletter on the last day of term confirming classes and staffing for 2022, and any other details family may need in terms of the new school year.
“Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable.” Paul Frank Baer.
Lynda Fitzpatrick-Brown
