A huge thank you all the parents who helped us to move the cubby last Friday. This was not an easy task but with teamwork we managed to move it successfully. We will be relocating the cubby during a working bee later this term to where the old grey playground used to be

We have newly acquired Beebots and Ozobots to be used to support the Digital Technologies curriculum at our school including computer coding. The Beebots will be used by the Prep to Grade 2 students and the Ozobots by the Grade 3/4 students. Grade 5/6 students will continue to use the Spheros. These bots will allow students to solve real life problems and provide a resource that the students can control using code. These will be based in the new Digital and Technologies room which we hope to have up and running soon after we have been delayed by some urgent repairs.

Finally, after months of delay we are now working on demolishing the Old Police Station. During this week the Police Station will be removed and at the weekend work will continue to remove the Cells, Shed and undercover area. The portable will be removed as soon as there is access to enable it to be removed safely without damaging the trees on Castella St. We will be leaving part of the drive way so that we can create another access point into the school. When the demolition and removal has been completed we will be putting down top soil and then grassing the area so that our students have more place to run and play. We will be asking the students to design the new area and how we can meet their needs. Thanks to the School Council for their backing in getting this project underway and the community for their patience .

Last Thursday, we had our Tabloid sports and we were delighted to see so many people attending. It was a fantastic event and despite the hot conditions the students had a great deal of fun. I would like to thank Michelle Matthews for all her hard work in organising this event and ensuring that it ran so smoothly. I would like to thank the staff who gave up their time to run the different events and the parents who organised the barbeque. Lots of fun was had by all and it was great to catch up and find out what you had all been doing over the holidays. Congratulations to Ingram house who made it two wins from two.

On Friday we held a wonderful ceremony to unveil the new School Honour Board and I would like to thank the Right Honourable Tony Smith for coming to our school to unveil the board. It was a great ceremony led wonderfully by the School Captains.

Last year, every Friday we organised our Book Swap led wonderfully by our Prep Students

We are now looking for donations of books that you no longer require so that we can restart our Book Swap for 2018. This was a highly successful project last year and allowed many of our students to borrow or keep books that they wanted in exchange for a book they brought in themselves. If you have any books that your children no longer want please send them into the school office as soon as possible so that we can begin our Book Swap again.

The graphic above shows the new Instructional model that we will be implementing at our school. This model provides guidance to teachers and staff about how a lesson should be structured and the important elements that lead to great teaching.

This model was constructed by the teachers and really focuses on ensuring that every student receives the quality instruction that they need to ensure they reach their full potential. This model is based on best practice research that puts the student at the heart of all our work. The structure of a lesson is split into three different sections and the quality of the lesson is influenced by the factors on the right the diagram.

The ideal lesson incorporates these features to a greater or lesser extent depending on the subject matter. This model gives the staff a roadmap to great teaching and learning and ensures that these high impact strategies are always at the front of their mind when planning programs of work.

You will see this Instructional model displayed in every classroom as well as the Learning Intention and Success Criteria for each lesson. The students will also create, in consultation with the class teacher, goals in Reading, Writing and Mathematics which will form a huge part of their discussions with the students about their learning and what we expect them to achieve next.

Please have a read through the new instructional model and if you have any questions or queries please let us know.

It was lovely to see the students back today after the long Summer holidays. Over the holidays we have completed several projects to make our school even better and we have some more lined up over the next few weeks. Works that have managed to complete include our new school fence on Jones St and Clarke St with new child safe gates. This was particularly important to ensure that the security of the school and our students was achieved successfully. We have also installed a new Volleyball Court as well as removing the old wooden climbing frame and upgrading the toilets including installing two extra toilets and replacing the seats and repairing the flush in the urinal. All in all it was a very busy summer and I would like to thank Bruce for his wonderful work in preparing the school grounds and ensuring that everywhere looked great.

Thanks to everyone who attended the School Christmas Carols. It was a wonderful event and there were some really great performances from the students. Thanks to Kathie, Pete, Cherie and Kerrie on the Barbeque and to Mitchell Riley and Will who also helped out. Thanks to the raffle ticket sellers and all those parents who donated prizes or sold tickets for the raffle. It was a great event and I was very proud to be the Principal of such a great School Community.

Last Friday 25 Grade 2s enjoyed our Activity Friday and Sleepover. The children went skating and competed in a World Quiz. After school all hands were on deck setting up the ten tents needed in record time. Thanks to all the parents who jumped in to help. Congratulations to Stacey & Jovey for having the tidiest tent and act. The children participated in a Treasure Hunt trying to find where all the close up photos had been taken. Congratulations to Isabel and Alannah for winning with a time of 17 minutes 51 seconds. All children were fantastic in the morning, waiting quietly to be allowed out of their tents in the morning. Congratulations to Jack for having his tent packed up first. Thanks to Kate, Cooper and Ewan for cooking the sausages for dinner, Steve for bringing in his Popcorn and Slushie machine for the kids and Steve and Chris for helping out by sleeping overnight.

The students, parents and staff have voted for the House names and these can now be revealed as Castella, Melba, Ingram and Goode. On Friday last week the School House Captains drew the colours that these houses would represent. The results were Ingram– Green, Goode– Gold, Melba– Red and Castella– Blue. Thanks to all involved with this. As a result of this draw we are looking for someone who could create a House flag for each of the Houses. If you are interested please see Mr Weaver.

Finally after months of planning and weeks of work we have finally completed the work around the BER building including a new concrete path and an artificially grassed area. The students have started using this today is already a big hit with them. Thanks to the staff and students for their patience whilst this work has been completed.

On Friday, the School took part in a Remembrance Day Service. This service was led by the Grade 4 students and as well as the traditional service and laying of wreaths we also celebrated the lives of Thomas Goodall and George Allen who were former students of our school and who were killed in action exactly 100 years ago this month.

Last Friday, the Grade 5/6 student took part in the Community Sports Day at Oxley College and came away as the winners of the whole event. Congratulations to the team and the teachers and parents who encouraged the students and made this possible. We are very proud of your achievement.

It has only been a week and half of the new term and I am already so proud of our students and the way they have come back to school ready to learn and already challenging themselves to do well this term. Last week we had our Grade 3/4 camp and this was a fantastic opportunity for our students to challenge themselves in a range of activities. The students were fantastic and represented our school really well. They were willing to have a go and join in with group activities. I would like to thank the staff, Di, Grant, Caryn, Tania and Tony and the parents Carly, Steve and Maartin for their hard work and care for our students. I would also like to particularly acknowledge Di who stepped in at the last minute to replace Michele and Tony for his hard work organising the camp so that our students were able to experience this adventure in a safe and supportive environment.

Today, we received our Sphero Robots and we will be starting to learn how to use Coding to create programs to control these wonderful new robots. The students will be learning how to code to control them, solve puzzles and engage in other aspects of their learning. We are looking forward to our tweleve new robots becoming a real feature of the work at our school. Check out the video explaining what Sphero can do!