Dear families,
Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to Aaron Guilliamse for taking on the Acting Principal role while I was on leave. As expected, the school was left in good hands and ran seamlessly in my absence.
It has been a wonderful start to our final term for 2023! The students are engaged and have been consolidating their learning throughout the year while continuing to produce some great work. Students have shared some maths and writing with me today which has been fantastic. It is so lovely to celebrate their efforts with them. Some students may have come home mentioning they had completed tests at school this week. The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are carried out at this time of the year to provide the school with data to check the effectiveness of our teaching and learning programs against our School Improvement Plan. It enables us to celebrate what we have achieved, as well as developing areas where we can improve our practice with our teaching next year. The students have focussed well on the tests knowing that they are helping us become better at what we do.
Term 4 is an important time for our Year 6 students. It is their last term in primary school before the next big change in their life. I am sure that they are going to keep being fabulous until the end to make sure they leave the school with fond memories.
There have been some tweaks to our staffing this term. We have welcomed Kate Mill to our Kitchen Garden. Students from Years 3-6 have engaged in both cooking and working in the garden which encourages the building of social skills, communication and life skills. We also welcome Cynthia Howard who will be working with our Year 3-6 students in music. Anne-Marie Reschke will be teaching students from Prep through to Year 2 in music. We hope to offer additional small groups in music during the remainder of the term. Watch this space!
Last Monday 16 October we had 20 students attend the SPSSA Champions Athletics Carnival: They all performed outstandingly on the day and were a credit to Austins Ferry Primary. Further information has been provided by Mr Coppleman - it is definitely worth a read!
A reminder that it is a left turn out of our school grounds into Brodie Street at school pick up. This helps create greater visibility and safety for our students as they leave school grounds. Please talk with children about road rules and watching carefully for traffic as they cross the roads heading to and from school.