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Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back to Term 3. It has been lovely to have a normal start to the term after all the uncertainty of Terms 1 and 2.
We have had a couple of changes at school, the first one is that during the pandemic we staggered our recess and lunch break times so that we were not combined with the Primary School. We found that for the majority of our students this actually had a very positive impact. The students seem to be communicating more, interacting more with each other, playing more on the equipment and we have noticed a significant reduction in anxiety. So for this term I have decided that we will trial having separate recess and lunch breaks and will review it at the end of this term. To make sure that for those students who want/need the interaction with their mainstream peers that there is opportunity for this to happen as well.
The change in the times of the school day have been working very well. Thank you to all of you for getting your children in by 8.45am so that we are able to start lessons. The 2.45 finish has meant that we have been able to reduce the number of parents trying to park and the congestion at the gates. Thank you for working with us and making sure your child is in on time.
Just a reminder:
School starts: 8.45am
School finishes: 2.45pm
Recess is at 10.25am (20 mins) and Lunch is at 12.35pm (30 mins)
In my last message to you on Class Dojo I told you that the Restrictions are still at Phase 4, this will be reviewed on the 15th August, although given the current increase in the infection rates in NSW and Victoria I cannot see that we will be moving into phase 5.
This means that little has changed at school level. Currently the restrictions mean that:
- You are welcome onto school grounds and to take your child to class if you wish, although we will be maintaining the drop off / pick up at the gate. Gates 3,4 and 5 are manned by school staff from now. Due to the 2m requirement you will still not be allowed into class during school time.
- Uniform Shop is back and operational on Wednesday Mornings. The Breakfast Club will be starting in week 4.
- We will be starting Assemblies again this Term, but have decided to make a bit of a change both to the format and to the frequency.
We are hoping to run two Assemblies this term one in Week 6, 28th August for the lower school classes and one in Week 10, 25th August for the Upper school classes. This is a change to the dates that were on the planner sent out last term. These dates have been changed in the hope that we can still go ahead with them. You will receive an invite to the Assembly that involves your child and will be welcome to a morning tea after the Assembly item.
A new planner is attached with this newsletter.
We were also hoping to have an open morning toward the end of term. Unfortunately, we cannot go ahead with this in Phase 4. When this changes I will be able to set a date for it.
But we still have a few things going on:
Father’s Day Breakfast will be occurring on 4th September and this will be a combined school’s event. It will need to be alfresco so that we are able to comply with the restrictions. There will also be a raffle run by the P&C.
Cross Country will be happening on Wednesday – you are very welcome to come and watch your child run. There will be identified seating around the oval and you will need to observe the 2 m per person spacing when you on are school grounds. Entry to the school for this event will be through gates 5 and 6 only and you will be asked to sanitise your hands as you come in.
Faction Athletic’s carnival will also be happening on the 18th September. This has also been restructured. The day will be split in two. The Lower school from both schools will be going out in the morning and the senior classes in the afternoon. More information about this will go out in our next newsletter.
A few fund raising events will be happening this term as well. From next Monday 3rd August we will be selling cookies to raise money for the year 5 and 6 leadership activities. These cookies have been kindly made and donated by Pam Jenzarli. They will be $2 each and will be sold outside of Silver Room and TB4.
We are having a sausage sizzle for the year 5 and 6 leadership on 14th August. Letters will be coming home and sent out on class dojo on Monday. We are having two casual clothes days; one on the 11th September and one on the 25th September (Dress like a Pirate Day).
This week we started parents IEP meetings. This is an opportunity for you to talk to your child’s teacher about what you would like them to achieve this semester and what the teacher has identified as your child’s objectives. These meetings are occurring before and after noon or during school time away from the classroom.
We have had to save a few sad farewells at the end of last term and welcomed a few new members to the Cloverdale family.
Jacob and Harper in green room both left us for a new school at the end of term. We wish them well in their new school. We welcome Ayanna and Rocco who have both started with us in Purple Room, Lleyton and Mason who have started in Green Room and Leo who has started in Aqua Room. A huge Cloverdale welcome to all of them and we are looking forward to getting to know you.
Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to all of you who came and helped or who came down and supported the P&C Bunnings Sausage sizzle last weekend. It raised over $1600 which is an amazing total. A special thank you to Anne Marie and her husband for their wonderful efforts with the event.
Debi
Pink Room have been off to a fantastic start in Term Three. It has been brilliant to see our class settle back into routine so quickly!
This Term our theme is Fairy Tales and so far we have participated in Literacy activities linked to Rapunzel and the Three Billy Goats Gruff. We have also been lucky to have Mrs Rigby as our specialist teacher, she has been doing lots of Fairy Tale arts and crafts with us!
We have also started a new activity in the Pink Room twice a week. We have been participating in a Play Cross-Setting session with the Green Room. This has been inspired by Kathy Walker Learning and is about encouraging and developing student play skills, interaction and critical thinking. As teachers, it gives us a great way to look at how our students interact with each other, and how we can continue to support the development of play skills.
During these sessions staff model the language of play and turn-taking, while encouraging students to make their own choices in the play activities that they are completing. For week 1 and 2 we have had a sensory station, science station, Fairy Tale STEM Station and Build and Create station. We look forward to continuing these activities developing our play skills with peers this semester!
We can’t wait to see what our students achieve this semester and will keep all of our parents up to date with all of our class adventures on our Class Dojo Stories!
Thankyou to all our volunteers at our Bunnings Sausage Sizzle, and to all who visited for a purchase. It was great to have a variety of parents, relatives and teachers help out, and the weather was in our favour right until the end!
Belmont community queued patiently for their long waited for sausage in a roll, and we raised close to $1500 that will go towards school projects and resources.
Special thanks to AnneMarie, who coordinated the event.
Heather Dillon