Good News Story
We were able to welcome families back to our whole school Remembrance Day assembly. It was in the top 3 best assemblies of all time (in our opinion). There were some notable pieces that I want to acknowledge:
- The song and dance performed by Miss Emily’s and Mrs. McMillan’s classes.
- Mrs. McMillan’s students re-writing and performing a wonderful Remembrance Day play and information sharing session.
- The Assembly Leaders’ management of the assembly with the support of Mrs. Chandler.
- The exceptional audience skills and behaviour of all of the students. This has been an area of great improvement and has been a result of the change in running of assemblies from adult driven to student led.
Principal’s Update
There has been an amazing amount of activity at Port Noarlunga Primary School over the past couple of weeks and it doesn’t look like easing up anytime soon.
Since Monday Week 3 (31/10/2022) we have had a Pupil Free Day, a scheduled school closure and an unexpected day closed due to a power outage. We have celebrated World Teacher Day and survived the aftermath of Halloween and the sugar challenges involved.
There has been Beach Volleyball, Year 1/2 Nature Play excursion (Beach School), Belair Nature Play excursion (Y3/4), K-Mart Wishing Tree excursion (Y4/5), Year 3/4 Tennis Day, the Dance Curriculum lessons, and the Choir performance at Hopgood Theatre.
We are also busily working on transitioning our 2023 Reception students into the school with the Starting School Program on Friday afternoons and the Transition visits in Weeks 2, 4 and 6.
We have welcomed families to our Remembrance Day assembly and held our first school disco in a long time.
All of this has happened while we have been maintaining a high level of teaching and learning, assessing learning, writing reports, working out class placements for 2023 and sourcing new enrolments to increase our numbers.
There are still some important events scheduled for the remainder of the year including the Upper Primary Market Place day (21/11), Clarke Adopt a Spot (25/11), Water Safety lessons for Junior Primary students (30/11 & 1/12), Beach Carnival (2/12), Year 6 transition days (8/12, 9/12 & 12/12), Year 6 Graduation (12/12), Whole School Picnic (14/12), Reports and Class placements sent home (14/12), and Final Assembly (16/12).
There will undoubtedly be other events and activities that pop up between now and the last day of term. Please make sure that you keep an eye on the events calendar and Class Dojo for these.
External School Review
We have received the final summary report from our External School Review and this will be uploaded to our school website. I am very proud of all involved in the school – staff, students, families – as the report was very positive.
There are 3 Directions that we need to work on over the next 3 years. These are:
Direction 1: Strengthen consistency of judgement through effective moderation processes and deepening critical collaboration across the staff.
Direction 2: Strengthen processes which support ongoing mentoring and coaching across the school to develop leadership capability across the school.
Direction 3: Strengthen common understandings and ensure approaches to differentiated learning are enacted to enable all students to develop as effective learners. We are well placed to achieve and exceed these directions and I look forward to keeping you updated along the way.
Emergency Management
My responsibility as site leader is to manage challenges, issues and emergencies as they arise. These are seldom expected and usually require on-the-run management. I am extremely lucky to have a supportive and highly capable team of staff who are able to work together to get the best, and safest, outcome for the students and the school.
I am also very thankful for our supportive, flexible and understanding parent group who have managed to work with us when unexpected situations occur. I know that it is inconvenient and frustrating when these things happen and I would like to assure you that we make sure all alternatives are considered before making decisions that might negatively impact you or your child.
My sincere hope is that we get a break from pandemics, weather emergencies and any other situations for a while.
Thank you for your support and care.
Take care,
Marie
