Congratulations to our interschool cross country team who won the meritorious shield (best team on handicap) at the division A competition last week! A team of runners will represent us at the state competition this week.
Thanks very much to parents Silvia and Jodi who gave an interesting science presentation to our upper school students on Friday. They plan to establish a science club in liaison with our science teacher, Mr Townsend. You may recall that we have been successful in applying to have room 13 converted to a science lab, which will offer further possibilities. Remember too that Bricks for Kids is running a new term three program in the library for those interested in robotics.
We continue to develop nature play areas, and the recent storm provided lots of opportunities for building dens. If you have natural items like logs, smooth branches, pinecones, shells, or other interesting ‘found objects’ the children would love to play with them if you can drop them off.
Book week is in week 6, and we’ll have a parade on Wednesday 25 August at 9.00am. I totally understand that this can be a big effort for busy parents, but the children really seem to love the dress up – even those a little too cool for school usually get into it. It’s not mandatory although we encourage participation as with every event. Costumes don’t need to be amazing – it’s all part of helping children to be confident and creative and giving things a go.
I was off site on Friday, with a few of our teachers, at a professional learning day about effective kindergartens. We certainly picked up lots of ideas, but were also completely reassured that our kindergarten really is spot-on. It’s worth remembering that at the start of kindergarten some children are just 3.5 years old, and by the end others are 5.5 years old. This is such a huge range of development, that kindy teachers cater for.
In relation to kindergarten 2022, all offers and waiting list letters have now been posted. Thanks so much for returning your paperwork as soon as you can so we can attend to the waiting list, which is quite long.
From time to time I am asked about various policies. At any one time there are about 84 Education Department policies that we follow, and sometimes we write a context specific version for Richmond. These school-specific policies are in the office on display for anyone to browse/take.
In P&C news, thanks so much to all who came to the meeting last week. President Aoife will shortly write an update here and the minutes have been sent to members and class reps. All the recent Q&A from parents are in the minutes.
Today we have partnered with students from SEDA College WA to run cricket clinics on the oval – it really looks like a lot of fun!
Finally, we raised $541 for genetic research on Friday! Thank you.
Enjoy the week!
Lisa Dentith