Yesterday our year 4 students celebrated the end of their bike education program with their annual ride into Fremantle and back. It was hugely popular and I posted a photo on Facebook. Many thanks to the 31 parents who rode with them, to staff and to Rebecca Sorrell for organising such an eagerly anticipated event – almost 70 children on bikes is far from easy to coordinate.
Semester 1 reports will be sent home via CONNECT today. The beauty of online reports is that everyone will be able to access their reports via CONNECT wherever they are and whenever it suits them and print them out themselves. We can easily reset your password should you require it. Teachers will be offering parent interviews to discuss students’ progress early next term.
This Friday some of our instrumental music students will perform at assembly to mark the end of semester and everyone is very welcome to attend.
Early next term the DoRKs will be running a dads-only 10-pin bowling event at the Melville Super Bowl. They warmly invite all fathers and father-figures to come along and get to know each other. Please look out for further announcements next term.
Much has been made in the media recently about mobile phone use in schools. Our policy has long been that at parents’ discretion, children are allowed to have their phones with them for travel to and from school, but mobile phones must not be used at all during school hours and always remain the responsibility of families. Parents are able to phone the school office to communicate with their child. This policy works well and we very rarely see any mobile phones at school. Thanks to all families for your ongoing support on this. It means our students are always off playing and talking to each other and don’t even consider sitting on their phone as an option.
A few children are starting to wear apple watches and these do occasionally go off in class when parents message them. It’d be great to remove this distraction from the classroom too and I ask parents to message their child before and after the school day, not during class time.
Finally, a couple of holiday reminders:
Willetton Uniforms is closing down on Friday. Our school uniform is now available from the Uniform Concepts Super Store at 30 Kembla Way, next door to Campion.
Holidays are a good time for parents to re-establish and nurture friendships by planning play dates and shared activities. This is an interesting read on the subject from Maggie Dent:
https://www.maggiedent.com/blog/fun-fickle-fragile-world-childrens-friendships/
As we approach the end of a busy term and everyone starts to recover from colds, many families are heading off for a well-deserved couple of weeks of rest and relaxation. I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday, and look forward to seeing children back at school on Tuesday 23 July.
Lisa Dentith