Dear families,

I wish to acknowledge all our visitors, including our parents, carers and grandparents, for abiding by our request that no-one enters a building or the atrium, but rather goes through the front office. I have had many chats with people as they wait briefly for their child to arrive during  early pick ups, and a number have expressed their feeling of safety with what the school has in place.

Of course we hope that the COVID-19 Pandemic does become manageable at some stage, but until then, we will continue with our current processes.

Parent Survey
At this time of the year we normally send out a survey from our school for families to complete. This year the Department has done this for us.  All families across South Australia will have received a link either via SMS or email. Some people have found it in their ‘clutter’ folder (email). If you don’t find the link, either use the one included here or search your clutter and junk folders.

Parents can find more information at www.education.sa.gov.au/parentsurvey

There is also a unique link for Woodend Primary School to the survey.
https://educationsa.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJ3AXNw9lsJQcdL?RID=CGC_9dwEvo0V0bbpuaU&Q_CHL=email

Safety while riding /walking/scooting to and from school
Recently our students were involved in tree planting next to the new walkway.  This is a great way for students to develop a sense of ownership of a facility that is an outstanding asset to our whole community. So many students (and adults) now make use of that pathway and it has definitely taken some of the load off the pick up/ kiss and drop zone.

The walkway exits near to the school on to Franklin Court and it can become quite busy for a short period of time in the morning and afternoon. It is important that students use the area safely, keep an eye out for cars given that residents are still using the road, and respect people’s property (eg driveways). If your child uses this area, please remind them of the etiquette/manners required as representatives of our lovely school.

COVID-19
No further changes at this time. We continue to keep a watchful eye on children (and staff) who have any cold like symptoms or feel unwell. Thankyou for keeping your child/ren home if they show any of these signs.

2021 Student Enrolments
Tours have been well attended and both Cathie Luke and I cover kindy to school transition, our range of curriculum programs and future developments scheduled to begin next year. At this stage there is still opportunity for enrolments from years reception through to year seven.  Early in term 4,  we will begin closing off certain year levels as they reach capacity in order to firm up our 2021 class structures.

Curriculum Improvement Team
Over the last four years as well as currently, we have had a very active team of teachers who regularly meet to critically examine what we provide in our learning for all students, to seek out research and evidence based programs that we might trial and perhaps use in our school, as well as take a leadership role in working with the professional learning teams in our school, including in respect to Department directions that influence learning in all schools.

Examples of this include; the work on introducing InitiaLit for reception in 2020, (with the rest of the early years to follow), which is an explicit and systematic synthetic phonics program which incorporates a literature component to enrich oral language, listening comprehension and vocabulary; and the examination of a program called Spelling Mastery (years 3-7) that blends a morphemic, phonemic and whole word approach to teach the spelling skills that students need to become proficient readers and writers.

This year we are trialling the Spelling Mastery program and observing in other schools where it is being taught to assess its value for our context. I am very pleased to be able to say that staff (both teachers and school service officers) are continually striving to provide the best education for your children that is possible.

Kind regards,

Steve Freeman
Principal