There is much happening behind the scenes across the College as we prepare for the best possible transition for our students to complete the 2021 year successfully and be well set up for 2022. Class lists will be released very shortly and with that will come conversations with your children about the excitement of change, the developing of new classroom relationships and settings. All of this will be consolidated on our Up Day on Wednesday 1 December 2021.

In order to best prepare your child at home for success, I ask you to re-familiarise yourself with the College Uniform Guidelines and in particular, the reference to shoes and jewellery. To quote directly from the guidelines for Sports Uniform:

• College sport socks or white sport socks (crew socks)
• Black joggers with black, white or red trim

Please note the reference to black, white or red trim – this means that joggers with any other colour on them are not acceptable as they do not meet the uniform guidelines. In order to save difficult conversations or extra expense of having to replace incorrect joggers, I implore you to choose correctly when you purchase new shoes. This is particularly pertinent as many families begin preparing in advance for the next school year.

As per Mr Cuskelly’s article in the Principal’s Pen section of this newsletter, you will see that the Early Years will join the rest of the College with the move to a booklist rather than the book scheme package. I reinforce his comments regarding the need to purchase exactly what is on the list, including brands and item numbers, as these have been found to be the most cost effective, long term learning tools for classroom use. Purchasing the correct items initially will also save you any extra expense of having to replace inappropriate items. The advice given to us by our local suppliers is that prices for these regular classroom tools drop significantly once wholesalers begin the ‘Back to School’ rollout. This generally begins 1 December, so it would be wise to wait until after this date to complete your purchase.

The Early Years Christmas musical preparations continue. The details include:

Name: “The Inn-Spectors” by Nikki Lewis

Performance Date: Thursday 2 December

Time: 12.30pm

Venue: OLSCC Multi-purpose Centre

Don’t forget to refer back to emails to ensure you have the correct information for costume requirements for your child. We are looking forward to sharing our performance with parents. Further information about how to secure a seat will be available soon.

Katrina Walton

Assistant Principal Early Years