How wonderful it has been to have visitors return to the College and volunteers once again working in our classrooms! The change in assembly format this year has meant that parents are welcome every week on Fridays at 8:50 should you wish to join us. On “odd” weeks (eg this is Week 5 of term, an odd week) we celebrate Whole College Assembly in the MPC, and on even weeks we celebrate Early Years Assembly with Prep-Year 4 students in the PAC. Each Early Years Assembly is led by a different class, allowing the students to practice important skills of oral presentation. I am extremely proud of how our students rise to the occasion and very grateful to our teachers for taking the time to prepare them so well. So far this year, we have seen a great choral display by Year 4’s, a terrific interactive explanation of how to use The Writing Train to improve our sentence construction by the Year 3’s, and a wonderful ripple of kindness from the Year 2’s.

Thankyou to those parents who are supporting classroom work by becoming volunteers. Please remember that the volunteer pack must be completed PRIOR to commencing in classrooms. Even if you think you will only make it once or twice throughout the year, I highly recommend you still complete the volunteer process ASAP so there are no hold ups for you when your time to volunteer comes around.

Prep to Year 3 students were also present this week for an informative session presented by Bravehearts. This important organisation aims to make Australia the safest place in the world to raise a child and their message was well received by our student audience. Thanks must go to the Heritage Bank who sponsored the visit so that our students were able to attend free of charge.

Attendance Data

Term 1 certainly presented us with many challenges, including attendance. In Term 2, we have refocused our mission to have “every day count” with high expectation for student attendance. Research has shown that once attendance drops below 93%, learning is impacted. The College has automatic checkpoints for attendance in place, and families can expect to be contacted by letter once attendance falls below 85% as this poses a significant risk to learning. With attendance already impacted by COVID and flooding, it is more imperative than ever to ensure your child attends school every day. It is essential that absences are saved for things such as illness rather than term time holidays or unnecessary days off. The best way to ensure quality learning is to support your child to be at school every day.

Coming Up

Next week we celebrate Under 8’s week with a variety of College events that promote interaction across the sectors. Praxis classes in the Senior Years have been busy preparing fun activities to share with our youngest students, as well as lunchtime activities across the week. We will also host another Come and Try day on Tuesday for others to experience the OLSCC family in action. Please promote this event with your networks as it is a wonderful day for others to join us!

Katrina Walton

Assistant Principal Early Years