From the Principal’s Desk
Welcome
Welcome back for Term 2, 2021. I hope you all had a wonderful break. I enjoyed spending time with my family over Easter and then had the luxury of time to myself in the second week. I’m feeling relaxed and rejuvenated and hope that our Woodland Grover community is feeling the same. Our studetns have returned to school in a very positive frame of mind. The school is running very smoothly. Students are happy and playing nicely during breaks. I have been particularly enjoying playing UNO with some of our students during lunch and recess breaks.
ANZAC Service
Our recent ANZAC service was a moving and respectful service. Thank you to our Year 6 Councillors for their amazing leadership. Thank you to Mr Gould for his organisation. I thought the music during our service was especially poignant. Our Year 3 choir voice was really sweet and the bagpipes played by the Pipe Major of the Police Pipe Band were haunting. Our wreaths were beautiful. We were fortunate to be able to have a number of our community present as the Covid restrictions were not yet in place.
We are currently in the process of developing our Business Plan for 2021 to 2024. This week I share with you Priority 1. Our priorities are identified through consultation with Staff and School Board. When deciding on our priorities consideration is given to the needs of our students based on data collected and student progress along with Department of Education directions and educational research outlining best practice.
One of our key strategies is to ensure mastery of critical content. An area that is critical for our students is Spelling. This year we have introduced Spelling Mastery for our Year 3 to Year 6 students. Our amazing P&C contributed $13,000 towards the purchasing of resources for Spelling Mastery. All students sat a Placement Test and are working in Spelling groups according to their results. Teachers and Education Assistants have been deployed to work with groups of students from Years 3 to 6 according to the Placement Test results. I look forward to seeing the progress our students make not only in Spelling but the impact it has on Writing and Reading.
Survey
Our regular surveys are a really important way for us to collect information on our school. Every year we send out our Tell Them From Me survey. This survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and gives us feedback on how our partnerships with parents are going. Last year we had 143 respondents to our survey. This year we would love to have over 150. The link to the survey is below. Please note the survey closes on Friday 7th May. We will send out regular reminders through Connect and See Saw. Your view of our school really matters and is important to us. Click on the button below to complete the survey.
Year 6 Leavers Mega Raffle
Our Year 6 leavers Mega Raffle was drawn this morning. Cogratulations to all the winners. The prizes were sensational. A big thank you to the organisers of the raffle, your efforts have been greatly appreciated.
Calendar
A reminder that our Pupil Free Day scheduled for the 8th June has been cancelled.
Remember to check in with our website calendar regularly to stay up to date with what’s happening in the school.
Term 2 events include: ANZAC Assembly on Friday 23rd April at 11am, our annual Mothers Day Raffle drawn on 7th May and Simultaneous Storytime to name a few.
While we try our best to limit changes to our scheduled events, our website calendar is our source of truth and we encourage our families and community to use this calendar.