Welcome to Warradale Primary School for this, our 60th anniversary year. Special welcome to our new reception students and families, along with a number of other students and staff who are new or returning to our school community.
It has been a very smooth and settled start to the new school year, with relationship building and the development of positive learning communities a priority across all of our classes in the first few weeks.
We are excited to welcome new leaders Sarah French (Deputy Principal) and Matt Berry (Senior Leader) to our school. Sarah will lead student support and wellbeing, while Matt will oversee curriculum/pedagogy and teach 2/3s in Room 12 on Mondays. Caroline Swinburne joins us from Colonel Light Gardens Primary and is teaching our R/1s in Room 18, and Benjamin Wong is our new Specialist Japanese working in Room 8. We also welcome back Sarah Brockhouse (Monday in Room 15 and Fridays in Room 17), and Ty Schorback who is teaching 6/7s in Room 4 (Thursdays and Fridays) with Brooke Mooney who has returned from maternity leave (Monday to Wednesday).
At our first assembly for the year held on Tuesday morning and attended by year 2-7 students, I set students three challenges for the term:
- Read to a loved one every day (short fiction stories are great, but could be a newspaper article or magazine piece)
- Write something every day (a blog post, short story, poem, shopping list, journal entry, letter… or whatever fills you with joy!)
- Perform a random act of kindness everyday
Our refined 2020 Site Improvement Plan maintains a focus on reading and writing improvement and we would love all parents/caregivers and family members to join us on this improvement journey.
Our annual New Reception Parent Dinner will be held in the Warradale Urban Camp, 6.00-8.30pm Friday 7 February (Week 2). This event will be a great opportunity for parents/caregivers from across our four R/1 classes to connect in a relaxed and friendly environment and help the families of new receptions transition into school life at Warradale. Invitations have already gone out and our Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) service will be made available free of charge to children of attending families on the night.
Acquaintance night will be held from 5.30-6.30pm on Tuesday 11 February (Week 3). All classrooms and learning areas will be open for parents and families to visit with their children and a 2021 Canberra Camp information session will follow at 6.30pm for parents/caregivers of all current year 5/6 students.
We look forward to a huge year of learning in 2020 and stay tuned for more information regarding our 60th birthday celebrations and other exciting upcoming activities and events in our school community.
Josh Vick
Principal
