Welcome back, our recycled piano and staff farewells

Welcome back to everyone

Today we welcomed all our preps back to school, in some ways it felt like the start of the year again, but not in others, because they all bravely marched in, eager to get on with it! Wherever possible learning is happening out of doors and the classrooms are kept aired. Air purifiers are on order. As regards the return to school of the other groups, I’ll copy the statement received from ISV who has clarified the latest staggered returns as follows:

Under the roadmap, all students across the state will return to full-time onsite learning by 5 November. The brought-forward staggered return for metropolitan students means onsite learning will be opened for:  Years 3 and 4 (Tuesday and Wednesday - starting Tuesday 26 October) Years 5 and 6 (Thursday and Friday - starting Friday 22 October) Year 7 and 11 (full-time, five days - starting Friday 22 October) Years 8 and 9 (Tuesday and Wednesday - starting Tuesday 26 October) Year 10 (Thursday and Friday - starting Friday 22 October)

Recycled piano

On another note, (or six octaves of notes to be precise) I’ve found the perfect parting gift to leave to the children of the school and they’ve started using it already. It’s from the PREPS program, which stands for a Program for Recycled Educational Pianos in Schools. The instigator of this decided it was better for a piano to be in a school playground than lying around at the dump. Although he charges a delivery fee and a tuning fee, the piano is otherwise free to schools. So I decided I’d get one for Village School. On the deck of the hall, it is out of the weather, but always accessible to be played. It could probably do with a better cover, the blanket thing he left keeps slipping off.

Farewell to our learning supports

Sadly, we said goodbye to our learning support staff member in Laura’s group, and our learning support in Samantha’s group due to the school’s obligation to follow the directive concerning mandatory vaccinations. The teachers had a farewell for them both on Thursday and one has written a letter to the parents which is in the weekly newsletter. They will of course be missed. Just a reminder that we’re still keeping parents out of the school buildings and discouraging you from stopping and chatting at the moment. At some stage, I hope that can be lifted.

Have a good week everyone,

Tanya