Welcome back to Term 4, an extremely busy nine-week with a number of events, the second reporting period for the year and a time where learning is consolidated.

This week I have had to update the attendance data for our students to be included on the Myschool website. Our attendance percentage of children attending school during that period of time was 93.7%.

Anything below 90% attendance without a legitimate reason such as illness, is obviously cause for concern, although in many situations families do inform us of the reasons that their children are not at school. When the reasons for non attendance are not so clear or there is a concern from the school that we are both unaware of the reasons or they are not seen as legitimate, these will be raised with families as this is part of our school policy. 

Remember that less than 90% attendance equates over the year to the equivalent of 20 days or 4 weeks away from school, and if children are struggling with their learning, every minute they attend school is vital for their growth and development. If this continues over the course of their education they will miss over 1 year of schooling, which no one can afford.

We work with a number of families to improve attendance and request that if you are having issues or concerns that you inform us as soon as possible so we can work together in ensuring that your child is getting every opportunity to grow and develop every school day.

This weekend we are holding the centenary afternoon tea for those who have been part of our school community who are willing to share their stories with us. Many thanks to the organising committee on their work in planning for and putting on an event such as this, to allow us to capture the stories of a different time and which will allow us to share these with the wider community during 2020. 

Have a great weekend and we look forward to us sharing some of these stories with you in the near future.

Peter Cutrona
Principal