Welcome back! I trust that you all had a very enjoyable holiday break with your children, family and friends. The extra-long weekend is always a nice way to unwind, down tools and relax. For those of you who had to work, I hope you got some down time to enjoy yourself over the school holidays with your family.

Term 2 is always interesting for many reasons. Firstly, we have the majority of the year’s public holidays fall during the term with Easter, ANZAC Day, Labour Day and the Ipswich Show Holiday. Secondly, we have Semester 1 reporting to finish off the term. Added to this are the sporting events like the cross country and athletics carnival. It’s always a very quick term that is usually feels over before it begins so strap yourselves in!

Year 4 are currently engaging with LIFE Education to learn about safe behaviours when online to protect themselves from harm or abuse. This cybersafety message is a necessary lesson for our children in this very complicated world of technology and virtual reality they are growing up in.

The Senior Cross Country (Year 4) is scheduled to go ahead tomorrow, weather permitting. As irony would have it, we have already postponed it twice due to rain and by the looks of it, rain is predicted for tomorrow as well. Hopefully, the wet weather holds off until late morning to allow it to go ahead. If not, the PE teachers will go to Plan B which is a time trial beep test to determine the stamina levels of any high-performance students to see if they can qualify for District Cross Country trials. Our PE teachers know the children’s athletic prowess very well and will put them through their paces to see who qualifies in the absence of a cross country occurring.

Our Junior Cross Country for the Year 3 students is currently scheduled for Thursday the 8th of May. Let’s hope the weather is perfect that day.

This term, the students are writing information reports in English. Year 3 are focussing on the topic of the life cycles of plants while Year 4 are focussing on sports for their organising topic.

Thank you to those of you who attended our school ANZAC Day ceremony today. It was a very respectful and dignified acknowledgement of the role that the service men and women have played in our nation’s history and continue to do so today around the world to keep us safe and maintain peace on earth wherever possible. If you are attending a dawn service or march this Friday on ANZAC Day, thank you.

Lastly, I am taking some long service leave for the next 2 weeks and will be returning back to work on Monday 12 May (Week 4). While I am away, Miss Kasey Curwen will be replacing me as the Middle Years Deputy. Kasey is well known to the children and has replaced me before as a Deputy Principal. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Kasey if the need arises so she can assist you with your query.

See you on the crossing,

Shane