Connection- how do we improve attendance and engagement at school?

Thank you, all our families, in Years 3 to 6 for helping us with all the washing, managing tired children and sometimes nervous children through our two successful weeks of Learn to Swim at Oceana.

We had the connection opportunity this week to spend time and support each class on the bus and at the pool. To hear their excitement about swimming and what is happening for them outside of school like football, sleep overs, favourite music and what they would like to see happen at school connects me to them in a broader sense.

We heard that the children are loving Run Club and would like to see us have a Glenorchy Primary Choir. Student voice is what drives our daily decision making when it comes to helping children want to be at school and helping them feel a sense of belonging to Glenorchy Primary School.

If we feel like we belong, then we can learn.

This week we are sending out a survey to our families and students to ask them a few simple questions.

What are the things we do at Glenorchy Primary to help you feel warmly welcomed each day?

What more can we do in our classrooms and in the playground to help everyone feel welcomed?

We also listened to student voice about Fridays, our attendance levels on Friday are much lower than other days. That needs to change. On Fridays, every class from Prep to Year 6 now teaches reading and Friday is when the UFLI and Word Origins lessons are reviewed to see if your child is understanding the work and sets them up for success on Monday.

We have also changed our weekly assemblies to fortnightly so that we can have a Connection afternoon every second Friday with Winter Sports, Choir, Chess, Drawing, Lego, STEM projects etc which will be something each child can look forward each fortnight.

How can we help?

As the cold weather hits, and beautiful kunyani is covered in snow, we know it sometimes feels, and is hard to get children to school for many reasons.

We are here to help.

Give us a call and we can chat about how we can support you to help you have your child/children come to school every day. You can see below how you can contact me and our staff. Save it on the fridge or in your phone so that you have help at hand when you need.

In this fortnight's newsletter you will see the following:

• Assembly schedule
• GPS Communication Model- how to contact us
• Farewells and welcomes

Happy Mother’s Day

To our Mums, carers, grandparents, Dads that are taking on both roles, aunties, family friends, older cousins we hope that you like the special items and cards your children have made at school and hope that you know that from all of us at school, WE SEE YOU!

We also acknowledge that for those whose mothers have passed, for those mothers who have lost a child, or live far way, or are unwell that this may be a hard day. Big hugs to you.

Thank you for loving our children and all that you do.

I want to thank my mum, sister, family, and the wider sisterhood for being the village that has helped me raise my three children. My mum has modelled resilience, kindness and being a contributor for me. She is also very funny.

I will be running the Mother’s Day Classic on Sunday morning, which I do each year, it is a lovely quiet reflective morning where I think about how grateful I am to be a mum. I hope my son will make me pancakes, and then I and my mum will watch my daughter play hockey and then there is always scones to celebrate with my sister and Mum.