SCHOOL COMMUNITY COUNCIL -TERM 3 MEETING

The new School Community Council met 2 weeks ago. It has elected Jennifer Keast to be the new Chair of the School Community Council. Mrs Vanessa Cosgrove will stay on as Treasurer & Mrs Gemma Loberg will be the Secretary of the Council. At this first meeting members discussed the expectations & role of council members. We will be forming some working groups going forward including Uniform, Soccer, Building & Maintenance, Strategic Planning & the P & F fundraising group. The Council will be setting up terms of reference for these groups to feed into the council. This is how the P & F and Community Council have worked in the past and will continue to do so. The Council discussed progress on our Fundraising goal of new water bubbler stations . It has also been decided to purchase an extra oven for the canteen to help with lunches. Profits from the Canteen are spent mostly on making improvements to the canteen - to keep it a clean, safe & compliant workspace. We thank Courtney Kozel for the great work she does in our canteen.

The Council will continue work on terms of reference for other working groups. The SCC meets again on Thursday 31^st October at 7pm.

CLASSES & STAFFING FOR 2025

I have received notice from the Catholic Education Office to confirm we will have 15 classes in 2025. This will consist of 3 Kindergartens and 2 classes in each year level from Year 1 to Year 6. There will be no composite classes in 2025. Two demountable classrooms have been ordered for the school to accommodate the rise in numbers. We are still determining where they should be placed.

Mr Andrew Moss and Mrs Trudy Hunt have informed me that they will not return to the school in 2025. I thank them for their work and wish them well for the future.  Mrs Sarah Brown & Mrs Sarah Yeo will be returning on a part time basis from their maternity leave. With the growth in numbers I will be looking at recruiting some new staff for 2025. It will be an exciting but busy time with this major school expansion. I will keep you informed of our progress.

SPECIAL AWARDS

Thank you to all for your words of congratulations on my receiving an Australian Catholic Primary Principal’s award for outstanding service. I have been very privileged and honoured in my career to be asked by my fellow principal’s colleagues to be their voice on this national body for New South Wales and in the past for Northern Territory. I would not have been able to do this role without the support of staff and the school community and I acknowledge your part in helping me receive this award. Many thanks.

We continue to pray for all our Year 6 students as they prepare for their Sacrament of Confirmation. The weekend of 21^st and 22^nd of September they will be confirmed during weekend Masses and we can not wait to see them in this important Sacrament. 

Thank you to Kindergarten for a lovely Father's Day Liturgy Tuesday the 27^th of August. It was so nice to see our little people honouring their father, grandfathers and fathering figures during this time. 

Stage 1 will be running a Liturgy Tuesday the 3^rd of September at 9.30am in the school chapel. All parents/carers are welcome to join us. 

Father's Day Liturgy Photos

INDIVIDUAL SPORT TRIALS

Individual sports trials are open through the CECG sports website. These trials are intended for Year 5 & 6 student's ONLY. Keep up to date with trial information for next year.

Summer Uniform now available for orders.

The uniform shop is run by parent volunteers and is open on a Wednesday morning 9-9.30am for fittings and sales. The best way to organise your child's uniform requirements is to order via Qkr. Orders need to be placed by 8.30am each Wednesday so that they are able to be sent home that day; orders placed after 8.30am will not be filled until the following week.

This year our school canteen will continue to operate Tuesday to Friday. Student's requiring lunch from the canteen need to submit a lunch order via the QKR app by 9am the day the order is to be received (remember you can order up to two weeks in advance). It will also be open during first break for over the counter snacks, ice creams and drinks. Miss Courtney Kozel will be our canteen manager while Mrs Bennett is on leave.

Congratulations to all our wonderful public speakers who travelled out to Crookwell last Friday to compete against other students from schools in our region. SPP had a very successful day, with the below students moving on to the next level!

Ethan Dahl - Runner Up - Year 3

Avery Hogan - Winner & Elsie McClelland - Runner Up - Year 4

Astrid Schmidt - Runner Up - Year 5

Hudson Salmon - Runner Up - Year 6

Congratulations to our Above and Beyond Award and Mercy Value Winners!

Birthdays 1-15 September!

STUDENT MEDICATIONS

We are able to hold student medications in the office for those children who require either short term or ongoing medication. Any medication must be supplied to us in its original packaging, with the pharmacy label attached for prescription medicine. Our system has been updated by head office so please read the following carefully if this applies to your child.

Short term medication (pain relief, antibiotics, antihistamine etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication.

Ongoing medication (asthma inhaler, antihistamine, ADHD medication, etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication. 
• Parent/carer to ensure medication remains in date, and that there is sufficient supply for one term, each term.
• Parents/carers of students with asthma action plans or other official diagnosis must provide current paperwork from the doctor
• Asthma Inhalers - if your child is in year 5 or 6 or capable of self-administering their ventolin, they are able to keep their inhaler with them in their bag; if this is the case there is no need to complete the authorisation form.

DROP OFF/PICK UP INFORMATION

If you remember the following details school drop off and pick up should run smoothly. Please view the map below for parking restriction details:

Morning Drop off:

• Supervision at school starts at 8.30am. Students arriving earlier than this WILL NOT be under active adult supervision so please avoid dropping your children off before this time. Between 8.30am and 8.55am students are to take their bag to their classroom and then make their way to either the hall or basketball court where they are to wait in year groups until the morning play bell rings.
• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. We also ask that you consider our staff when parking in the morning as there are limited all day parking zones where they are able to park.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students are dropped off here. 
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk your children into school (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) -  Car line is a 'kiss & go' system where parents drop their children off without getting out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent drop off as it ensures student safety.

Afternoon pick-up:

• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. Kindergarten parents are welcome to park and wait for their child outside the classrom. Kinder students are also able catch the bus or get picked up from carline.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students only are collected from here. A teacher is rostered on duty at this gate each afternoon and stays to supervise students until the last bus comes.
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk into school to collect your children (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) - Car line is available for parents to pick their children up without having to park and get out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent pick up as it ensures student safety. Car line can be very congested in the afternoons. If the waiting line is outside of our driveway the advice from NSW police is that you should continue around the block via Adam Street until the line moves forward. Please consider arriving at 3.30pm or after to ease this congestion; your child will be safe and supervised until you arrive. Two teachers are rostered on and supervicion at car line is until 3.45pm. After this time your child will be taken to the office and a call will be made to parents to arrange pick up ASAP.

Before & After School Care

Our newsletter, The SPP Chronicle, is normally published fortnightly (odd weeks) on a Thursday afternoon at around 5.30pm.

Each fortnight we include anything and everything that has happened in the preceding two weeks such as excursions, assemblies, sporting results and photos, liturgies, etc. We also provide information about upcoming school activities and events, student birthdays and important information and correspondence for families. We love to give shoutouts to our students and school community like thankyou's, baby announcements, special achievements and EOI's for sporting & other school or community group involvement, so if you have news that you think we could include just email it through to office.sppg@cg.catholic.edu.au.