I hope that you are enjoying the change in weather. It has been great to have a bit more sunshine to brighten everyone's day. With the new building, the new oval and the sunshine, our school is looking great. Our Green Team have done a fantastic job in encouraging 'Nude Food' and we have seen an amazing reduction in wrappers and papers around the yard. I want to thank all parents for making the effort to help their children to see that there is a better way for us to use, reuse and limit the amount of waste we produce. Congratulations Green Team!
Today is R U OK? Day. Mental Health is a major issue in Australia today and no family is exempt. In this time of COVID-19 and the impact it has had on the world this has become an even greater issue. Illness, deaths, unemployment, financial stress, uncertainty and other factors all come together and become challenges in the lives of many. Today is a day to remind us that we need to look after ourselves and others. However it is important that we are aware of this every day and that we take time out to focus on our wellbeing. I will include some useful contact details for various agencies with this newsletter.
Of great concern has been the graphic images that have been placed on social media over the past week or so. These have been placed at the end of 'child friendly' material, so that children can be happily viewing some appropriate content, and then the distressful content suddenly appears without warning. eSafety has contacted social media companies about the reports and will continue working with them to monitor the situation. We are encouraging people who encounter this content to report it to the social media platform they've seen it on, or to eSafety. As always it is vitally important that you monitor your children's internet use and know what they are looking at or what social media they are using. It is all too easy to fall in to the trap of children having free reign on the computer. I urge you to remain vigilant in your house with regard to cyber safety.
Thank you to Vinny Maresca, the P&F and our band of helpers who, firstly, ran the Father's Day stall recently and, secondly, put on a fantastic Pasta Day lunch yesterday. The feedback today from our SRC meeting was overwhelmingly positive. You had a vote of thanks from them!
Catholic Education SA has been very bold in developing the "Making Catholic Schools More Affordable" initiative. Tenison Woods were asked to be the 'highlighted' school as a part of this initiative and hence we had a photo shoot here last Thursday for an article that appeared on Friday in The Advertiser. While the photo did not get into the paper, it was placed on The Advertiser Facebook page and TWCS was mentioned in the Friday 'Tiser article. Thank you to Vinny, Lori, Matilda and Leo for being so photogenic and doing our school proud! You will hear more about what this initiative means to your school fees after the School Board meets next Wednesday. On Friday we welcomed The Vicar General, Fr Phillip Marshall and CESA Assistant Director, Mr Bruno Viecelli for another photo shoot for the newstory on The Southern Cross website. Thank you to Leo, Alyssia and Joshua for participating in the photo shoot.
We are hopeful that work will commence Monday on our new Nature Play area on the north western side of the oval. We have commissioned Climbing Trees to undertake this work. It will take a number of weeks and we expect completion by Friday 6 November. Thank you once again to Sarah Constructions for their fabulous contribution of $10,000 towards this project. It is greatly appreciated.
As a part of our PE/Health/Dance curriculum we have had Footsteps run a great dancing program throughout Term 3. We utilise their services every second year. At the end of the program Footsteps hold a disco. This year we will hold it in our new building on Tuesday 22 September. The R-2 disco will be from 5-6pm and the Year 3-6 disco will be from 6:30-7:30pm. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this will be a child only event. Parents will need to drop off and pick up. They won't be able to remain for the session.
One of our students has lost a teal colour Garmin Watch. If you find the watch please hand it in to the front office so that we can return it to the correct owner.
Please remember that the school term concludes on Friday 25 September. The first day of Term 4 (Monday 12 October) is a Pupil Free Day with the staff undertaking a 'Staff Reflection Day'.
Tomorrow (Fri 11 Sep) is National Walk to School Day! I encourage you to consider walking to school with your children if you are close enough. If you live further away, maybe you could park at some distance from the school and walk from there. The weather forecast looks like it will be fine for walking.
A huge thank you to the for their generous donation of fruit as a way of saying thank you to our community for the support that has been given to their business during COVID-19. Each of our children will receive a piece of fruit on Friday of this week.
Cheers
Peter Mercer
Acting Principal
