It was so exciting to see the children coming back into school yesterday. They have coped remarkably well with Remote Learning and are to be congratulated on displaying such resilience. For parents, the transition back to school marks a positive return to a more normal pattern.

I must acknowledge the challenges we have all faced. Being a professional educator only helped me so much as a parent supervising remote learning at home while continuing with my day job. There was quite a lot of nervous excitement for the students (and our staff) first thing in the morning, everyone seems to have settled back very quickly.

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Terry Bradford will be taking long service leave from the start of next week until the end of term at which point he is retiring after 48 years work in the Victorian Education Service. That is an outstanding effort which is to be highly commended.

This marks the end of a long association with Drysdale Primary School and shows an exceptional commitment and a passion for educating children.

I would like to offer Terry my best wishes as he begins his well-deserved retirement and thank him sincerely for his contributions to this school and our community. During Terry’s long service leave 3B will be taught by Lea Mendleson who previously worked with this class during Term 1.

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As a school teaching team we are creating a strategy to ensure that the effects of remote learning are minimized. Some students will have managed to keep up with all their learning and are on track to make a full year’s progress in 2020. Many will have found elements of the learning program more difficult and will need some support to “catch up.” It is important that we recognise the different outcomes for each child in each subject.

At Drysdale Primary School we have used a personalised learning approach for a long time. This allows us to support children who are working at different levels and on different skills. Please understand that it will take each child some time to recover any lost ground. However Drysdale Primary School and its teachers are very well equipped to ensure this happens.

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It is important that we present school as a familiar and cohesive environment. A large part of this is that our students wear their school uniform. Please make sure that your children come to school in the correct uniform as detailed in the school’s uniform policy.

In Term 4 this includes a sun hat (even though at the moment we are unable to offer the sun to go with the hats).

School uniform can be purchased from Primary School Wear (PSW) on-line at Drysdale PS – PSW On-line Orders or alternatively at their Geelong store at 164 Malop St, Geelong Vic.

Drysdale PS – PSW Uniform Price List

DPS-School-Uniform

 

 

 

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During remote learning while our students have been offsite, many members of the community have become accustomed to exercising and dog-walking around the oval during the day. Please can I gently remind everyone that school grounds are private and cannot be accessed by members of the public during school time.

Officially a school’s grounds should not be accessed at any time. At Drysdale Primary School we have always taken a more community minded approach and allowed out of hours access, e.g. to use the playground or basketball courts, provided those coming onsite respect the school’s property.

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We are expecting to be able to reopen the Drysdale Market in November (15th). This is subject to restrictions in place at the time. It is exciting even to begin planning for a new market season.

Jac Absolom is our market coordinator and has done a wonderful job continuing to liaise with the many market stall holders throughout the months of lockdown and other restrictions. The Drysdale Market was created by staff at Drysdale Primary School and has been run by staff and School Council ever since.

This is one of the school’s main fundraisers. The money raised each year supports our well-being program.

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Welcome back to onsite learning! It was so lovely to see everyone arriving at the gates yesterday! Some feeling happy, some anxious and some looking forward to seeing their teachers and friends! It will certainly be a busy term!

On our walks around yesterday to classes, there were some great chats about what students were up to on the holidays, concerns from some students that they now couldn’t eat whenever they wanted to and discussions around how both students and staff were feeling about returning.

Drummond Street are offering a webinar for parents in supporting students returning back to Primary School and the anxieties that may arise as a result of this. Please see attached flyer.

Transition back to primary school flyer

Positive Partnerships are also offering a free online webinar regarding the return to school for students on the spectrum. Please see below and the attached flyer.

Webinar Flyer – Returning to school – Preparing for change

Positive Partnerships are delivering a free online webinar next week for teachers, parents and carers of students on the autism spectrum titled Returning to School- Preparing for Change.(flyer attached) In this webinar, we will be exploring strategies for supporting young people on the spectrum who have returned or are returning to school.

The webinar will be delivered on the following dates/times:

Primary school focus
• Wednesday 7 October- 11am-12pm
• Wednesday 7 October- 7.30-8.30pm

Secondary school focus
• Thursday 8 October- 2-3pm
• Thursday 8 October- 7.30-8.30pm

The webinar is free and all participants will receive a certificate upon completion. To register, please click on your preferred session above.

As always, if you feel your child requires any further support or you have any concerns, please contact us at school.

 

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Back to school means back to school lunches!!! The canteen has a new menu for Term 4. Please note there has been some substantial changes for this term only.

You can also find the canteen menu in your parent portal under resources and on the school’s website under about us, canteen menu.

Canteen term 4 2020

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Welcome back to OSHC for Term 4, and welcome back to school for those who have been doing remote learning. We hope everyone has stayed safe, happy and healthy, and found the school holidays relaxing and enjoyable. From all reports it was a well earned break.

This week we are welcoming everyone back to OSHC with a week celebrating friendships, as for many of the children it is the first chance they’ve had to play with their friends for some time.

Read more…

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