Annesley News, Issue 171

Friday 30 July, 2021

Principal's News

‘Kissing and Dropping’ is Working!

What a fortnight we’ve had. Sensational start to the new term, moved to everyone juggling work and learning at home, and back to being on our beautiful site. Congratulations to everyone for navigating significant change!

I want to thank you all for using ‘Kiss and Drop’ as it has always been intended. We have noticed, in the morning in particular, a more significant flow of traffic. A reminder to not do u-turns in front of the crossing and ‘Kiss and Drop’ as this compromises the safety of our families. Please also be aware that I am in ongoing communication with senior leaders at the City of Unley with regards to creative solutions to further enhance these points of congestion during the day. But from me, to you, thank you for honouring the children in our community and keeping them safe. This is a top priority for us!

Luke Ritchie
PRINCIPAL

Mask Wearing

We are so grateful for the adults in our community for wearing masks. We love the array of designs and options. It’s become a fashion accessory! At this point, masks on dogs not required!

Annesley Olympics

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Our School

School Lunches

We have been working behind the scenes to secure a new lunch order supplier for our students! It is with great excitement that we introduce a new partnership with Rory’s School Lunches to provide canteen services at Annesley every Thursday commencing Week 4 in Term 3, 2021. Rory’s is an Adelaide based Catering and Canteen Management Company that is currently delivering lunch services to over 50 public and independent South Australian schools. Great care has been given to the menu design and ensuring many dietary requirements have been fulfilled. More information on this service will be shared soon, in the interim check out Rory’s website here! 

Feedback

We were delighted to receive positive feedback from a soccer coach from another independent school in Adelaide. The other school’s team had not arrived in full meaning their only option was to play with half of their team or forfeit the game. As an amazing gesture of sportsmanship, the coaches and players from Annesley kindly volunteered to loan players to the other team, not just for their match against Annesley, but for each of their four games during the evening. This turned what would have been quite a negative outcome into a very positive experience for this team. The soccer coach contacted us, thanking the Annesley coaches and players who generously offered their time to play for and support the opposing team. What a great show of sportsmanship from our Annesley students and staff!

SAPSASA

Congratulations to Kyle and Nancy on being selected in the SAPSASA Adelaide South East District hockey teams. Both Kyle and Nancy will compete in the state-wide tournament during Week 4 of Term 3. We know that they will do both Annesley and the wider Adelaide South East District community proud!

Volunteering at Annesley Junior School

We are very appreciative of the time our volunteers share, the commitment they demonstrate, and the support they provide to the learning opportunities here at Annesley Junior School. As an organisation which works alongside young children, we always have many opportunities for members of our community to volunteer their strengths, passions and skills with our learners. If you have the capacity to volunteer, we would love to hear from you.

To ensure we meet all Child Protection Practices volunteers must have a current Working with Children Check and have undertaken mandatory reporting training. Adults who work voluntarily with children are considered as mandated notifiers under the SA legislation, and should therefore undertake the new training.

The RRHAN-EC training has been developed by the Department for Education, AISSA and CESA and is specifically for staff and volunteers working in education and care sites to ensure everyone fully understands the key concepts relating to protecting children from harm and their mandatory responsibility to report suspected child abuse and neglect and children at risk of harm. As of 1 January 2022, a RRHAN-EC training certificate with an expiry date of 31 December 2024 is required.

If you are a new or an existing volunteer, we ask you to please undertake the free two-hour online Fundamentals course between 1 July and 31 December 2021. Once completed you will then meet the requirements for conditional certification for the next three-year training cycle, unless you already have a certificate with an expiry date of 31 December 2024. The training is available on the Department for Education’s learner management system ‘Plink’. A letter outlining how to access Plink will be shared via School Stream.

Volunteers can use this certificate, like the Working with Children Check, across all schools/organisations. Please contact either Julie Hatherly, hatherlyj@annesley.sa.edu.au or me, Donna Nicolle, nicolled@annesley.sa.edu.au if you have any queries.

Donna Nicolle
Deputy Principal and Head of Early Years

Board of Directors

Congratulations to our Board of Directors team from Term 2 who today received their certificates for their contributions to school leadership.

International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme

On Monday to Wednesday next week Jo Rossiter, our Head of Primary Years is working in her role as an International Baccalaureate School Visit Team Member and will be (virtually!) visiting Toorak College in the Mornington Peninsula to evaluate their implementation of their IB Primary Years Programme. This role provides Jo with invaluable professional experience and insight into other IB schools in the Asia Pacific region with many benefits to our learning community. In February 2022, our School community will be engaging in our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme Evaluation which is conducted every 5 years in IB Schools.  

Literacy Resources 

Recently we have added the following resources for our students to access at school and at home. These include: 

  • Scholastic Literacy Pro – An online tool to select appropriate reading texts, monitor and motivate reading
  • Scholastic Short Reads – Fast, flexible and effective short texts to engage reading and comprehension in the classroom 
  • Britannica School – An online encyclopedia for independent readers to use for research 

Our Year 2-7 teaching teams have been working collaboratively to implement these in their learning with the students and will share more about these resources with families as the term progresses. 

Personal Devices at School

Thankyou for the feedback received in our recent stakeholder consultation regarding the development of our Personal Device Policy. This has been developed as a most crucial part of our commitment to creating a Child Safe Environment at Annesley. All students and parents in Years 2-7 have recently signed a Student ICT Use Policy which includes the Personal Device Policy.

Personal Device Policy

Annesley provides students with access to the devices that they require to participate in learning engagements and therefore students are not to bring their personal iPad or laptop to school or OSHC.

Students are able to share home learning between home and school through the Class Seesaw App which they can access on home devices.

If students need to bring a personal device such as a mobile phone or smart watch to school or OSHC, then the following guidelines are to be followed:

  • The personal device remains the responsibility of the students and their family
  • The student and/or parent are to inform their teacher that they have a phone or smart watch at School
  • All mobile phones are to be kept in bags in student lockers
  • The device is not to be connected at any time to the School Wi-Fi
  • All access to internet on School iPads is to be connected through the School Wi-Fi, under no circumstances is the mobile hotspot to be used from a mobile phone
  • Smart watches can be worn by students at School but are not to be used to message or call contacts between 8.30am and 3.30pm. All notifications are to be turned off during school hours.
  • If a student in Reception to Year 7 needs to contact a family member during the day, they are to discuss with their teacher and ring their parent at the front office
  • Families are to make contact by phone to the Front Office if they need to share a message with their child between 8.30am and 3.30pm

Book Week Parade

On Thursday 26th August, we will hold our annual Book Week Parade. The theme is “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds”.

Please dress as a character from your favourite book bring your favourite book.

Unfortunately, we are unable to have family and friend to come and watch this year.

Primary Years' Learning

Science Video News

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Assembly & Chapel

In line with COVID-19 protocols Assembly & Chapel has been temporarily cancelled. We will notify our Community once we are able to re-commence Assembly & Chapel.

A Note from our Chaplain

Be Dressed In Quality Clothing

Clothes can often identify something about us. Uniforms especially help us to identify the responsibility that someone carries – the reliance we can have on those people to perform a certain task. Their uniform can remind us that they are to be respected in the community.

Uniforms and clothing can identify something about us too – our purpose, and what we should be doing. They can help remind us to be responsible. When people see us in our Annesley uniform, we want to be recognised and known for certain things. We want to be creative and curious learners. We want to be empathetic and concerned for what is happening in the world around us. We want to present ourselves well, and honour values which have been integral to the heritage of Annesley.

“…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12)

The writer of these words in the Bible uses language which describes clothing ourselves in a certain way. If we desire to live lives which honour God and follow the ways and teachings of Jesus, then we’re encouraged to wear – to carry on us – specific attributes. Here the Bible uses clothes as a comparison to values, behaviours, and attitudes. The Bible points out that when people see us, they will notice that we have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, which ultimately comes from the character of God, and a love for people.

As a school, we are intentional with teaching and practicing our values. We encourage one another to put those values into action. To live them out and wear them proudly. When we get up in the morning and dress ourselves in those behaviours and attitudes – in qualities that are valued – we are ready for the day, and ready to be with others in a healthy and good way, as God intends us to be.

Be assured, you can’t outgrow ‘quality clothing’ like courage, respect, humility, responsibility, integrity, resilience, justice, compassion, civility, and gratitude. Those qualities grow and become stronger as you continue to display them and allow them to be part of who you are becoming.

Peter Morton
Annesley Chaplain

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