Greetings
I hope everyone has had a great long weekend and took full advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with the one’s they care about.
Namehae Outdoor Challenge Camp
Last week our Year 5-9s head Name for HFS’s first Outdoor Challenge Camp. With everyone having a great time and coming home safe we’re going to chalk up last week’s camp as a great success.
Some foul weather hampered some of the activities, threatened to ruin the mood but I thanks to the efforts of Mrs Van Helden and the rest of the staff who accompanied the students on the trip everyone came home with a smile on their face.
I’ve also been told that the attitude and behavior of our students was brilliant and they stayed positive even when things were literally gloomy. A big well done to them for representing our school so well.
Assessment Week
Please note that week 5 and 6 (this week and next week) on our term planner are dedicated assessments weeks. What this means is that over the course of the next two weeks teachers will be conducting a series of summative and diagnostic tests to help determine the progress of the students in their class. The assessments are set by the school and while they could be conduct within a week, we try to space them out over a two week period to help reduce test anxiety and to provide some flexibility as to when the tests are administered. Testing focuses on the core subjects Maths, English and Science and this term will primarily be composed of the Cambridge Progression tests.
We do ask that everyone make an additional effort to ensure their children are in attendance during this time and to keep class teachers informed if they will absent. If you have any additional questions please see the Parent’s Handbook on our website or speak to your child’s class teacher.
Science Fair
This is a polite reminder to all that the HFS Science Fair is just around the corner and projects will need to be completed and ready to present by May 19th. I’ve heard some great things from Mr Munden about the progress of many of the participants and I can’t wait to see what everyone has been working so hard on over these past few weeks.
Time has been allocated for all main school classes to visit the fair on Friday May 20th, and the event will be open to the rest of the community and EYC students the same afternoon.
Improving our Communication
Last week a need arose whereby HFS had to contact a large number of parents in a relatively short amount time. While our website has been great in improving communication many are not aware of new messages quick enough when a matter is urgent and emails or phone calls are not ideal when a large number of people need to be contacted.
For these reasons we are currently exploring email based messaging services to send out school wide notifications (such as this Newsletter) and important updates (such as school closures or health notices). All parents who have completed a HFS Contact Form have already been added and a sign-up page is being created.
At present I will be posting the school Newsletter and sending out an email based version, which will become the primary means of communication if successful. Please note that you can opt out from the email list at any time but you may miss important updates. If you did not get the newsletter sent to you automatically you can signup here.
If you have any feedback about this new approach to sending out the HFS Newsletter and other important notices we’d love to hear it.
The EYC Newsletter
Today it was announce that the EYC newsletter will no longer be published. We just want to reassure that all the news that was once published on the EYC letter will now be included in the school newsletter. We just want to make sure that all our news is one place and reaching as everyone in our community. We appreciate your understanding.
Thank you to the PTA for their appreciation
Today the HFS PTA began their Teacher Appreciation Week celebrations and I wanted to take a moment to thank them for their efforts. I know all the staff are appreciative of the effort gone into inorganic the week and have already expressed their gratitude about this morning’s event!
Staffing for Next Year
Over the last few weeks a number of parents have approached staff regarding who is staying and who is leaving. At present there are a number of staff members leaving, and we are working on filling those vacancies, in addition to determining the new class structure (given our falling role), This has been a challenge but is nearly resolved. For this reason we ask that everyone remain patient until the Parent Consultation night where we will be confirming leavers, tentative teacher year level placements and announcing a number of new employees for the 2016-17 year.
Thank you for your support.