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The Pipeline Newsletter

8th May 2023

Our students are loving
coming to school
every day!

Principal's Report

Assembly

We have had a variety of classes do assembly items over this term. The Senior and Junior Choir have also performed, which was very well received. It has been great to see the variety of performances and the way the students run the assembly each week. Congratulations to all staff and students who are involved.

Coming up soon is our Student RAP Committee who will be running the NAIDOC Week assembly on Thursday 15th June.

Eastern Entry to School

Parents and students coming into the school from the Oasis Pool carpark would have noticed the new building and now a new entry into the school. It has been completed and hopefully the new entry is easy to navigate. The new concrete paths and raised walkway look good and should not hinder access.

Staff Car Park

I am sure if you have been a parent of O’Connor PS for any length of time, you may have noticed a regular reminder regarding not parking in the staff carpark at the beginning or end of the school day as it can be very congested and we do not want children to be walking in that area. We are in the process now of installing automatic gates to firstly ensure safety of all students and to also ensure appropriate cars are in the area. Over the next week, you may see the gate being installed and it will only be opened for registered cars. I am sure you will agree that safety of students is paramount and this change will assist in that area.

Unwell Students

We have certainly been hit hard with a large number of students absent over the last week. We have averaged 180 students away each day since last Monday. This is extremely high and the majority have been listed as away due to illness. I believe COVID is still in the community and we have had a number of students and staff record a positive RAT. There also appears to be a bad strain of the winter flu which has hit families very badly. I ask all carers to keep children showing symptoms home if possible and test for COVID, if needed. Please inform us of absences due to illness so we can record it appropriately. Refer to the Health WA website for further information on COVID or the winter flu strains.

Class Updates

As with the number of student absences, we have also had staff absences due to COVID and the flu. We have attempted to minimise disruption to classes as much as we can, but we are also limited with the number of relief teachers we can secure on any day. Our focus is to ensure that classrooms run as close to routine as possible but this may mean some specialist classes may have to run at another time.

If any parent has questions regarding classroom operation, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Upcoming Events

Term 2 has certainly been very busy with a number of events occurring. Some include Humphreys Dance, swimming lessons for Pre Primary, Reconciliation Week and Eagles & Fever Cup happening each Friday afternoon. A highlight next week is our NAIDOC Week which starts with a whole school assembly on Monday morning and followed by a number of different events throughout the week. It promises to be a fantastic week where all the students can involve themselves in different activities. The RAP Committee have worked hard to set up a number of exciting visitors and events throughout the week. The week concludes with a whole school assembly on Thursday at 2:00pm.

Towards the end of the term, we have our Faction Cross Country and I am sure students will start training for that very soon. I hope you can join us for some of the events.
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