Welcome back to school for 2021. I would like to say a huge thank you for all of you who came to school prepared to scan our QR Code and also with a mask to wear. It was so lovely to chat with many of you after not having parents and caregivers in the school grounds. We hope that 2021 will continue to improve and that we will not need to return to further restrictions. Next week we should receive our SA Gov QR Code which will allow you to scan in a little more efficiently. I am very grateful for your help and support as we walk together on this journey of learning for you and your children. I really appreciated the conversations and the thanks for our school that were shared with us for the way we were able to keep children safe and we will continue to do all that we can to do this.

Our Meet the Teacher night will be the first parent event for 2021 on Wednesday 10^th February. We have made appropriate adjustments to help ensure that you have the opportunity to hear from your child’s teacher. We will be limiting the number of adults to 2m² for classroom entry and keeping the seating 1.5m apart. Cleaning will take place before children return in the morning. At this time, this is the only time adults will enter the classrooms until further restrictions are lifted. We will run each class session twice to have enough places to accommodate one adult per child and to help you visit two different year levels if you would like to. We will specify gate entry to help spread out adults as they enter our school and will not require masks to be worn for the evening. This will help you and our teachers to see each other and to help to get to know each other. We will send out a link for you to register one adult to attend a session in your child’s classroom. The first session will be held at 5:30-6:00pm and the second is 7:00-7:30pm. When one of the sessions fill up you will need to select the other session so I recommend booking the junior years first as more parents attend in the early years. We will not have child minding facilities available during either session. If you are unable to attend, please notify your class teacher via the diary so that they can provide you with the information.

You will receive lots of information over the coming days and we appreciate your help in reading right through to the end of our communication. We will endeavour to be clear and concise to help you with this. We will continue to communicate through a number of ways throughout the year to help you to know what you need and also for us to receive information appropriately.

• The Newsletter is published fortnightly and you receive this via a notification on the Bethany App as well as email. We will also send out Parent Updates in this manner if we need to communicate changes to usual practices like we experienced in 2020. 
• Your child’s diary is a primary means of direct communication with your child’s teacher. Please use this if you need to let your teacher know something or you have a question regarding how things work in the classroom. The diary is checked daily and we ask that you also check it daily. There are also policies that you may need in the front of the diary so that you can check policies that impact you.
• The Bethany App will also be used by year levels to notify you of things, to celebrate success or to remind you of events. If you have not downloaded the app to your device, please follow the instructions.

At times, class teachers will email you with information. We have asked our staff to set a time limit to when they will respond to emails in order to keep a good work life balance. They will let you know the best times for a response but it will be something like 8am-6pm.

Bethany Christian School does not have a social media presence. If you are invited to join a group with our name, please be aware that this does not represent our position and that we have asked that our staff do not join these groups. We want our staff to come to work and feel they are safe to do their job without being discussed. It can be very upsetting to read comments posted about staff or the school that are taken out of context or unfairly expressed. We would appreciate your respect in this matter. The most accurate school information will be found through our newsletter, broadcasts, emails and your child’s diary.

If you need to let your child know of a change of pickup, we ask that you call the office before 2:30pm, this allows us time to pass on the message. As a part of our BYOD policy we state that students are not to contact their parents directly, especially asking you to pick them up early. This can cause undue distress and means we may not be aware that your child needs to attend the Care Room. Our Registered Nurse, Mrs Wilson, is the best person to ensure that we provide appropriate medical care.

Our calendar is attached to this newsletter so please look to see what events are relevant to you and we will keep you updated with more specific information through the various forms of communication I have listed above.

We have the school dentist on site beginning Monday 15^th February. You are able to book a bulk billed appointment directly through the dental group. 

Please note that Easter falls within the end of this term and so there are some changes to our usual dates to accommodate this. 

I look forward to a great year with hopeful expectation that we will see God’s goodness in many ways and I pray that you will experience his peace in your home and on your family in 2021.

God bless,

Wendy Matear
Principal