Welcome back to Term 3. I hope that you were able to enjoy a change of routine with your family. We have had a settled start to the term and the morning drop off continues to run smoothly. Thank you for your patience in the car park.

Our teachers have expressed how they have missed the opportunity to speak with you in regard to your child’s progress, and so we are moving our Parent Teacher interviews to Thursday 6^th August and Tuesday 11^th August. These are usually held at the end of Term 3 but we are very keen to give you the opportunity to talk about your child’s learning. In order to comply with social distancing and yet provide a face to face meeting, we will hold them in the Performing Arts Centre and Function Room. We will be limiting numbers on site by asking that only one adult attend the meeting and we will be unable to have children cared for. If your interview is before 6pm, you may like to consider using OSHC to care for your children. We understand this is inconvenient and if you are unable to attend an interview, teachers will also be happy to hold a telephone interview with you at another prearranged time. Holding all interviews within the Performing Arts facility allows us to limit the amount of additional cleaning required, keep all interviews running on time and to manage moving adults safely in and out of the school grounds. The online booking system will be available very soon for you to book in for a meeting. Although we are hopeful that restrictions will continue to lift, we are keen to hold interviews while we know that South Australia is COVID free in order to meet with you while we can. It seems that we are all continuing to develop skills of flexibility and adaptability. 

It was wonderful to see our after school sporting teams starting up this week and we ask that only one adult attend this training and that any adults remain in the area directly around the courts and keep the 1.5m distancing rule. I know that you are getting used to this everywhere that you go and we want to remain vigilant to ensure the ongoing health of our community. 

School Photographs are occurring this term on Thursday 13^th August. There will be a few organisational changes to ensure that students are safe including our internal management of family photos. While parents are not gathering on site, we will organise the family groups to get together. If you are having a family photo, we ask that you drop off your children at 8:15am and we will organise the family groups to walk straight over to the PAC. Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct winter uniform on that day, no PE uniform. If you need to purchase any uniform items, School Locker is open for appointments on Wednesday and Friday mornings 8:30 - 10:30 am or you can go online at any time to order at https://www.bethany.sa.edu.au/for-parents/uniform-shop For specific uniform information, please see pages 13 - 15 in your child’s diary.

Please find attached a Term calendar which we hope will be accurate, however, we will continue to give you updates if information changes. Our staff are working hard to keep learning themselves and we spent some time on Monday focussing on student agency and how we can find ways to keep building the knowledge and capabilities of students. We were reminded that God created each student to be unique and that it matters how we each contribute to the world. I was challenged by the statement “we don’t learn unless we reflect” and I would encourage you to be reflective, especially as a parent, in order to keep learning too.

Thank you for trusting us as we work together in this challenging time. We do have an awesome school community and we are blessed to work with your children. We look forward to catching up with you soon.

God bless,

Wendy Matear
Principal

Memory Verse

A lying witness is unconvincing; a person who speaks truth is respected.

Proverbs 21: 28