Welcome to our final newsletter for Term 3. Our students did an amazing job last week as they celebrated cultures and creativity. Our desire to see students develop awareness and respect for other cultures was certainly an outcome of these celebrations and your children really shone as they shared their learning with others. The week included many varying experiences and I know that the importance of learning how to co-create was a very positive experience for staff and students. We follow up these kinds of experiences with feedback for and from our students and this process is a really important part of the learning cycle. I would encourage you to ask your children about their reflections. We often use; I like, I wish and even better if, as three provoking questions. We also asked students to rate how much they contributed personally to making their year level experience successful.
Next week our Year 1 and Year 2 students have their swimming lessons throughout the week. I know that it will be a lot of fun and a wonderful opportunity for them to practice water safety and developing independence in and out of the water. You may like to support us by ensuring that you have named all of your child’s belongings to help with the changing process.

The State Government continues to provide a range of grants that support capital projects within our school. We were successful in applying for some funding to go towards our outdoor play development which is starting at the beginning of December as well as the development of the outdoor learning area at the rear of the 3 to 6 learning block. This space is called ‘the backyard’ and we are setting up a multi-use space to allow for creativity and innovation, with art sinks, benches that are easy and safe to use for various lessons and some basic outdoor kitchen facilities. This area will become even more useful for classes to book and we look forward to sharing how this is developed with you. The school also contributes to these projects and the Parents and Friends and Student Representative Council continue to fundraise to make contributions to these exciting developments.

This week you will have received some information about our Colour Explosion Fun Run which will happen right at the end of Term 4, to celebrate the end of the year. We found last year that the restrictions placed upon gathering made it very difficult to celebrate together with you. We also missed the opportunity to gather together at our Autumn Fair and so our Parents and Friends have only been able to host the Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls this year. The Colour Explosion Fun Run will allow us to combine the Parent’s and Friends fundraiser with the end of year gathering so that we can enjoy some time together and celebrate what has been another amazing year. We hope to open up both ovals and to host you in an old style picnic with activities like the 3 legged race, tug of war, a climbing wall and many other fun activities for families. We will also have the Colour Explosion Fun Run for students to enjoy. This event reduces our likelihood of losing deposits if we are unable to gather the whole community as we can still hold the event during the school day for the students. We will make the best of the times that we find ourselves in, and bring fun and celebration to finish the year.
This week and next week we are holding our Parent Teacher Interviews at school. The booking link was sent out two weeks ago via email for you to choose the best time. If you did not receive the email, please contact the Office to update your email information.
As we enter the end of Term 3, can I remind any families who are moving away from Bethany at the end of 2021 to contact Bronnie at enrolments to notify us in writing to fulfill our requirement for one term’s notice.

We head into the school break with a normal dismissal on Friday 24th September and return to school on Monday 11th October. I do pray for God’s protection over all of our community and hope that you can enjoy some special time with your children.

God bless,

Wendy Matear
Principal

Memory Verse

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5: 6