Dear Parents

We have had a very exciting few weeks, with our Year 5/6 classes attending Sovereign Hill camp. The camp gave the children the opportunity to link their learning to real life experiences and is a valuable support to their learning about the Gold Rush. From all accounts it was a fantastic camp and students and staff thoroughly enjoyed it. It also gave the staff and students an opportunity to bond as a senior team, ready for a great year ahead.

Our Foundation students had their own camp experience this week when they stayed behind after everyone had gone home to have an exciting afternoon of games, fun and food that they had prepared earlier in the day. According to staff and students, it was a great afternoon with lots of exciting activities to do.

I am sure you can see from the photos that both camp experiences were great fun and a wonderful way for our children to experience independence and resilience as they spent time away from their families. I thank the staff for the wonderful job they did to support our camps program and provide exciting learning opportunities for our students.

This week we also participated in the Western Valley District Swimming competition. This was a fantastic day with all swimmers doing their very best and coming away with many ribbons, personal best times and the opportunity to move forward to the Divisional Swimming competition in Traralgon next week. Staff who attended said that the children were outstanding in their performances, behaviour and support for each other. We are so proud of our swimmers and wish them all the very best in Traralgon next week.

As we move through the liturgical season of Lent, we are focussing on the need to reflect on how we treat each other and making sure that we are being the BEST we can be. While this is always our focus, Lent is a powerful time to remind ourselves of the importance of respecting and caring for each other, saying sorry if we cause harm and knowing that, when we are sorry and say we are sorry, we have an opportunity to rebuild relationships and grow from the experience. This is important in all our lives and Lent gives us a gentle reminder to keep on trying to do better, be better and look after each other.

Kind regards

Lisa