Our school Open Day to celebrate Education Week had a brilliant day with students, parents, volunteers and members of the community sharing in a great and informative day around our school focus on the Kitchen Garden and Sustainability. Students, staff and guests rotated through a number of activities, including a solar energy workshop, composting, cheese-making, tree planting (75 planted!), Garden art, Story telling by local elders and of course, cooking up a storm!

The menu for the day was Pumpkin soup, garlic bread, and magnificent pizzas. Every child, staff and guest enjoyed a sumptuous meal together at the end of our two workshops. What a fantastic day!

Special thanks go to our guest contributors and workshop presenters, to all the guests, staff and to Ms Sharyn Morrice for co-ordinating the day. Great job! A special thanks go to parents, Jo and Anita, who also pitched in to help clean up the mess.

What’s happening in the garden?

Due to our fantastic open day, garden classes were something which members of the whole school community took part in last week. It was great seeing so many people, adults and children of all ages busy in the garden, getting dirty and having fun interacting with each other. And it was such a beautiful sunny day as well.
Now that the winter is really starting to set in, the use of a hot house to provide a warm environment for the germination of seeds is highly recommended. Seeds will always germinate quicker if they are kept moist and the temperatures of the soil and air are higher. Seedlings are best kept in the same conditions until ready to plant out, as the warmth will give them a faster growth rate. Before planting you will need to let them harden off outside for about a week. This means giving them time to get used to the outdoor temperature and conditions before planting them into cold soil. In the
absence of a hot house a sunny kitchen or bathroom window sill works well.

I was fortunate to share morning tea yesterday with Heather, Robyn, Tracey and Phil.  They gave up a couple of hours of their valuable time to provide feedback on incursions, excursions, sport, swimming and camps.  Please have a look at the minutes of our meeting (attached) to see what they felt about these important extra curricular activities.  Thank you very much to these parents for sharing their thoughts and suggestions.

I get very stressed when I hear of students arriving at school without having had breakfast.  Even at my great age I have to have breakfast to start the day off right and to give me the energy to do all the things I need to throughout the day.  The word breakfast actually means ‘breaking the fast’, that is, the long sleeping time when your body has not eaten for up to ten hours.  Your body cannot function properly without food so how can children be expected to learn and grow without the right fuel to make it happen.  Please ensure that your children are fed before they come to school.  You do not need to spend a lot of money on breakfast cereals, the cheaper ones are usually the best for you, e.g.  Weet Bix.  And don’t forget that all students are welcome to have breakfast at school on a Tuesday and Thursday morning.  It is free and there is plenty of variety.  The only rule is that they be finished by 8.50 am.

Next time you are up at school please take the time to look at our beautiful shade sails over the playground equipment.  Wowee!  It’s been a long time coming but it has transformed the area into a colourful and fun place to be.

Until next week …

Anne