This week has been a very challenging week for all staff, students and the school community with the passing of a student. We have been fortunate to have a number of YouthCare Chaplains and our School Psychologist on site to support our students and staff during these challenging times.

The school will be holding a special “free dress” event on Wednesday 17 June to remember and celebrate their life. Students are asked to wear bright colours on the day and to bring a gold coin donation. All funds collected on the day will be donated to Heart Kids.

Kindergarten enrolments for 2021 are open and places are filling fast. I would urge all families to secure their spot for 2021 as soon as possible to avoid being on the waiting list.

Construction of the Child & Parent Centre is scheduled to conclude during the term holidays. I look forward to sharing news on the operator and operations in due course with our community. I hope we will have some photo’s for coming newsletters.

It has been great to have parents back on the school grounds dropping and collecting students. It has also been pleasing to see a large number of parents are continuing to support their child’s new found independence by also continuing to drop off and collect from outside the school gates. Please remember we are limited to a maximum of 100 parents on site at a time so if you are a parent you MUST drop and go or collect and go this particularly applies to those with children in PP, Kindy or Yr 1 who are released to an adult or older sibling. Unfortunately, if parents do not adhere to these arrangements we may have to review our approach for having parents on site.

I would like to thank the many parents who have passed on messages of support and thanks to the staff that manned the gates every morning and afternoon for the last six weeks, no matter what the weather. Whilst the staff were happy to do this role to assist the students and families, and reduce any anxiety that may have been present due to the COVID climate, the messages of thanks and gratitude have been warmly accepted and just reinforced our shared commitment to Arbor Grove.

It is very important that students have water bottles. Many of our taps have been converted to water refill stations and it is likely that we will phase out the taps totally over time. We see the increased use of water bottles as one positive to come from the “new normal”. We would urge all parents to ensure their children’s name is on their water bottle and that they have it with them every day.

Glen Purdy