Dear Parents
What a stunning day we had on Tuesday at the cross-country event, after seemingly weeks of rain there was not a cloud in the sky on our chosen day. I must say congratulations to Clare Whittington for organising another first class event and a huge thank you to all of the parent volunteers who contributed in a wide variety of ways to make the day such a success.
Most important to me was the fact that we took every child in the school down to the Shore Road fields and they all cheered and supported one another as the races unfolded. Our House captains lead the way helping, encouraging and cajoling all of the junior syndicate children as they completed their runs. It was a great example of something very special about our children; the empathy, sportsmanship and kindness they offered to all the runners, whatever their individual abilities or house affiliations.
There were fabulous individual performances from some talented runners and excellent personal achievements from those who battled just to complete the courses without stopping, well done everyone.
Another boon of the sunshine was that we were able to pour the final concrete outside of the new classrooms. The contractors are now busy tidying up small bits and pieces ready for Rooms 12 and 14 to move in to their long awaited new homes next week. Many thanks to those parents and friends who have offered help to the staff this weekend as they prepare the classrooms for occupation.
Parents Meeting – Tuesday 17th August
Further to last week’s newsletter I wish to remind parents that next Tuesday we have a Parents Meeting at 7.00pm in the hall. The format of the evening is as follows:
- A short introduction outlining National Standards and the purpose of assessment.
- Literacy and Numeracy breakout groups - 2 x 20 mins where Anne Bridgman and Jane Cameron will cover current assessment tools used at VAS and how OTJs (Overall Teacher Judgements - the method by which National Standards are to be judged) are formed.
- An outline of current 2010 reporting schedule and proposal for the future - This will include plans for an online 'Parent Portal' for accessing records and information.
- We will then break into discussion/feedback groups of approx 6-8 people (depending on numbers attending) each lead by a member of the SMT or Curriculum leadership teams. This is the consultation phase - each table/group will have copies of proposed new report formats together with some key discussion questions. Each leader will record comments and then we will meet to review the feedback.
We aim to be finished before 9.00pm. Following this process a summary of the evening will be produced and distributed to parents with an invitation for further comment.
The usual response rate for parent surveys at VAS has been consistently around the 20% mark, we would hope that we can attract 50+ parents to this evening to give a representative cross-section of our parent body.
It would be helpful to have an idea of numbers of attendees that evening. Please could you
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if you intend coming, or phone her on 5200602.
PTS Quiz Night
Finally I would like to say thank you to everyone who supported our PTS Quiz Night last Saturday. We had a fantastic time and Vlad managed to keep some semblance of order throughout most of the proceedings.
The table themes were impressive once again and some costumes were so good that recognising friends was not always as easy as you’d think. Congratulations to the ‘best-dressed’ table, the Scarfies - actually table is not an accurate description it was closer to a blue and gold student flat complete with armchairs and even a beer fridge! Special mention too for our Champions, The Cullens, aka half of the legendary Room 14 crew, who managed to use their deep intellects (and pockets) to secure a third straight win!
Kind regards
Allan Short
Principal
