From the Principal - Northview State School

MINI NEWS                                     No. 4 March 19, 2020

From the Principal
Attendance Champions
Despite the increasing uncertainty around COVID-19, this had
very little impact on our attendance rates last week which resulted
in an increase in attendance up to 95.5%! This has been the first
increase from the beginning of the year which was a great result.
The weekly attendance competition was hotly contested with our
winners with 100% attendance being……. 2S and 3MW! Special
mention to 5F with 99% and PD, PJ, 3H and 4N who came in with
98%. Across the school we had 14 out of 16 classes achieve our
school goal of 94%! Unfortunately with the COVID-19 situation
intensifying I don’t think that we will maintain these excellent
results this week however it is very good to see that we are still
having the vast majority of students well enough to be at school.
Let’s hope that this continues with everyone remaining healthy
and well.

School Photos Postponed
In light of the updated COVID-19 restrictions we have been in contact with our school
photographers MSP. MSP have informed us in order to align with the updated restrictions, they
are currently suspending all ‘group photos’ and will only be taking individual student photos for
the foreseeable future. As parents would be expecting a group photo as ordered, combined with
the increasing rate of student absence this week and taking into consideration the new
restrictions of limiting non-essential visitors to school facilities, I have decided to postpone our
school photos that were scheduled for next week. The P&C have been consulted and
support the decision.
MSP have indicated that we will be able to reschedule the event for either Term 3 or 4 and let’s
hope that things have returned to normal by then!
Thank-you for your understanding and support with this change.

COVID-19 Update
Yesterday evening Principals received a further update regarding COVID-19. I plan on sending
home a communication update via email today summarising this important information. Please
ensure that your email contacts are up to date with us.

Assembly Update
It was disappointing to have to cancel our usual weekly Assembly on Monday where we come
together as a whole school community, to celebrate our achievements of the previous week and
discuss activities and events for the week ahead. We did this week conduct our Student of the
Week presentations via class visits and also completed our behaviour card draw, with winners
going to the hall and participating in the Lotto Draw as usual. We are planning on implementing
a revised procedure next week, where students and staff will remain in their classrooms. We will
be using ‘Skype’ to conduct our assembly program through our teacher laptops and interactive
whiteboards. This will be very different to usual practice however these are unprecedented
times that we are operating in at the moment, causing us to modify our practice in order to keep
our core business ticking over. We will keep you updated next week how this goes!

AIP School Priorities 2020
This year our school has a sharp and narrow focus directed at some key priority areas for school
improvement:
•    Strengthen teacher knowledge and understanding of the Arts and HPE curriculum areas
•    Ensuring effective implementation of the Australian Curriculum with a particular focus on
     Languages (this involves expanding our offering of Japanese to Prep, Yr 1 and Yr 2
     students)
•    Continuing our focus on student reading improvement
•    Deepening teacher knowledge and understanding of the STEM (Science, Technology,
     Engineering and Maths) Agenda to increase student engagement and achievement
We will keep you informed of our progress with these priority areas as the year unfolds.

P& C Meeting
On Tuesday we had a small but enthusiastic gathering for our AGM and General Meeting. We
were able to elect a Treasurer and Secretary however with our President position a ballot was
required as we had 2 nominations, a very unusual but nice problem to have for our P&C
Association. After conducting the secret ballot however (my fears were realised) when we ended
up with a tied result! Consequently we will try again at our next meeting (with some additional
attendees present we hope) so that a clear decision results. The good news is that we also have
at least 2 people interested in the VP position which is one that we can have 2 people elected to.
We look forward to our next meeting.

Crazy Hair Day
Crazy Hair Day will continue tomorrow as per planned
arrangements. As we are not conducting a mass gathering
or assembly, it will be business as usual. Students and staff will
be able to wear their crazy hair styles as we discuss and
promote the “Bullying – No Way” message throughout the day.

Kind regards,

Darren Russell
(Principal)

Notice from CommBank School Banking

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people is our first priority. Due to
the rapidly developing situation with coronavirus, School Banking has been temporarily paused
from 20 March 2020 until the start of Term 2. Please don’t bring your deposit book with your
weekly banking into school and we will notify you when banking will recommence.

Kind regards,
Tamara and Tiffney

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Event Cancellation

Shed Happens Mackay and Neighbourhood Watch Northern Beaches regret to inform you that,
in line with current Qld Government Health Directives, the Pancakes and Play In The Park
activity on 28 Mar 20 is cancelled indefinitely.

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