WORKING BEE - THANK YOU!

Many thanks to Terry and all the families who helped at our Working Bee on Sunday. We had a great turn out of adults and kids and ticked off our list of jobs. We really appreciate the help of our parent and carer volunteers and will continue to put out the call each term.

There may be some additional painting work coming up – particularly if you are comfortable but more importantly have received training working with heights. Watch this space.

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SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS

We had two nominations for the parent vacancies on school council and would like to welcome Rosie Annear and Blair Venn to the Winters Flat school council. We sincerely thank outgoing members Chris McKenzie and David Tobin for their time and effort during their tenure. We would also like to welcome Bianca Alvarez Harris whose nomination has been accepted as a department representative. Keenan Lucas has stepped down from school council and we thank him for his input and effort during his time as school councillor. At our AGM on Monday night the following office bearers were elected:

• President: Katie Wilson
• Vice President: Rosie Annear
• Treasurer: Simon Duthie
• Secretary: Fiona Johnston/Peta Firth

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SCHOOL COUNCIL HARMONY DAY PICNIC & SAUSAGE SIZZLE

Thursday 21st March Botanical Gardens

Our first social gathering for 2019 will take place from 5.00pm – 7.00pm tomorrow at the Castlemaine gardens. We encourage families to bring a picnic to share – School Council will also be providing sausages.

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ROAD SAFETY – EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY

In response to some concerns raised via local social media last week, I spoke to students about how they cross the road and walk safely to and from school. I would like to reinforce that message here in the newsletter as we all have a shared responsibility to promote safe road habits, particularly when children are using roads where there are no traffic lights or school crossings.

We encourage as many children to walk to school as possible and seek your assistance in reminding them to stay safe.

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KIDS, SCREENS AND BEHAVIOUR

7.00pm-8.30pm next Tuesday 26th March

We still have some places available to see our guest speaker Educational Psychologist Matt Davis who will be talking about the challenges of screens and behaviour and how to unplug and survive parenting in the digital world.

As a principal I am seeing increasing numbers of sleep-deprived children who talk about the many hours they spend playing on-screen games.

This forum is also open to the wider Castlemaine community with tickets available through Trybooking (see event listing below).

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PARENTING IDEAS – Michael Grose

This week’s article gives some advice about how to support children in the wake of the events in Christchurch. The Minister for Education also sent all Victorian school the following link: Supporting children and young people with distressing events.

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Suzanne Kinnersly
Principal.