Benson Landscaping have completed the redevelopment of our lower garden area and it is looking very smart indeed. This will now be a valuable learning area for our school, and I encourage parents to take the time to have a look at the space that has been created. A huge thank you to Dean and his workers at Benson Landscaping for their work. Classes will have the chance to work in this space in the next few weeks before the space will become fully available to students.

Building works as part of the Contemporary Classroom Project have recommenced and the restructured spaces are starting to take shape. While there may be some noise and disruption over the next few weeks it will be great to have these areas completed and hopefully utilised by the end of the year.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Australian Principals’ Association Conference in Hobart. This conference is a great networking opportunity to hear from education experts from across the world. Neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis talked about brain development and the importance of the first 1000 days in later outcomes for our children. He reiterated the fact that human beings need to be able to access the frontal cortex of their brain to learn. At Havenview Primary School, our Whole School Agreed Inclusive Practices include teaching students self- regulation strategies to help them do just that - access the frontal cortex. In fact, I am very much looking forward to next week’s Monday Morning Meeting where our hardworking Student Wellbeing Group will commence their work in sharing regulatory strategies with our students. They will initially demonstrate breathing strategies which will be practised in their classrooms throughout the week. These breathing techniques will also be shared with all families via social media, so together you can practise and encourage the use of these techniques at home.

Shortly, Parent and Staff Satisfaction Surveys are due to be completed. Over the last 2 years we have had a great response from parents in getting the parent survey completed and I encourage all parents to complete the survey as this data helps to inform our school improvement journey.

In closing, I would like to remind everyone that Wednesday 23 August is our Book Week Parade.  I hope to see many of our families in attendance to celebrate Book Week and view the costumes that students and staff have created. Remember, we will have a morning tea for parents afterwards in the Café (from 9:45 – 10:15am) where Ms Maartensz will speak about the Concepts of Print and where to next when reading with our youngest learners.