Welcome back to Term 3! It is so wonderful to be back and hear all about the fun and exciting things students and staff have experienced over the term break and with the added bonus this time of hearing from the students their highlights from Term 2. Thank you to Sarah, the leadership team and all of the wonderful staff for continuing to prioritise our whole school improvement agenda while I was on leave. I was able to completely ‘switch off’ and enjoy the valuable time with my family, and I have returned refreshed and extremely eager to continue with our school improvement journey. Welcome to our new families who have joined us this term. It is so lovely to hear the positive feedback from students and their families about how welcoming and inclusive our school community is.

 It has been so lovely to return from my Long Service leave to physically see and hear the progress and development so many of our students and staff have made. On Monday teaching and support staff spent the day revisiting some of the Professional Learning that many of our teams have experienced this year, sharing what they learned and how it has impacted on the learning in their classrooms. It is so important to model to our students that we are all on a path of continuous development and learning and I am personally so excited to some the shift in language and learning from our teaching staff that has been a direct result of us leaving our comfort zones and trying new approaches and teaching strategies. This is a truly exciting time for us as a school.

This term we welcome two new staff members, Mrs Holly Ebdon and Mr Matt Desmarchilier (Mr Des). Mrs Ebdon has joined us as our Support Teacher. She is here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in this role and is really excited to work in our school. Mr Des is our new Physical Education and Health teacher on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Mr Des is also really enthusiastic and excited about working in our school. Last term we said goodbye to Mrs Oates and Ms Barnes, and as a result we have advertised a position on our leadership team which I hope to be able fill within the next couple weeks. In the meantime, for consistency,  Mrs Bloomfield has return to 5/6A full time for the rest of the year. We would like to sincerely thank Mrs Bloomfield for her wonderful passion and expertise in the area of Art and hope to utilise her skills in this area in the future. Until the position is filled on a more permanent basis, we welcome Mrs Jen Thompson (one of our regular relief teachers) who will provide specialist classes for students in Prep-Grade 6.

Last term many of you would be aware that during our Bush Kinder session some moulded concrete material was found in the Gordons Hill Reserve above Lindisfarne Primary School. This is an area we have visited with our Kinder children as well as one of our Grade One classes over the past few years. As a result, the Department of Education engaged IPM Consulting Services to conduct an asbestos risk assessment. The material returned a positive reading, but with negligible risk. The company categorised the material as bonded, which means that the material could not be easily crushed and therefore hard for particles to be released into the air. Due to this, the consulting service has listed this incident as negligible risk with no further action required.

Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania were advised, and I believe they have closed the park to the public and are still managing the site clean-up. I will continue to liaise with them about an appropriate time for us to continue using the park and I will advise the entire school community if and when this is scheduled to occur. Student and staff health and safety is my priority. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania on 1300 827 727.