Dear Families 

A warm welcome to begin the 2024 school year and a special welcome to new students and families joining us at Craigburn for the very first time. 

I hope everyone enjoyed some quality family time over the holiday break and are looking forward to the new school year, starting on Monday 29th January.

Teachers and support staff returned to school last week and have been busy planning learning programs and preparing work / learning spaces. They are looking forward to meeting their new classes and families.

Please take a few moments to check in with some important information below to begin the new school year. 

Best wishes to all for the first week back.

Warm regards, Paul

Paul Luke – Principal

First Week Take Home Packs

To start the year, your child will be taking home an envelope, containing the following information:

• Student Change of Details form – only to be completed if there are any changes to family and emergency contact details, and medication requirements. Please check your details thoroughly and sign before returning to school in the envelope – either in person at the front office or via your child’s class teacher.
• Materials and Services Charge with payment information and options.
• Permissions / Consent Forms – Updates

If relevant, please ensure you promptly return the Student Change of Details form as soon as possible. Throughout the year, if there are any changes to parent / carer / emergency contacts, please communicate these to the school as soon as possible.

School Card

Low-income families are able to get financial help with school fees, materials and services charges, through the School Card scheme. All types of School Card applications are now online. You can access the online forms from any device that gets the internet, including mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, as well as laptops and computers. 

Application details can be accessed through the Department’s School Card scheme page.

School Communications 

A reminder to check in with our main communication channels below. 

News Blog – Craigburn Connections

The Craigburn Connections News Blog  http://blogs.craigburn.sa.edu.au is an important communication link between the school and families, containing information about learning activities and events within the school and the wider school community. The Weekly Wrap is published every Sunday afternoon with relevant information for the week ahead.

Please ensure you have subscribed to the news blog – so that you can receive email notifications when new posts are published. Once you have subscribed for the first time with a new email, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription.  If you have any difficulty subscribing, please contact us so that we can manually update your subscription. 

Email, Class Connections Newsletters and Seesaw 

Email, Class Connections Newsletters and Seesaw are used by teachers and teaching teams as a means to share their students’ and class’ learning journeys as well as communicating directly with parents. Information will be provided to families at the beginning of the school year.

Facebook

Craigburn has an official school Facebook Page which is used to share and promote school news as it happens. Feel free to like and follow our Page.

Website

Our school website at www.craigburn.sa.edu.au provides new and current information about the school. It also provides links to report a student absence and / or book a school tour (for new prospective families).

Term 1 Planner

We are in the process of finalising our Term 1 and Yearly Planner. In the interim, please save the dates for the following events:

• Acquaintance Night – Monday 12th February
• Student Free Day – Friday 16th February
• Annual General Meeting – Monday 19th February
• Adelaide Cup Public Holiday – Monday 11th March
• NAPLAN starts – Years 3 and 5 – Wednesday 13th March
• Year 3-5 Swimming – from Monday 25th – Thursday 28th March
• Year 6 Aquatics – Wednesday 27th March
• Good Friday / Easter Monday Public Holidays – Friday 29th March / Monday 1st April
• Sports Day – Friday 5th April
• Reception – Year 2 Swimming – Monday 29th April – Friday 3rd May

More dates to come.

Term 2024 Dates

• Term 1        Monday 29th January – Friday 12th April
• Term 2        Monday 29th  April – Friday 5th July
• Term 3        Monday 22nd July – Friday 27th September
• Term 4        Monday 14th October – Friday 13th December

Student Free Days 2024 – Save the dates

As shared late last year – 2 student free days are confirmed for 2024, as follows:

• Friday 16th February – Term 1 Week 3
• Friday 9th August – Term 3 – Week 3

A further 2 student free days will be scheduled and communicated to families early in the new school year. A school closure day (a day of local significance) will also be scheduled, which typically aligns with the week of the Royal Adelaide Show.

Attendance

School is open for students from 8.30am. For safety and duty of care reasons, we ask that students not come onto school grounds before 8.30am unless supervised by a parent. A reminder that our OSHC service provides before school care from 7.00am. OSHC enrolment forms can be found on our website, or through OSHC directly. 

Teachers will begin opening classrooms with lessons commencing at 8.50am. Students are expected to wait outside their classrooms upon arrival. The first few minutes of the school day are very important as this is when daily notices and reminders about events are given, notes are collected, communication books are checked and a range of other organisational matters are managed. Students who arrive late (even a few minutes late), often miss this valuable information.

Students who arrive after the 8.50am school bell, must report directly to the front office and sign in as a late arrival.

Dismissal is at 3.10pm with school staff on Front Gate, School Crossing and Heath Lane duties.

Safety, Traffic and Parking

A friendly reminder to families to please follow local council parking rules, especially when using the ‘drop-off and pick-up’ zones on Murrays Hill Rd and Heath Lane. Please, also be considerate of local residents when parking close to the school for any length of time. Please also note:

• Local Council Rangers often attend schools unexpectedly to monitor school zones and will issue infringement notices as they deem appropriate. 
• Vehicles entering the drop off / pick up zone off Murrays Hill must continue through the zone if a temporary parking space is unavailable – this prevents traffic building up on Murrays Hill Rd.
• The staff car park is not to be used for the drop off and pick up of children as doing so is dangerous and causes congestion – unless using the disability access park and displaying a permit.
• We ask parents to refrain from parking in the staff car park after 7.30am in the morning and before 5.00pm in the afternoon. If accessing OSHC please temporarily park in the drop off / pick up zone.
• Please contact the front office for emergency access.

Staff Update

We welcome the following teachers and support staff to Craigburn for 2024 and wish them a successful start to the year.

• Laura Fazzalari – Specialist Science – Laura joins us for 2024, providing a specialist role in Science – taking classes from Reception to Year 6 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
• Sue Gaardboe – Specialist STEM / Library role. Sue joins us in 2024 having been on leave completing her PhD in STEM / Problem Based Learning. Sue previously worked as assistant principal at Brighton Primary School in a STEM leadership role. Sue will be based in the library and working with students and teachers across the school.
• Renee Wheatland –  Renee joins us for 2024, having worked in a number of primary schools including Thiele and Glenelg. Renee will be providing additional support in the Reception to Year 2 classes.
• Hayley Beard – Hayley joins our front office team working alongside Bron, Sam and Clare on Mondays and Wednesdays.

To Note:

• Congratulations to Sophie Sutherland (McDonald) who married her partner Alex before Christmas last year. 
• Veronica Khalaf and Brooke Hamden continue in their curriculum coordinator roles throughout 2024, providing leadership and supporting our learning improvement goals.
• Janine Mackay continues as student wellbeing leader, working in this role on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Staff List 

• Our staff list for 2024 can be accessed further below.

Lesson / Bell Times

• 8.30am – Students / families allowed on school grounds.
• 8.50am – Siren sounds and the school day begins. Students arriving late must sign in at the front office.
• 10.50am – Recess
• 11.20am – Lessons continue
• 12.50pm – Children eat their lunch in the classroom
• 1.00pm – Lunch play
• 1.30pm – Lessons continue
• 3.10pm – Children are dismissed.  

Facilities Upgrades

Toilet Refurbishments

We are very pleased to have our 3 student toilet blocks fully refurbished over the school holidays. Given these recent refurbishments, we kindly ask families to engage in a conversation with their child/ren about practising good hygiene habits, such as washing hands thoroughly with soap and water, flushing after use, and disposing of waste properly. 

Additionally, it’s crucial that we remind children about the importance of mutual respect and privacy while using the school toilets. We will be talking to students at our first day assembly about the new toilets and the importance of personal hygiene and safety.

New Bins

The Department has provided schools with new internal waste bins, with standardised labelling across all schools. This is part of the Department’s new waste stream strategy for schools to minimise waste going to landfill and instead be redirected to being processed into an alternative fuel source.

New Deck

We are excited to have received funding to remediate the C-Block deck / verandah area adjacent to rooms C16 and C17. We will be meeting soon with builders to determine the scope and timing of works to be undertaken.

Uniform / Hats and Second Hand Uniform Shop

New uniform items that have been purchased can be collected from the front office. 

As per our Sunsmart policy, a broad-brimmed or legionnaire style hat must be worn during outdoor learning lessons and play times when the UV rating is 3+ (mostly summer, autumn and spring months). 

Hats are available for sale – please enquire through the front office.

Second Uniform Shop

The second hand uniform shop is solely managed by parent volunteers. Annika and Jodie provide an excellent service to our school community to ensure we have quality second-hand stock available and ready for any time throughout the school year. The uniform shop will be open a number of times per week, with operating hours for 2024 to be confirmed soon. 

New School Uniforms – Online Supplier
New school uniforms can be purchased via our online supplier, DLC Clothing. Please visit the following website for full details. https://www.dzaustralia.com.au/collections/craigburn

Canteen

Sue and the canteen were grateful for the support they received throughout 2024. The canteen will again be inviting parents to help with volunteering. Keep an eye out for an update.

Lost and Found Library Books

If you happen to have come across any library books over the holidays we would appreciate you returning them to school so that they can be made available for others to borrow. Please return all books even if they are damaged so we can repair or replace them.

Stay tuned – more information to share soon …

• School iPads for students in Years 2 – 6.
• School Sport – nominations for summer and winter seasons of school sport.
• Volunteering – Throughout the year there will be opportunities to engage with school events and learning programs.  

Staff List – 2024

Class Teachers – including locations and fraction of time (eg 0.6 = 3 days) and days working (M, T, W, Th, F)

• Reception – D20 – Sophie Sutherland
• Reception – D21 – Tahlia Woolford
• Reception – D22 – Genna Dow
• Reception – E23 – Renee Wheatland
• Year 1 – E24 – Crystal Thanawathik
• Year 1 – E25 – Pip Tonkin
• Year 2 – A1 – Brooke Hamden 0.6 (MTF) Emma Bower 0.4 (WTh)
• Year 2 – A3 – Anita Wright 0.6 (MTW) Olivia Dean 0.4 (ThF)
• Year 2/3 – A6 – Chloe Bremner
• Year 3 – C14 – Veronica Khalaf 0.8 (MTThF) Chantelle McMahon 0.2 (W)
• Year 3 – C15 – Renae Humphrys
• Year 4 – C16 – Rebecca Hepworth 0.8 (MTThF) Chantelle McMahon 0.2 (F)
• Year 4 – C17 – Pearl Somerset 0.6 (MTW) Jodie Fischer 0.4 (ThF)
• Year 4/5 – B13 – Tristan Fergusson
• Year 5 – B11 – Steven Webster
• Year 6 – B8 – Andrea Grant (Chantelle McMahon to teach 1/2 Thursdays)
• Year 6 – B9 – Mark Lemmey

Specialist Teachers – locations

• German – D18 – Carly Smith 0.8 (TWThF)
• PE – Karen Pettman 0.6 (T,Th,F) – Gym / Courts / Oval
• Performing Arts – F26/27 – Jimmy Marin 0.8 (MTThF)
• Science – A7 – Laura Fazzalari 0.8 (MTThF)
• STEM – Sue Gaardboe – Library
• Early Years Intervention – Karen Prideaux 0.6 (WThF)

School Support Officers – SSOs

• Clare Aikens – Business Manager
• Bron Fabrici – Front Office admin
• Sam Slattery – Front Office admin
• Hayley Beard – Front Office admin
• Julianne Lehmann – Learning Support
• Jane Graham – Library
• Chelsea Johnson – Learning Support
• Gemma Liberali – Learning Support
• Travis Nuske – ICT Tech
• Jon Spurr – Grounds
• Emily Gray – School Garden
• Sam Walton – Learning Support
• Tyson Donovan – Learning Support
• Hannah Hosking – Learning Support
• Linda Groen – Learning Support

Leadership

• Veronica Khalaf and Brooke Hamden – Curriculum Coordinators (Wednesday release)
• Janine McKay – Student Wellbeing Leader 0.6 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)
• Nicky Taylor – Deputy Principal
• Paul Luke – Principal