Harmony Day
Harmony Week is a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism and is held this year from 18th to 22nd of March. This includes the United Nations’ International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the ongoing theme is ‘everyone belongs’. This theme promotes respect for everyone from all cultural backgrounds and encourages inclusion and includes the ongoing custodians of the land on which we live, to those who have come from the many countries around the world. Havenlee School celebrated Harmony Day on Friday 22nd of March. The students enjoyed dressing in orange. Each class also participated in Harmony Day activities.
Placement Panel
As a result of the last placement panel, Havenlee School will be getting a new student. A high school student who is relocating down to the Nowra area will start at the beginning of term 2. Consequently, there may be some knock-ons with a few students needing to change classes. Letters will go out before the end of this term to those who will be affected by the change.
Easter Hat Parade
Thank you to all the parents/carers of primary students who came to cheer the young students along with the Easter Hat parade. The students enjoyed making the hats in their classes leading up to the event and had fun saying hello to the Easter Bunny who made a special visit.
Intensive Swimming Program
The Intensive Swimming Program finished this week. Thank you to all the parents/carers who provided swimming gear for their children twice a week for the last 5 weeks. The program was very successful. The students who participated have all made fantastic improvements. A big thank you to Julia for being such an amazing instructor and to Marianne and Vicki who worked very hard to make sure the students had their right gear and were in and out of the pool at the right time.
Havenlee Pool Upgrade
Havenlee School are extremely grateful for the significant ongoing financial support the Havenlee P & C Committee has provided our school to enable hydrotherapy sessions and hydrotherapy resources over the years. Our Hydrotherapy staff currently work with many therapists – physiotherapists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and behaviour support specialists to develop and deliver quality, evidence-based hydrotherapy programs.
Our pool was built along with the school over 20 years ago. It is used daily by 95% of our cohort and is a standard design for people without a disability. Our pool has no shallow area where students can be introduced to water in non-threatening and systematic steps.
Havenlee School requires a necessary upgrade to its pool facilities; resurfacing the pool surrounds, accessible showers and change rooms or a new purpose-built hydrotherapy pool. This would include an extension of the current ceiling hoist into the changing facilities to enable safer student transfers and reduce manual handling demands on staff.
Havenlee School have recently applied for a School Upgrade grant to design and build a pool that addresses our student’s needs. The quote to construct a new pool is $2.5 million.
We are hoping for a positive outcome and would love to provide an even better hydrotherapy and swimming program for all our students. We will let you know if our grant application is successful. A big thank you to Karen and Adele who put many hours into the application.
Easter Holidays and Term 2
During the holidays the Eastern playground will be pulled up and be upgraded with a new big COLA and new Softfall. We will hopefully get new Softfall in the Western playground too.
Students come back to school on Tuesday 30th April. Staff will be having a Staff Development Day on Monday 29th April. All staff will be participating in mandatory Anaphylaxis and CPR training in the morning and in the afternoon, we will having professional learning on curriculum updates.
I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Easter holidays.
Katrina Eyland
Principal Havenlee School
