Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful day we all had last Friday at the swimming carnival. The children all had such an enjoyable day whether competing in races or participating in the novelty events. They loved dressing up in their house colours of red, blue and yellow. A HUGE thank you to Mrs Katie Tooth for her incredible organisation and our many parents who offered to volunteer on the day. We were all extremely grateful to Bec and Tim Thisleton and helpers for organising the barbeque and catering for volunteers and staff.

We are extremely fortunate to have a Community Council who work tirelessly to support our school. Our Community Council members are Amanda Vardanega (Chair), Anthony Haraldson (Secretary), Jayne Forster (Treasurer), Bec Thistleton, Marita Fuhrer (parent representatives), Marylou Gorham (Principal), Br Brian (Parish Representative), Mark Chifley (Assistant Principal) and Shaye Cooper (Teacher Representative). The Community Council meet twice a term and the first meeting for this year is next Wednesday, February 23 at 7pm.

Recently, the Community Council have organised several fundraising initiatives. The Bungendore Car Club gave the school a donation for using our grounds for parking for a weekend event at the park and parents assisted at the Bungendore Races. A word of thank you from Amanda…

It was a very busy day at the Braidwood Races on Saturday February 5. On behalf of the Community Council, I would like to give a very big thank you to Katie Tooth, Louise and Isabella Halligan for all their assistance and time on the Gate on Saturday.

The Community Council received a generous donation from the Braidwood Jockey Club, which will go towards the new IT equipment for the classrooms.

Thank you, Katie, Louise and Isabella I certainly appreciated all your assistance!

Amanda Vardanega

Chair

Yesterday, Class Overviews and some information about homework and class routines was sent home with every child. In the coming weeks the teachers will be sending home Interim Reports. These reports provide parents with information about how their child has settled into school, their work habits and how they are engaging socially. Following this, teachers will organise a Class Teams meeting to meet with parents. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to meet your teacher and for the teachers to meet parents when we are unable to conduct parent meetings at school.

We would like each class to have a Class Representative. The Class Representative could organise a social event e.g. weekend activity at the park or a get together once a term. If you would like to volunteer for this job, please contact or email the front office.

Congratulations to Sally Horwood who scored 100% in the ICAS Spelling assessment for Year 5 in 2021. What a huge achievement! Well done Sally!

There have been some changes to the NSW Working with Children Check. If you wish to volunteer to work on school canteen, attend a class excursion, drive a group of children to a school event, work with a small group or with children 1:1, a working with children check is required. You don't need a WWCC if you're a parent or close relative of a child volunteering:

• at the child's school, early education service or other educational institution, or
• with a team, program or activity that your child usually participates in or is a team member. For more information, please go to https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-working-children-check.

Just a reminder for all parents from Kinder to Year 6, all children need to be dropped off and picked up preferably at the back gate. Thank you so much to all our parents for following all the Level 3+ restrictions.

Please keep our Braidwood community in your prayers and continue to be thankful for the small everyday blessings around us.

God Bless