Welcome back to Thornhill Park Primary School for 2025. We have started the year with strong enrolment numbers and welcome over 730 students, with over 160 Preps. It has certainly been a busy start to the year, but the students have shown the school values and are moving smoothly into the new year. We also welcome over 25 new staff this year to our team. They have settled in well to our Thornhill Park family and are doing great things in the classroom already. Welcome to all of our new families. We hope that your children will flourish at our school.
Building Access
Please do not enter the buildings whilst waiting for your children in the afternoon. There are many seats and shaded areas around the school for you to use. Going into the buildings distracts the teachers and students and prevents them from completing lessons or packing up effectively each day. Using the toilet doors to enter the buildings when the main doors are locked is also not permitted. Please do your part to ensure our students are safe and learning each day.
Hot days
We are experiencing some warm weather to start this year and decisions are made at times that may question whether students should be outside or in their classrooms. As a general rule we apply a rule where any temperatures over 35 degrees warrant students staying inside. There may be variations of this rule if it is windy or feels particularly humid. Please understand that all of these decisions are not taken lightly and the safety of students is our utmost goal. Please encourage your children to wear the short sleeved polo, dresses or shorts on hotter days. Also peak to them about taking regular drink breaks and trying to stay in the shade where possible. Many of our students continue to play in the sun when it is hot and are unable to regulate their body temperature leading to dizziness or blood noses. If your child is susceptible to these sorts of ailments, including asthma it is worth having a conversation with them about being safe in the sun. It is also fine for parents to supply sunscreen to their children. This may help to prevent heat stroke or sunburn.
Power in the portables
When all the air conditioners were on at the same time on Monday, it caused our power to fail. This meant that only the portable classrooms had no air conditioning or power in the last hour of the day. After analysing the situation and calling an electrician we were able to get things back online after school. It was deemed unnecessary to inform the community of this power outage as most classes were still fine, given they had air conditioners on all day. It was also too late in the day to be able to send a message out and it may have caused unnecessary panic. Grade 2 classes were all offered alternate rooms for the last 20 minutes of the day and the Year 3-6 students completed passive activities to get them through the day. We will hopefully be having a power upgrade this weekend to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Absences
It is important that students are at school and on time every day. All students should be aiming for 100% attendance to maximise their learning capabilities. School starts at 8.40am each day. It is important to not go on long overseas holidays for months at a time as this can affect your child’s academic growth.
eScooters
eScooters will no longer be permitted to be ridden to school. It is actually against the law for any student below the age of 16 to use an eScooter as they can be dangerous to pedestrians, riders and traffic. Any students who ride an eScooter to school will have them confiscated and parents will be contacted to pick it up before the end of the day. Safety is paramount to all at Thornhill Park and this is to ensure that as the school gets bigger and more people are around in mornings and afternoons, that everyone can get home without incident.
Parking bays and staff car park
Please do not park in the parking bays at the front of the school when picking up your child. This halts all traffic in Baxterpark Dve and prevents it from being an effective pick up and drop off zone. Many parents still do not follow the rules and park their car in these spaces and then leave their cars to get their children. I can guarantee that those in the community who do the right thing are very frustrated by this lack of respect and they have asked me to reiterate the importance of following the correct procedures and rules during pick up and drop off times. The Staff Car Park is for Staff Only and out of bounds to parents. We have already had to remove several parents from these areas, which is dangerous to the pedestrians who enter and exit through our car park each day. We are working on providing safer alternatives in the coming weeks.
Parent Meet and Greet and Information Session
On Wednesday 26th February we will be having an opportunity for parents to meet their child’s teacher for 2025. Formal lessons will conclude at 12.30pm on this day and students will be participating in a whole school House Spirit event in the afternoon, linked to our house colours and teams. Face-to-face meetings will start at 1pm and run through until 5pm. Each meeting will be no longer than 10 minutes. Anyone unable to attend in person can arrange a Webex meeting with their child’s teacher between 5pm and 6pm. All bookings will be made through Compass. We expect all families to engage with their teacher in this informal way. Each meeting will be a short introduction and will not delve too deeply into your child’s academic progress as we have not had enough time with them to make a judgment. Our leadership team will be running an information session all afternoon in the Wellbeing Space. This will highlight all the things of importance that you will need to know as a parent for 2025. This presentation will be ongoing and parents will be required to enter at least one cycle of the information to ensure you are fully informed for 2025.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Darryl Spiteri
Principal