Dear Illawarra Community,

As we move toward the end of Term 1, I want to thank our students, staff, and families for a productive and energetic few weeks of learning and activity.

Upcoming Events

Athletics Carnival – 24 March at Beaton Park
Primary Canberra Excursion – 27 March

Parent–Teacher Interviews

Parent–Teacher Interviews will take place on Wednesday afternoon, 25th March and Thursday 26th March. I strongly encourage all parents to book a time if you haven’t already done so.

Students should attend with parents, either on‑campus or online.

Full formal uniform is required for all students attending interviews.

These conversations are an important checkpoint in each student’s learning cycle and should not be skipped.

Any staff unavailable due to part-time work commitments should have emailed by now to advise alternative times, if this is not the case, please contact admin.illawarra@au.oneschoolglobal.com to book in a time as needed.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing is now complete. Thank you to students for their patience and persistence as we worked through the ACARA system‑wide error on Wednesday 11 March.

As this issue affected schools nationally, we expect a recalibration of results to maintain accuracy.

Campus Environment & Culture

I have noticed an increase in rubbish on campus and on school buses and in particular students on buses and at school with Chewing Gum. With Clean Up Australia Day recently in mind, please remind students to care for their environment and respect our facilities; including the investment made in our bus fleet. Uniform expectations also need reinforcement. Please continue conversations at home about wearing the uniform well, including shirts tucked in, and expectations regarding use of makeup, as part of developing self‑respect and consistency in presentation at school.

Sport Uniform Days (Primary Students)

With swimming finished, all students must wear their Sport uniform on Wednesdays for PE.
Students may also wear their Sport uniform on their Health day to prepare for the Athletics Carnival (optional).

Health lesson days are:

Year 3 - Tuesday
Year 4 - Thursday
Year 5 - Monday
Year 6 - Tuesday

Next term, uniforms return to normal: Sport uniform only on Wednesdays.

Assessments & Study Routines

As assessments approach, students should be actively preparing:

Year 12 Preliminary Examinations begin 30 March.

Students are encouraged to expand their study routines.

All students should stay on top of CANVAS submissions and formative tasks.

Parents can support by monitoring CANVAS at home.

If you need help with this -and especially if you are a parent confident in navigating CANVAS - I would welcome your involvement in future parent education sessions. Contact me at cameron.warne@au.oneschoolglobal.com or via Signal. We would really like to put a training package for parents together to support improved engagement in student's learning.

Attendance Recognition

We will hold a Perfect Attendance Lunch on 2 April, provided by the school, to celebrate students who have maintained 100% attendance this term.

We currently have 74 students meeting this benchmark—an outstanding achievement for both students and families.

Front Office

Office hours are from 8-4pm, parents are welcome to attend campus if they are driving and seek a place to work during the day, with prior request of a space to admin.illawarra@au.oneschoolglobal.com. Please note that all visits need to sign in via our campus sign on system and be issued a visitor badge and lanyard. This is both for emergency evacuation / lockdown and to assure child safe practices at the school. All visitors should enter the school via the visitor entrance (the small door to the left of student entry).

Bus Safety – Driver Reminders

While we finalise a new bus‑driver training video, a few key points for our valued volunteer drivers:

Morning

Enter campus via the roundabout and use the first available parking bay for student drop‑off.

Ensure all doors are closed before moving.

Observe the 40km/h school‑zone speed limit.

Afternoon

Arrive from 2:40pm (or 1:40pm Wednesdays).

Reverse‑park in the allocated spaces from furthest to closest.

Once students are boarded and seatbelts are on, turn hazard lights on and await dismissal from staff in high‑visibility vests.

Visitors not driving buses should use visitor parking unless directed otherwise.

Buses have priority dismissal. Late‑arriving buses will be sent to the roundabout and dismissed after the main fleet.

Bus Safety Culture

Drivers should actively use senior students to support positive behaviour.

Seating plans must be followed as allocated.

Any concerns—behaviour or transport—can be logged using the form in the Illawarra Bus Chat on Signal.

All volunteers are encouraged to join the Signal group for updates.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support for our students.

Please reach out if you need assistance with any upcoming events or systems.

Kind regards,
Mr Warne

cameron.warne@au.oneschoolglobal.com
0436 439 273

A big congratulations to the following students, who have received 15 House Points, and a Bronze Merit Award. Great job going above and beyond to demonstrate the school values!

Over the last 5 weeks, Primary students have been attending swimming lessons at Northern Stars Swim School in Wollongong. They have had a great time learning this invaluable skill.

Thank you to the Primary Team for their organisation and participation in the lessons. And a massive thank you to all of the amazing volunteers who gave up their time to drive the students to and from the lessons. We greatly appreciate everyone's contribution :)

On 18th February, we welcomed Primary parents to campus for an informal afternoon tea to connect with teachers and see what is happening in the Primary learning spaces.

Thank you to Miss Jones for organising this event, and for all of the parents who could attend, it was great to have you on campus for the afternoon.

Year 5 students have been learning about unit fractions in their maths lessons recently.

Unit fractions look at one part of a whole that has been divided into equal sections, eg: 1/2, 1/3, 1/4.

Students used visual models to show that a larger denominator (bottom number) means that there are more, smaller divided parts.

Great job Year 5!

Mr Scruby's Year 7 Food Technology class completed a fun practical lesson entitled 'Vincent van Dough', and came up with some very creative master pieces.

Mrs Jovanov's Food Tech classes have been working very hard all term, and have had some impressive and delicious results!

Year 10 students recently attended an excursion to Lake Illawarra as part of their Geography and Science studies. Fieldwork is an essential ingredient of geography because it provides a 'real-world' opportunity for students to develop and extend their geographical thinking.

Students heard a talk on how council is managing the natural and human impacts on the lake environment, and got to explore the biodiversity of the area. They then got to measure the pH levels in the water after collecting samples and studies one aspect of water quality.

Thank you to Mrs Lardner and Dr Marecic who organised this excursion, and to the wonderful parent volunteers who transported students to and from the excursion. We really appreciate your efforts.

Strengthening safety across our global bus network - global webinar screening next Tuesday

Next Tuesday, OneSchool Global will launch Precious Cargo, a new global safety campaign for all volunteer bus drivers across our school. This campaign centres on a powerful safety film that highlights the real risks our drivers face every day - fatigue, distractions, speed, seatbelts, and substances. The film will be screened via a global webinar at 7.30pm local time.

The film is confronting by design and reinforces the non‑negotiable expectations we hold for every driver, in every region. You can watch a preview of the film here.

We encourage all households to register for this important global webinar screening at
7:30pm Tuesday 24 March.

The webinar is mandatory viewing for all OSG bus drivers.

Please register via the following link:

NSW, VIC, TAS:
https://oneschoolglobal.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rshnUQXiRZ-nNzUhWyE7kQ

Thank you for supporting a strong driving safety culture across our community.