From the Principal

Firstly, a huge thank you to all our families and friends who attended the School Association Winterfest on Friday June 16th.  What an outstanding evening it was and even the weather turned on a cold but rain free evening followed on Saturday evening by quite the downpour! Congratulations to our organising team for your tremendous effort; Chantal Innes, Maddy Webb, Ben Cunningham, James Barrett, Debbie Hilton and Nita Cummings.

If you haven't already scheduled a time for Parent / Teacher discussion and would like to speak with your child/rens teacher/s, please contact the office or relevant class teachers.

Once again, I need to do a bit of a 'nag' about the drop off and pick up area at the front of the school.  We have taken many measures to make this safe for our students and families, but it only works when everyone follows the rules. so please remember that;

• no parking means no turning off your car and leaving the car
• moving up when the car in front of you moves allows others to get in behind 
• cars MUST not park over the school driveway entrance

If we all follow these rules, then the system will work and hopefully save a lot of frustration.  Let's all work together to make this area the safe and convenient pick and drop off zone that it is meant to be!

Some food for thought about the cold .....

Many children will make the statement "I'm not cold' and adults may say 'no they don't feel the cold',  but is it true that the body isn't feeling the effects of the cold? 

Young children particularly can be very susceptible to indicators of hypothermia without noticing that the cold is effecting them, especially associated to wearing clothes that aren't warm enough for weather conditions. This can cause their bodies to develop symptoms of hypothermia.

Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around (37 C). Hypothermia (hi-poe-THUR-me-uh) occurs as your body temperature falls below 95 F (35 C).

Causes

The most common causes of hypothermia are exposure to cold-weather conditions or cold water. But prolonged exposure to any environment colder than your body can lead to hypothermia if you aren't dressed appropriately or can't control the conditions.

How your body loses heat....

The mechanisms of heat loss from your body include the following:

• Radiated heat. Most heat loss is due to heat radiated from unprotected surfaces of your body.
• Direct contact. If you're in direct contact with something very cold, such as cold water or the cold ground, heat is conducted away from your body. Because water is very good at transferring heat from your body, body heat is lost much faster in cold water than in cold air. Similarly, heat loss from your body is much faster if your clothes are wet, as when you're caught out in the rain.
• Wind. Wind removes body heat by carrying away the thin layer of warm air at the surface of your skin. A wind chill factor is important in causing heat loss.

Reference: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypothermia/symptoms-causes/syc-20352682

Although we ensure that children are not outside for extended periods at school (particular events such as Cross Country excluded) and therefore would not generally be exposed to developing severe hypothermia, it is highly possible, particularly with young children for them to develop symptoms such as drowsiness, lethargy and low energy.

Children also run and play quite intensively during playtimes which will cause the body to sweat.  Once they stop and begin to cool down, body temperature can drop quickly.  All children should have a jumper or jacket at school to put on / take off as per the conditions of the day and the activities they are undertaking. 

Please encourage your child to dress for the weather.