Happy New Year 2024, and welcome back, VERSO Family!

Happy New Year 2024, and welcome back, VERSO Family!

I hope each of you had a restful and connected time with your family during this Winter Break. The Learning Designers and Learners were clearly excited to come back together on Tuesday. We welcomed five new students to the Lower Loop this week. I am sure that you join me in warmly welcoming Kacy, CC, and Lanta to our C3-4 cohort, Kyle to our C1-2 cohort, and also Leon and Kalyn to our EY2-3 cohort. It has been wonderful to see our VERSO learners looking after our new learners and helping them settle into the Lower Loop.

Next week is action-packed with the start of ECAs for Semester 2, and Showtime for C1-2 and C3-4. We also have our VERSO school photo days during 16-18 January. Please let the Learning Designers or myself know if you require further information on any of these upcoming events.

Photo Days 16-18 January

I would like to remind you that next week we will have our Photo Days from 16-18 January. We kindly request that learners come wearing the VERSO White Polo Shirt. Individual, group, and class photos will be taken across all three days, and it is important that your child does not miss out, as these photos will not be offered on a different date. For learners in the school swim and basketball teams, their photos (in sports kit) will be taken on 18 Jan (3:30 pm at the Arena). Please have your child bring their sports kit in their backpack so that it remains clean across the day. Learners will have a chance to change into their uniforms at the end of the school day.

Celebrating 30 Universities Offers!

Device-Free Zone  | pH7

Starting Monday 15 Jan 2024, pH7 will be a Device-Free Zone

from 2:45pm to 4:00pm

We want to inform you that between 2:45pm and 4:00pm, our pH7 Cafe will be designated as a Device-Free Zone. This intentional break encourages socialization and offers students a chance to unwind by playing board games, reading, drawing, and simply relaxing at the end of the school day. We believe this time promotes a healthy balance and enhances the overall well-being of our students.

We have either an LD or LA on duty from 2:45pm to 4:00pm who will monitor and reinforce that this space is now device-free. Over the next days and weeks, we will arrange social games to promote healthy interactions. It would be wonderful for our parents who share this space during this time to also model to learners that pH7 is a space to enjoy without technology use. Thank you for your support as we make the positive transition to a device-free zone after school.

Extra Curricular Activities for Semester 2

Our ECAs will restart on Monday, 15 January. If a learner is not involved in an ECA, we ask that they are collected from school between 2:45pm - 3:00pm from the Lower Loop. We do understand that for some of you, one sibling needs to wait until 4:00pm as the other sibling is involved in an ECA. If your child is a learner who needs to wait, could I please ask that you communicate this with your child's Learning Designer.

The end of the school day is very busy as Learning Designers are making sure that all of the learners are collected at the right time by the designated grown up. When a learner tells their Learning Designer 'my grown up has told me to wait until 4:00pm', this can become very confusing and we then need to contact you and ask you if this is the requirement for the day. To make the process smoother for your child and clearly understood by their Learning Designers, I ask you to proactively communicate your needs with us. 

The pick up location for all learners at 4pm when ECAs finish is the same this season. 

LL and ML pickup time is at 4:00pm in front of @HELLO office. The latest pickup time is 4:30pm. If the pickup hasn't occurred by then, the learner will wait with our Security Team.

By Cushla Jones