Welcome, and welcome back! We have been privileged this year to welcome many new families from lots of different places. It’s always a delight to see the amazing new energy that these students bring, and how quickly they make Campbell Primary their own. I would like to extend a welcome to all of our new families. We are very proud of our Campbell Primary community and hope you will be to.

I am particularly proud of two groups of students so far this year; our new friends who have demonstrated exceptional courage and resilience as they find their way in their new school, and those returning students who have made a special effort to make the first group welcome. At Campbell Primary we try to live by our SCARFFF values – support, cooperation, acceptance, respect, FRIENDSHIP, fun and forgiveness. It takes courage for students to extend the hand of friendship to someone new, as much as it does for those that are new to accept it. I’ve seen hundreds of examples of this sort of courage over the last week and it has a wonderful flow on effect to other students, staff, and families to see. Keep up the great work!

For those who may be new and unfamiliar with my role, I am the Defence Transition Mentor for Campbell Primary School. I am employed by CPS and funded by Defence to support students from active service Australian Defence Force (ADF) families through the challenges of frequent relocation and parental absence, as well as connecting families to local community and defence support and opportunities. As such my role is primarily for social and emotional support – most alike a chaplaincy type role that counselling or learning support. It’s a role I have filled for nearly 5 years across 3 different schools and one I am passionate about. I am at CPS on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week from 9am until 4pm and can usually be found either in the playground or supporting within classrooms. I am always happy to meet with parents to answer any questions you may have; please check in with the front office and they will locate me for you. I am also available via email at any time on Karyn.heitmann@ed.act.edu.au . I encourage families to communicate often as a collaborative approach is always the most successful.

For those ADF families that have come to us on posting from interstate please also be aware of the ability to access education support via DCO’s Education Assistance Scheme. Additional information is available via the link here. The application form AD301 is available via webforms for the serving member, or via the DCO helpline on 1800 624 608 at any time. Recent changes mean you will require a supporting letter from CPS which I am happy to arrange, as well as a report card from your previous school. Kindergarten students are ineligible unless posting occurred in the middle of the year. Please let me know if you have any questions.

We encourage parents to be involved in whatever capacity they can, whether it’s one off excursions, volunteering in the canteen, regularly changing readers or providing reading support to junior classrooms or becoming a member of our P&C committee. There’s lots of opportunities to be involved, with the added bonus of being a great way to meet new people.

I look forward to a fantastic 2020, including getting to know all of our families better.