Three terms, the examination weeks, and the new inland path, which is longer and rougher than the one the sea took.
Term dates for the year are on the card that went home with every child and on the board at the gate.
First term runs from the second week of January to the last week of March, with a week off in the middle of February. Second term from the middle of April to the end of June. Third term from the middle of August to the first week of November. Examination weeks are the last two of each term for grades four upwards. Grades one to three have no examinations and the preschool has none ever.
The uniform, from grade one. Shirt, trousers or pinafore, black shoes, white socks, the school tie from grade six, and a sports shirt. The preschool has no uniform at all, deliberately, because a four year old should be dressed for sand and water.
Two notes on uniform that families ask about. Where a child's plan includes a change to the uniform, for comfort, for a wheelchair, for a splint or for anything sensory, that change is agreed in the plan and no teacher in this school will question it. And the association keeps a shelf of outgrown uniform in good condition, which anybody may take from without asking anybody.
Now the note about shoes, which is this year's real request. The path along the eastern boundary is gone and the new path runs inland: it is longer, it is rougher, and in the wet season it has two soft stretches. Children walking it in sandals are arriving with cuts. Closed shoes for the walk home are worth more than any other thing you could buy this term, and if your child has outgrown a pair, leave them on the association shelf rather than keeping them.
One last thing. Anybody may come to the school on the Monday open afternoon, two until four, for any reason at all, including to look at the record of letters this school has written about the eastern boundary. Those copies are at the office and any parent may read them.