Head lice can quickly become an ongoing nuisance for families as our students are in close contact with one another on the bus, in the classroom and in the playgrounds. They are a normal part of school life and whilst not life threatening or disease causative they are irritating, can cause sleep loss and are time-consuming to manage.To promote and embrace a community approach can all parents work together by creating a rhythm of checking/treating their children regularly for head lice by applying lots of white coloured conditioner, and combing through with a lice comb (long tined ones are best…

Swimming Lessons will be starting soon at the Bellingen swimming pool in week 5. (early March) This program, which covers class 1- 5, is an important part of building the skills we will later use in the Chrysalis Camp program. The work at the pool allows concentrated swimming lessons in a dedicated environment and is a valuable addition to the river safety swim program out at the Thora campus. Look out for letters in your child's bag this week. The letter & permission slip is also available here.

We are delighted to welcome Nick Sheppard as the newest driver for the Natureland Bus company. This dedicated team of bus drivers, from both Steinhardts (Dorrigo) and Natureland bus companies, regularly go "Above and Beyond" for your children, and we could not run the school without them. From the left to right they are Bruce Rose, Shawn Walker (owner of Natureland), Jim, Mark Martin, Kevin Turner and Nick Sheppard

In case you missed it in the newsletter, we wanted to share something very special. This is a soundcloud link where you can hear "Ode to the Forest." This beautiful song was written by our music students on their Fiddlers in the Forest Music Camp earlier this year in collaboration with Kym Pitman. You may remember the lyrics we published in the winter edition of Emerge. The song was recorded in the School Hall by the Chrysalis String Ensemble with the help of local recording engineer, musician and Chrysalis parent, Scott Collins. The senior String Ensemble students Paloma, Romany, Angel, Hugo and Phoebe from Class 7 were then lucky enough to have the opportunity…

We reminded Class 6 and 7 last Friday about the importance of hygiene around clothes/ equipment used in Bellinger River.All clothes and equipment needs to be cleaned and dried before swimming in other rivers to avoid risk of cross contamination from turtle virus. Thorough cleaning of vehicles, boats, kayaks and canoes, boat trailers and equipment when moving from affected areas of the Bellinger River to unaffected areas or other waterways may significantly reduce the risk of transporting this virus.When leaving the Bellinger RiverDrain and wash boats and canoes with soapy water and dry thoroughly before re-useDispose of all biological material collected during cleaning in the…

On Friday 13th Nov, one of our founding parents and teachers of Chrysalis School passed away. Michael Harfield was instrumental in the early years of Chrysalis, working not only on the physical body of the school as a builder and at countless working bees and meetings, but also as a teacher and mentor to so many young people over the years. In later years he was the cook and mentor for Kym Pitman’s extraordinary Guy Fawkes River camps, contributing to this important work with the youth of Bellingen in ways that cannot be underestimated.Michael and Wendy’s children Amber, Ebony, David,…