Fifteen Japanese students and four teachers arrived at the school today after spending two days enjoying the sights of Adelaide and the near Barossa.

Excited host families met in the temporary Music Room to greet the new family members and soon were whisked away to begin their two week home-stay.

The 115th Adelaide Festival of Music got off to a bright and musical start with twenty schools - including Maitland - performing in a 300 voice choir at the Adelaide Festival Centre last night.

Our choir, conducted by Belinda Wundersitz, featured in the program and supplied the soloist for one of the highlight numbers.

The capacity crowd at the theatre enjoyed every minute of the musically diverse program, which featured not only the primary choir but guest soloists and bands.

Congratulations to all involved, it was a wonderful night!

After a tiring flight from Japan, the JEP 2010 staff and students landed safely at Adelaide airport and were whisked off for a day of rest and relaxation at Glenelg and Hahndorf.

After a good night's rest they visited Cleland National Park and spent time with the Australian fauna and flora before leaving for Maitland.

MAS Science teachers from Years 3 through 7 attended the Primary Connections conference at the Watershed in Mawson Lakes in week 2 of term 3.

The conference was the second in a series on the new National Science Curriculum and focused on developing students’ scientific literacy. The Watershed is a conference centre and cafe built adjacent to the Salisbury Council’s wetlands so a guided tour through the area was a highlight of the day.

This term we are working through a consultation process with staff, students and parents regarding our current uniform and potential changes that we think will make the uniform achievable and comfortable for our parents and students. The aim is to complete the consultation by the end of the term and endorse a new policy at Governing Council that will come into effect in Term 4, 2010.

School uniforms are important for a number of reasons. They provide a sense of belonging to Maitland Area School, they ensure that social pressures are not brought to bear on students to wear the latest fashion, and finally they enable us, as a school, to ensure that we can identify students and non students in our school grounds.

If you are interested in viewing our current policy, please refer to the front section of your student’s diary or contact the school.

In week 10 of term 2 four girls from our school went to Adelaide to participate in the 2010 SAPSASA Hockey carnival at the Grange Hockey Club.

They played 11 games over five days only losing two games. The first four days were sunny and calm, the fifth very wet and windy. The Southern Yorke Peninsula (SYP) team came 3rd in the top division, a very pleasing result for their first year in this division.

Well done to the four students from Maitland Area Schoo.

The SYP team was coached by Belinda Wundersitz from Maitland Area School.

This Sunday there will be a Working Bee at school at 9am.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. From my perspective it has been great to see the improvements that have been taking place regarding the grounds this year. We are in the process of establishing a committee to plan and implement the landscaping around our new Performing Arts Centre.

If you are interested in being part of this committee, please contact me at school.