From Our School Leaders

Return From Lockdown

It was fantastic to see all our students back at school last Friday after Lockdown 4.0.  School is a very cold and lonely place without our students here with their enthusiasm and excitement for learning. 

As after previous lockdowns, there are a few guidelines that we ask you to follow to assist with our contact tracing.

If you are visiting the office or any other building, you will need to wear a mask, use the hand sanitiser provided and check in via a QR code. There are QR codes on all external doors and it is a requirement that if you enter a building that you check in. Unfortunately we cannot have parent helpers onsite at this stage. 

We are very familiar with this advice now, but please do not come into the school if you have cold or flu-like symptoms. Please DO NOT send your child to school if they are unwell or showing cold or flu-like symptoms either. If they are, you will be phoned and asked to promptly pick up your child and keep them home until they are well.

Students will continue to use hand sanitiser regularly, such as when they enter or exit classrooms and before and after using shared equipment. 

Thank you again for your on-going support and help during the latest lockdown. I am sure you will join us in thanking our hardworking teachers who helped get us through this again. 

Assembly Tomorrow, Friday 18th June

With the lifting of restrictions we will be conducting our usual assembly tomorrow. It will be held in our school hall at 9.00am. Families of students receiving awards are welcome to attend.  Please wear your masks.

Student Health And Wellbeing – From DET

It can be challenging to process and manage changes to routines and the uncertainty that comes with COVID-19 and related restrictions – including the return to on site learning.

To support our school community during this time, resources and support are available for parents, carers and families. These resources will help to support the mental health and wellbeing of our students and the young people in our care during this time. We encourage everyone in our community to access these resources and take care of themselves during this time. 

Services and Support for Students and their Families 

A Quick Guide to Student Mental Health and Wellbeing resources is available for students, parents and carers looking to access expert guidance and resources to support wellbeing.

Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of our students remains our priority this year, especially during the continued COVID-19 pandemic and while students are learning from home during the current circuit breaker restrictions. 

For students, the guide includes resources to support their own mental health and wellbeing.

• Advice and resources for students about ways to adapt their learning during coronavirus, to look after themselves and where to get help.
• Wellbeing activities featuring AFL and AFLW players with tips on managing stress, staying active and showing gratitude.
• 'Kick it With Victory' physical activities with Melbourne Victory Football Club.
• 'Smiling Mind' mindfulness activities for senior secondary school students, including short videos, online tip sheets and meditations.

The guide also includes resources and supports for parents and carers to help them build their child’s physical and mental health and wellbeing. This includes:

• wellbeing activities and conversation starters
• 'Raising Learners' podcast series
• how to talk to your child about COVID-19

Wellbeing guidance for parents and carers is also available on the Department’s website, or through the confidential parent support hotline, Parentline, available 8am to midnight, seven days a week.  Phone: 13 22 89.

Headspace has also developed supporting messages for students and parents and carers, providing advice, guidance and ideas to ensure that everyone’s wellbeing is looked after during this time. 

ICAS Tests

Just a reminder that if you wish your child (in Years 2-6) to participate in ICAS Testing this year, the final date for booking your child into these assessments is Thursday 23th July.

Please refer to the ICAS notification in Compass for further details. 

Kitchen Garden

We are very excited to let our school community know that we have been informed we have been successful in receiving a Woolworths Landcare Grant. This grant will help us create an orchard for our kitchen garden   A huge thank you to Miss Lyon for all her work in applying for and submitting the grant. 

Child Safe

Scoresby Primary School is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people. This is the primary focus of our care and decision-making. 

• We want children to be safe, happy and empowered.
• We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers in all school and kindergarten environments and outside of school hours care.
• We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.
• We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
• We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
• We are committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks. The school has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff and volunteers and regularly trains and educates staff and volunteers on child abuse risks
• We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, children from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.
• We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our leadership team, staff and volunteers to achieve these commitments.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000. For detailed information on how the Child Safety Standards are implemented at Scoresby Primary School, please see our website.

Help Wanted

As part of our ongoing maintenance program, we have a number of jobs that need completing around the school and we are looking for recommendations and/or quotes for work to be done. Ideally we would like to support our local community during this time and would appreciate you spreading the word.

The areas we need help in are:

Landscape/Landscape Design - we are looking to design a more inviting entry into our school along Orson Street.

Paving - we have a section of paving at the entry to the main building that has lifted due to tree roots and we need to repair the space.

Tiling – we have a number of tiles that are cracked in the boys’ toilets that need replacing

Painting – we are looking to have the yellow bricks at the front of the school repainted in a Shale Grey.

Griffith University Research Study

Further information links:

SUE HARTLEY AND NICOLE RHEUMER

Scoresby Primary School Leaders