Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents,

GRADE 3/4 CAMP

I was lucky enough to be able to go on the Sovereign Hill Camp last week with 104 wonderful grade 3/4 children. Even though it was cold and there was, at times a little too much rain, it was still brilliant. Our students really had the full 1850’s experience, going down mines, learning about gold, learning about life in the 1850’s and generally having a ball with their friends. I must thank Mrs Bolton for her wonderful organisation, along with our brilliant staff who always go above and beyond. 

Our parent helpers, Nicola Uren, Trudy Bond and Matt Fruend made sure our students had a brilliant camp experience! I would like to thank them all for giving up their time and being away from their families to do so. 

This camp reminded me of how important these experiences are. The new bargaining agreement will make next year’s camps difficult for the school (see below) but I assure you the leadership of our school will do everything we can to make sure that camps do go ahead next year. Unfortunately, can’t promise at this point that they will. 

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DAYS AND THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AGREEMENT 

Last week, schools were informed that The Victorian Government Schools Agreement, commonly known as the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) was passed by the Fair Work Commission. This has been one of the most complicated and drawn out EBA processes I’ve experienced in my nearly 30 years in education. After 14 months of ‘negotiation’ between unions, primarily the AEU and the DET and recently retired Education Minister, James Merlino, the new EBA was approved by the Fair Work Commission. It commenced on July 25. The agreement states that teachers will be entitled to 2 further professional practice days in 2022, 2 professional practice days in 2023 and one professional practice day in 2024 and beyond. The Department received very positive feedback from Principals in relation to the option for schools to hold a common professional practice day in Term 3 & 4. This means unfortunately for parents that we will have an extra curriculum day this year. The Department set this up for use on the same day and not staggered days throughout the term, realising it was far easier than for one whole day than each school in Victoria to trying to find replacement teachers that are in very short supply at the moment. 

As a result of this new agreement being approved by the Fair Work Commission, Woori Yallock Primary School will be holding two more professional practice days in 2022, one of these we had already booked as a curriculum day as per normal. No students will be required at school on these days. As a leadership team and staff, we will look at the best way to utilise these days in relation to teacher planning, professional learning, moderating of student work and report writing. 

School Council has approved the following two days:

• Friday the 26th of August
• Friday the 18th of November

We are aware that this has an impact on families, however, please be assured we endeavour to inform you of these dates as soon as possible to provide you with time to make plans for the supervision and care of your children. We thank you for your ongoing support. 

As far as the implementation of the new agreement, while it has already started, leadership of schools around the state are awaiting an implementation guide and briefings from DET regarding how it can be delivered. The new EBA contains a range of new industrial requirements. One of these is known as Time in Lieu (TIL). This requirement is a response to the amount of unpaid work teachers have done for many years for extracurricular events and after hours meetings such as Parent Teacher Interviews, camps, reports, etc. It must be noted, in an industrial sense, by Unions and DET, extracurricular events are not part of a school’s core work, which is the delivery of the Victorian Curriculum. Extracurricular events are additional and have been provided by schools, usually before or after hours through goodwill and to provide engaging opportunities for our students beyond that required by the curriculum. It is certain, that due to the requirement of TIL, there will be fundamental changes to how, when and if schools continue to provide the current range of extracurricular events. We will inform of you of any changes as they come to hand. 

PREP NEXT YEAR 

On Friday the 12th of August we will be sending out letters to parents confirming their enrolment at our school. We know that there are a lot of parents waiting on those letters. We promise to send them out on the 12th. At this stage it looks like we will be able to accommodate almost all of the families that have put in an enrolment application. 

We have looked at our class structure for 2023, this is based on 405 children (same as this year). If you won’t be, or you think it is unlikely your child/ren will be at Woori Yallock P.S. next year, can you please let us know. We can then take that into account when we look at our numbers. 

COLD WEATHER CLOTHING 

The cold winter weather has certainly set in. Last week I had to hose the ice off my car three times before heading to work. The majority of the holidays had beautiful sunny days but we also had very low temperatures. That has continued this past month with the forecast of rain making it very cold outside for students before school and during breaks. At school, our priority is to provide opportunity for the students to play outside whenever possible. In addition to play times, there are also a number of occasions when class activities mean that our students are outside for extended periods of time. Please check with your children to make sure that they have enough clothing to keep them warm outside when it is very cold. It can only help to keep those nasty winter bugs at bay. 

IF YOU NEED……. Masks…….we have a limited supply but we ask children to bring their own in keeping with the government recommendation. RATS……… Rapid Tests will continue to be distributed to our community and if you run out, please come to our office and we can provide more. If a child tests positive they need to isolate for 7 days as normal. Please notify our office of when they get a positive test result so we can mark our attendance roll accurately. Any siblings who test negatively can still attend school providing they have no symptoms and have a negative rapid test each morning before coming to school. They must also wear a mask when they are indoors at school.

OUR NEW BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL CARE PROVIDER 

Our new before and after school care provider has had a great start. Firstly, it is a bonus to parents that the service now starts half an hour earlier at 6:30am. The activities and the equipment are all new for our kids, who are just loving it. Activities change each morning and night and are coordinated to give the children a range of skills. I would like to thank Melissa McDonald our new coordinator for the program having such a smooth transition. Melissa has a mountain of experience and is really approachable. I look forward to the out of school hours care program continuing to build in popularity and really supporting parents and the school.  

100 DAYS OF PREP

Last week our preps celebrated their 100th day at school. I love that they all tried to look as old as me!

Have a great week!

And remember when life gets a little difficult, escape to the wonderful world of a book!