From the
Assistant
Principal
An update from Mr Vines
Reconciliation Week
We would like to pay our collective respects to the elders past, present and future, and the students of Koorie descent that pass through the land our school resides upon. The last week, between 27 July and 3 June, marks National Reconciliation Week. This is a time for us to collectively reflect upon our shared histories and to promote respect, trust and positive relationships between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
Before and After School Supervision
The safety of our students is our number one priority at South Melbourne Park Primary School. Therefore it is incredibly important that everyone understands when our grounds are supervised. We have teacher supervision from 8:45am until 3:45pm, however before and after that the grounds are unsupervised. We have noticed that some students are being dropped off at school very early in the morning and are being left unsupervised. We have the fantastic TheirCare before and after school care to support families that are finding that they need to drop their children off early. If any students are in the yard before 8:45am or after 3:45pm then they will be directed to TheirCare to ensure that they are supervised and safe.
Autism Awareness
As teachers we are committed to constantly upskilling and researching our profession. One of our amazing teachers, Mr. Webb, was researching Autism and how to better develop supports for students experiencing Autism Spectrum Disorder, and he came across this amazing video. It does an excellent job of shedding light on the lived experience of people with ASD and helps us to understand them better. If you have a spare five minutes it is definitely worth a watch.
Colgate Community Garden Challenge
As a part of our continuous ambition to be a sustainable school, we have signed up to the Colgate Community Garden Challenge. We are encouraging all families to send their oral care waste to school instead of throwing it into the bin! There are drop off locations in the prep area, multi-age area and the front office. Program accepted waste: Any brand of used toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, plastic toothbrush packaging, interdental brushes, wisps, pumps, stand up toothpaste bottles and any kind of non-electric toothbrush or toothpaste tube and all affiliated non-recyclable packaging. Each item earns our school 10 points. We can also earn additional Garden Points through online votes from the community. Each vote earns our school an additional point. You can vote online here. There are five community garden sets up for grabs, each worth over $6,000! We look forward to your support.
Parent Teacher Interviews
We believe that “learning doesn’t only happen at school” and part of this belief is open and transparent communication with our parents. To this end we have parent teacher interviews booked in for the coming weeks. This will allow for you to meet with your classroom teacher to discuss our report writing process and your child’s progress before you receive your reports. Since Ms Edwards is going on Long Service Leave for the last two weeks of this term, we have decided to have her parent teacher interviews before she leaves, which will be on Thursday 13 June. All other grades will have their interviews on Thursday 20 June. For the multi-age classroom, families in years 1 and 2 will be with Ms Adams, while years 3 through to 6 will be with Mrs Yamashiro.
The parent teacher interviews will run from 3:40 pm until 7:40 pm in 10 minute blocks. To ensure that everyone gets their fair chance to meet with their teacher we will be asking everyone to strictly stick to the 10 minute time limit.
Bookings opened on Tuesday and will automatically close midnight Tuesday next week (Tuesday 11th) so please jump on straight away and book a slot if you would like to meet with your teacher. In order to book you will need to go into Compass and select the ‘Community’ icon that looks like two people. From the drop down you will then need to select ‘Conferences’ and then the Parent Teacher Interview cycle when it opens. From there you will be able to select a timeslot and book it in. Once you have booked you can check your booking date in Compass if you forget.
Please contact the office if you are experiencing any difficulties.