Dear Parents, Families and Community members,

Meet the Staff

On Wednesday afternoon we welcomed parents and carers into our Learning Communities as students toured them through their learning spaces, discussed what they do, where and how they learn and introduced their families to their teachers, some for the first time.

It is wonderful to see the buzz around the school during these sorts of events and it is clear the students are proud of both their school and their families.

Thank you to all those families who were able to attend and we will continue to provide opportunities to open our school and welcome you in.

Student Reporting - Learning Tasks

ON-GOING REPORTING AT ARMSTRONG CREEK SCHOOL

At Armstrong Creek school we have adopted a system of ongoing reporting to provide regular feedback to families about their child’s learning progress. Teachers are constantly assessing and reflecting on student progress in order to design purposeful and personalised learning opportunities which meet the individual needs of all our students.

We believe it is critical to share this ongoing feedback with our students and families in order to make future learning as strategic and collaborative as possible. The way in which we provide this ongoing feedback is through the ‘Learning Tasks’ tab on Compass. Here you will find regular updates on your child’s progress in specific areas of English and Mathematics. Specialists will also begin providing feedback via the Learning Task tab to keep you updated with what is happening in Art, PE, STEM and Performing Arts.

An email will be sent to all families this afternoon with further details and a link to access student's learning tasks.

International Visitors - New Zealand

Recently I was contacted by a school in New Zealand, Sara Cohen School, who are in the process of planning to build a new school. They had heard about our amazing facilities and were really keen to come and take a look whilst in Victoria.

Principal, Matthew Tofia, and a team of school personnel were blown away by the quality and design of our school and visits like this are a great reminder of how lucky we are to have the school we do.

It was not only the facilities though that they were impressed with and each one of them commented on the engagement of students in learning and how welcomed they felt as staff and students greeted them as they wandered around.

First Aid in Schools Program Gr 3-6

This term the 3-6 Learning Communities are investigating a Health unit which will enable them to develop skills and take action to enhance their own and others’ health, well-being, and safety. St John Ambulance Victoria visited our school on the 22nd of February to deliver their free First Aid in Schools Program to our students in grades 3-6.

Trained St John presenters lead students from the two learning communities through tailored sessions on the importance of First Aid and what to do in the event of a medical emergency. We learnt about how to identify when there is an emergency, keeping ourselves safe, and how to call for an ambulance, as well as how to deliver CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and the things they can do to assist in an emergency.

St John Ambulance Victoria has launched First Aid Action Hero which is available on the App Store. The app is designed to strengthen students recall of the DRSABC action plan through some uber fun gameplay!

It was a great session for the students to be involved in, and all students who participated received a certificate.

Road Safety

We continue to hear concerns from family and community members about road safety around the school.

Unfortunately, much of this relates to the unsafe nature in which students are either arriving at or leaving school. I urge families to not only model exemplary road safety practice, but to regularly discuss and ensure your children understand and follow safe behaviours around our roads.

We are also in discussions with one of our very generous parents, who just so happens to work for RACV Road Safety Education, about providing a number of different learning opportunities at a school level.

I know a number of families have been in contact with local council as have we and with our local member of parliament to continue to raise the issue of inadequate crossing and traffic supervision, but this alone won’t solve the issues if our students and families are not learning and improving in this area.

Let’s all commit to doing our bit for road safety and lead the way for others to follow.

Family Disco - Save the Date!

The Parents and Community Club (PACC) are organising this fun family event so make sure you save the date!

Family Disco

Friday 22 March 2019

Evening - times to be confirmed

In the Games Hall @ Armstrong Creek School

Parent supervision required

Music - Dancing - Prizes!

Alcohol Free Event

School Captains

This week I was very pleased to attend and listen to the speeches of many potential and impressive young school leaders from our 5-6 and 7-9 Learning Communities.

We expect that we will be able to announce our 2019 Captains to the school community at next week’s assembly.

Music Bus

The recent visit of the music bus was a big hit and we have over 50 expressions of interests from families.

Matt has coordinated a timetable from these and lessons will be starting each Monday from 4th March.

Food at School

Whilst we do not ban any foods at school, we do take special care to ensure that any member of our school community with a food allergy is protected from exposure to those items.

All students who have an allergy must have an Individual Management plan developed in conjunction with the school and parents. This will outline some preventative strategies to be followed when at school.

Generally speaking we encourage children to eat healthy snacks and lunches which are ‘nude’ (ie. not packaged) wherever possible. Water is preferred as a drink but we also acknowledge that some individuals may require alternatives.

Please make sure the office and home group teacher are aware of any food allergies your child/ren may have so that we can help to manage the environment to be as safe as possible for them.

Extra Brain Food

Families are encouraged to send in additional brain food for students to snack on throughout the day, particularly if children are indicating they are hungry during the day.

Being hungry can be a factor in detracting from student engagement and ultimately learning so we want to ensure students have the stamina to make it through the day! With changes to our daily structure, there are some longer gaps between recess and lunch eating times; however, we are very supportive of students having healthy snack throughout the day and during their learning.

School Council

Armstrong Creek School Council elections for 2019 will be held this term.

I encourage all parents and guardians, students and staff to carefully consider how they can best contribute to and support the continued growth and development of Armstrong Creek School and in doing so to consider the possibility of nominating for election to the School Council.

School Council is a legally formed body with the power to set key directions of Armstrong Creek School within centrally provided guidelines and frameworks. In doing this, School Council is able to influence the quality of education the school provides to its students.

All parents/guardians of students at Armstrong Creek School are eligible to nominate for parent members. Persons who work at Armstrong Creek School as DET employees are eligible to nominate for DET positions at the election.

There will be nine (9) vacancies on School Council to be filled from the following categories:

Parent Members – four (4) vacancies
Department of Education Training (DET) employees – three (3) vacancies
Community Co-Opted Members – two (2) vacancies

Nominations are open for the following terms:

2-year term commencing in March 2019 to February 2021 – Parents x 2, DET x 2
1 year term commencing March 2019 to February 2020 - Parents x 2, DET x 1, Community Co-Opted x 2

The following timeline will apply to the conduct of the election:

Tuesday 26 February - Nominations for vacant positions open

Tuesday 5 March - Nominations Close

Friday 8 March - List of candidates and nominators posted and Ballot papers distributed.

Tuesday 19 March - Ballot closes

Thursday 21 March - Declaration of Poll

If there are more nominations than there are vacant positions on council, a ballot (vote) will be conducted after the call for nominations has closed.

If you decide to stand for election, you can arrange for someone to nominate you or you can nominate yourself in the appropriate category.

Nomination forms are attached and you can also obtain them from the Administration Office during normal office hours.

Please note:

The School Council AGM and the first Council Meeting for 2019 is scheduled for Monday 25 March @ 9.30am. At this meeting, newly elected members will be requested to attend (meeting date and time subject to change, will confirm closer to the date).

Have a happy and safe week end everyone.

Evan Savage

Principal

Armstrong Creek Community Playgroup

Armstrong Creek Community Playgroup