Working Bee

We will be holding our second working bee of the year on Saturday 3rd June from 8am - 12pm.

On the day we will have a lot of jobs to complete around the school to keep our buildings and grounds looking good and working well.

We were blown away by the turn-out for the first working bee last term and would love to see as many parents, carers and children here on the morning.

Running working bees allows us to complete jobs that are simply not covered by our government funding. We appreciate the support of our parents to help us go above and beyond for our students.

Market Day wrap up

Last Friday our Year 6 students ran their annual 'Market Day'.

This is a project that our students take huge pride in running each year. Groups operate a stall or activity for the enjoyment of our younger students.

Market day develops leadership skills of planning, decision-making and reflecting. It teaches financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Importantly, it also allows them to raise funds to pay for their Year 6 yearbook and graduation celebrations.

The day was a huge success and is a favourite event amongst all of our classes.

We are so proud of our approach that sees all of our Year 6 students as our school leaders and supports and encourages them to develop leadership skills and attitudes. Market Day plays a big role in this work.

Mothers' Day Events - Thank you

Last Friday also saw two wonderful events organised by our school community to celebrate Mothers' (and special persons) Day.

Before school, the dads of our Parents' Association laid on croissants, coffee and music to say thanks to the amazing SKiPPS mums! It was a really great event and we would like to thank all of the families who came along in the cold to get involved.

We especially need to thank Lyndon Galvin (father of Elliot 1/2A and Munroe 5/6H) for leading a team who ran the event.

The event was also made possible with the generous support of Fitzrovia https://fitzrovia.com.au/ and the Bread Club https://www.instagram.com/breadclubofficial/ . We thank them for this generosity.

Later in the day, many of our lovely SKiPPS mums attended the annual Mothers' Day Lunch at the Deck at the Prince.

Over the last few years this has become a hugely popular parent-run SKiPPS tradition that both allows our mums to have a well-deserved chance to let their hair down and enjoy themselves whilst also raising funds which are donated to financially support SKiPPS families to send their children on school camp.

A massive thank you and congratulations to Terri Stynes (mother of Violet in 3/4B) and her team for co-ordinating such a big and impressive event.

Thanks also to the many local businesses and organisations who donated generously for this event.

Winter Wellness Fundraiser

Later in the newsletter you will read about a wonderful new school event - our first ever 'Winter Wellness' day.

The day will be run on Thursday 15th June at the new Parks Victoria pavillion, next to the school.

Eight SKiPPS parents who are practitioners in different aspects of wellness (yoga, sound healing, Feldenkrais) have generously donated their time and expertise and will be running sessions for parents from 8:00am to 6:15pm.

Each session costs only $20 or you can purchase a whole-day ticket for $115 which will give you access to all eight sessions during the day. All proceeds will go to the school to support our fundraising efforts for the year.

If you are free on the day (or can take some time for yourself), why not book a ticket now to look after your wellness and support our wonderful school.

Details can be found here

End of Tax Year - reminder of our tax deductible funds

With the end of the tax year approaching, we know that some families will be looking at options to make gifts and donations to provide them with tax deductions.

The school operates two DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) funds and we would welcome any donations that families may be willing and able to make. Doing so provides huge benefits to the school and can also give tax benefits to the person making the donation.

We operate a DGR Building Fund which allows us to collect funds that are used to maintain and upgrade our school buildings - something that is constantly required in our 141-year old buildings and which existing government funding never fully covers.

We also operate a DGR fund for our Library. Donations to this fund allow us to purchase books and resources for our wonderful school library - something which represents a lasting investment in the learning and engagement of our students.

Any parents considering making a donation prior to tax-time are encouraged to consider the school, chat to their accountant and reach out to Nova Whitehead, our lovely Business Manager at nova.whitehead@education.vic.gov.au to make arrangements.

Nova will be able to provide you with the appropriate receipts and documents to provide to your accountant to allow a tax-deduction to take place.

Beyblades

Each year there seems to be a craze at the school for a certain toy or trading card. This year Beyblades seem to be the toy of choice.

Many of our students quite happily play with these at break times and they provide a good opportunity for children to build friendships and interact positively.

We have however noticed a few incidents in the last week, generally involving students trading beyblades (and normally then later changing their mind and becoming upset). Dealing with the fallout from these incidents can be incredibly time consuming for our staff and distressing for the students involved.

We want to remind all families that trading and swapping belongings at school is not allowed for this reason. We would appreciate you having this discussion with any Beyblade-mad children you might have at home.

As always, we also generally advise that any precious or valuable belongings should not be brought to school in the first place as it is not unusual for them to be broken and lost during the school day.

Sending cutlery to school

With the colder weather arriving, many students are understandably bringing flasks of hot food to school as a part of their packed lunch.

We would like to request that, for families doing this, you remember to pack a fork or spoon for your child to eat their food with.

Our classrooms do not have sets of cutlery for children to use and so staff need to arrange for these to be borrowed from the staffroom (and seemingly often not returned). This has led to a constant shortage of forks for our staff which is leading to some hungry and grumpy teachers each lunch time...

Sub-Committee Meetings

Our school has a number of permanent working groups called sub-committees. These groups are made up of staff members and dedicated parents who meet ten times a year with a focus to make our school a better place.

Sub-committees are open for anyone to join and rely on the energy, ideas and hard work of parents to improve the school experience for all of our students.

The groups are open for all parents to join and contribute to so feel free to come along to any of the following meetings.

Group Name and focus	Next meeting date and time	Location	Contact
Buildings, grounds and sustainability - To oversee the condition of our school buildings and grounds and plan improvements.	Wed 7th June 6pm	School Staffroom	Neil Scott
Fundraising - To coordinate fundraising and community events for the school community	Thu 1st June 6pm	School Staffroom	Neil Scott
Education and Policy - To monitor the Annual Implementation Plan and develop school policies	Wed 7th June 8:15am	School Meeting Room (Office)	Matt Cook
Finance - To monitor the school's financial statements and develop our annual school budget.	Thu 8th June 8:15am	School Meeting Room (Office)	Neil Scott

Year 1/2 Update