Principals' Update

RUOK Day Today

Today our school is participating in RUOK Day. Some of our staff and students onsite chose to wear yellow for the day.

The message for this year is:

Are they really OK? Ask them today.

Do you know how the people in your world are really going?

Life's ups and downs happen to all of us. So chances are someone you know might be struggling. Your genuine support can make a difference to whatever they are facing, big or small.

So, don’t wait until someone’s visibly distressed or in crisis. Make a moment meaningful and ask them how they’re really going.

Are they really OK? Ask them today. Your conversation could change a life.

This is a timely opportunity to remind all of our CNPS Families that we have a number of support networks within the school and community to be able to assist any individuals or families that may need wellbeing support during these very difficult times. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at school or contact School Councillors Conrad Dudley- Bateman on 0418 557 646 or Alice Knowles on 0414 749 482 if you require support.

Guest Speakers and Online Incursions

Our teachers have really ramped up the online events calendar to make sure that our students are hanging in there during our remote learning period. Here is an outline of some of the events being held across the school.

Campbell Message

Last week one of our CNPS parents, Campbell Message hosted a brilliant online Zoom session with our Year 1/2 and 3/4 students. Campbell won a silver medal as a member of the Australian Wheelchair Basketball Team in the 2006 Paralympics in Greece. Campbell will also be speaking with our Year 5/6 students next Thursday.

Jackie French Author Talk - Tuesday 14 September

Next Tuesday at 1:00pm, Australian Author Jackie French, will be reading to our students for Australian Reading Hour. The Year 1/2 students have just completed an author study on Jackie French as an author, in particular her Diary of a Wombat picture books. Wonderful CNPS parent, Emma Dunlevie, won this event for our school. Thanks Emma!

Foundation Guest Reader

Today Rachel zoomed with the Foundation students to read the picture story book Ollie and Augustus. Lots of fun chatting with our youngest CNPS learners, learning from home. On Tuesday, Erin read The Very Cranky Bear which was also a favourite.

Foundation End of Term Party

Next week our Foundation teachers will be running an online class party to celebrate the end of term and hopefully the return to onsite school for Term 4. Mary will be holding her party on Thursday and Millie and Eoghan will party with their classes on Friday.

Year 1/2 Sleepover Day - Tomorrow

Our Year 1/2 students were scheduled to have their Year 1 Dinner and Year 2 Sleepover at school next Thursday. This event is an important rite of passage as our students travel through the school and it plays an important role in preparing them for camp in Years 3 to 6. Tomorrow our Year 1/2 students will be participating in an online Sleepover Day.

Year 1/2 Uluru Incursion

On Monday our Year 1/2 students will be able to access an interactive online visit to Uluru.

Year 3/4 Healesville Sanctuary Incursion - Aussie Animal Adventurers

On Monday, our Year 3/4 students will get a chance to meet our Aussie icons up close and learn more about the unique animals who call this continent home.

Year 3/4 Science Incursion

Matt from Hands On Science will be running a free science session for our Year 3/4 students on Tuesday 14 at 12:00pm. He will be sharing science experiments that can be done at home during lockdown using everyday household items. Matt visited the Year 3/4 students in real life earlier this year.

Year 5/6 Public Speaking Competition

For the past two weeks Year 5/6 students have been working on producing speeches around the topic ‘Every Ending is a New Beginning’. This week all students presented their speeches in front of classmates and two students were selected from each class to then present in front of the cohort. Congratulations goes to Lucy and Zoe from 5/6B, Charlie P and Phoenix from 5/6O and Charlie K and Sophia from 5/6CJ. These six students will present their speeches next week in the hope of being one of two selected to advance to the next stage of representing our school at the annual Northcote High School Public Speaking Competition. Well done everyone for your efforts and resilience with these presentations.

Webinar - Effects of COVID-19 ON Children’s Physical Health

The Royal Children’s Hospital will be holding a webinar with a panel of leading experts from the RCH campus, including Murdoch Children’s Research Institute tomorrow at 10:00am.

Access to the webinar will be available through this link - https://bit.ly/3yTPwXx

Any parents and carers that are worried about the current COVID-19 outbreaks particularly in our community may wish to attend this event. The following questions and more will be discussed:

Are you worried about your child getting COVID-19?

Is Delta worse than the other variants?

Should I vaccinate my child when it’s available?

Those parents and carer unable to watch this webinar live can upload the hospital’s YouTube account and access a recording of the event after it has occurred.

Thank you to CNPS parent, Dr Luke Phillips, for sharing the details of this event and sharing the useful resources below:

Supporting kids mental health during the pandemic and beyond - https://youtu.be/y1DizMUOeng

Children and COVID19 vaccines - https://youtu.be/QZb87luSC3Q

Norm’s Retirement

Some of you may be aware that our beloved Norm Buhagiar is planning on retiring at the end of this year. Norm has worked at our school for the past five years and prior to that he was a Secondary School Teacher for over 30 years. We hope to be able to celebrate his retirement with him together as a whole school community at the end of the year.

Norm has been working hard over the past few weeks beautifying the school and keeping up with ongoing maintenance. His role is vital to the upkeep of our school grounds and gorgeous heritage listed buildings. Have a look at the new garden on the southern side of the school. Thanks Norm!

On the Lookout for a Maintenance and Grounds Keeper - 2 days per week 2022

We know that Norm is irreplaceable and will be very much missed, however, we are asking our school community to please put your feelers out for anyone who might be interested in the role. We will advertise the position later in the year on the Department’s recruitment website and ask any interested persons to please contact the school for further information.

Limited Access to Onsite Learning

Current arrangements will continue. An authorised worker permit will be required for authorised workers to attend a workplace, and parents and carers can only request on-site supervision at school for their child/ren in the below categories.

Category A

Children where both parents and or carers are considered authorised workers who cannot work from home, work for an authorised provider and where no other supervision arrangements can be made.

Where there are two parents/carers, both must be authorised workers, working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision at school.

For single parents/carers, the authorised worker must be working outside the home in order for their children to be eligible for on-site provision at school.

Parents and carers who are authorised workers will need an authorised worker permit from their employers to access on-site supervision for their child/ren in Category A.

For those requesting on-site learning under Category A, a copy of your authorised worker permit or permits must be submitted to our school as soon as practicable after it is issued.

Category B

Children experiencing vulnerability, including:

in out-of-home care
deemed vulnerable by a government agency, funded family or family violence service, and assessed as requiring education and care outside the family home
identified by a school or early childhood service as vulnerable, (including via referral from a government agency, or funded family or family violence service, homeless or youth justice service or mental health or other health service)
where a parent/carer indicates that a student with a disability is vulnerable because they cannot learn from home, and/or informs the school the student is vulnerable due to family stress, the school must provide on-site supervision for that student. This may apply to students enrolled in specialist schools and students with a disability enrolled in mainstream schools.

An authorised worker permit is not required for accessing on-site supervision under Category B.

If you are eligible to access onsite supervision please complete the Googleform and provide a copy of your authorised worker permit to the school.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQVNMJJ9HtktzbCxHKap5NtkptUq8Yf3452YpxQyYyhT3kZw/viewform

Class Placement for 2022

Early next term, our teachers will start creating the classes for 2022. Within class, teachers will ask students to list 5 friends that they work well with in the classroom. Between now and next term we are asking you to please have a chat with your child at home to start identifying these friends.

If you have a request for your child’s class placement due to wellbeing concerns, please ensure that you make this request no later than Friday 8 October, so that your request is considered when organising classes for 2022. Creating classes is a very complex process and it is very difficult to make changes to the classes once they are formed. One change can have a flow on effect and impact strategic decisions and other class placement requests. We will not consider class placement requests made after Friday 8 October.

At Carlton North Primary School we recognise the importance of fostering and maintaining friendship groups. We also understand that it is equally important for students to mix and learn with peers who have different interests. We ask that requests for class placements are made in writing and are addressed to Rachel, Erin or Jane. We will not always be able to accommodate class placement requests but will endeavour to take your wishes into consideration where possible.

All teachers at CNPS are caring and committed educators and CNPS strives to ensure that all students are provided with a high quality education. Whilst we appreciate that you may believe that your child would benefit from being placed in a class with a particular teacher, we are generally unable to accommodate these requests. The Class Placement Policy can be found on the school’s website. http://www.carltonnthps.vic.edu.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/6.1-Class-Placement-Policy.pdf

Petition for Further Funding for our Buildings and Grounds

Ellen Sandell, the Greens State MP for Melbourne, has begun advocating on behalf of our school to secure significant infrastructure funding for our beautiful school buildings and grounds.

As part of this campaign, Ellen has arranged a petition calling on the Government to fund important upgrades, which include fire alarms for each building, playground equipment, fixing of trip hazards due to tree roots, air conditioning in the main building, sewage pipe replacement and new fencing.

This petition has gone live and you can find it here.

We strongly encourage our parent community, along with friends, family members and supporters to sign this petition. The more signatures we get, the greater the impact.

In addition, the school recently applied, under two separate grant streams for funding, to upgrade the junior toilets and apply acoustic treatment to walls and ceilings throughout the school. These closed on 6 August and we should know by the end of the year if our submissions have been successful.

Have a great week and sending positive vibes from the Principal Team

Rachel Corben, Erin Brown & Jane Bilby

Student Achievements

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

STUDENT BIRTHDAYS