Message from the Principals

Welcome back for Term 3

We hope all our students and their families enjoyed the vacation period and are ready for another ten weeks of learning. We extend a warm welcome to a number of new students and their families. Welcome to the Trafalgar Primary School Community we hope you get off to a fantastic start. We look forward to getting to know more about your children over the term as we learn together.

A reminder to families that at the end of last term we made some changes to our newsletter and schedule. The school newsletter is now published each fortnight. The newsletter is in two editions; “The Talk Around…”, and “Message from the Principals.” Each edition includes a copy of the latest “Diary Dates" to keep students and parents informed of all events taking place within the School. Alternatively, hard copies can be collected from the office. More information about how the school communicates with families can be found under ‘Communication’ on the school’s website.

There are a lot of exciting activities planned this term so please ensure you check out the latest edition of diary dates, published with this newsletter.

Staffing News

Over the vacation period a number of staff welcomed new family members. Congratulations to both Ms Kate Boyer’s family and Mr Rick White’s family, who welcomed new arrivals over the holiday. To the family of Ms Whitney Churchill congratulations on the new arrival late last term. We also congratulate Mr Neil and Mrs Janie Grimshaw on the arrival of two grandchildren over the last few weeks.

Ms Kate Boyer, Mr Rick White and Ms Whitney Churchill will all be taking family leave this term and Ms Nadine Gulle has changed her time fraction and will focus on her role as Maths Specialist. Unfortunately Miss Tanya Laidlaw suffered an injury over the holiday period and as a result has a broken wrist. We wish her all the best for her recovery. We are currently working with our teacher supply agency to find a replacement for the time that Tanya is absent.

We welcome Miss Demi Brett, who has been appointed as teacher in P3 for the remainder of the year. We also welcome back Mrs Wilma Kimmenade to P1 while the process to appoint a new teacher continues. Letters have been distributed to students in the affected classes notifying families of specific teacher changes and arrangements for Term 3.

New kindergarten at Trafalgar Primary School

Funding for a kindergarten on our site was announced by the State Government prior to the federal election. Plans for this building have been provided to the school by the Victorian School Building Authority who has responsibility for delivery of the project. There is much work to be done by school council in this space as the project requires a strong partnership between the school, Baw Baw Shire and the YMCA who currently run the Trafalgar Kinder program. The project is scheduled to be completed this year. We will keep the community informed as this project progresses.

Feasibility Study: Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) and Long Day Care at TPS

With the development of the Kindergarten on the school site underway, school council is currently exploring the level of demand for both Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services and Long Day Care services in our community. This study seeks to gather information that will assist school council in making decisions about whether or not these services should be offered by the school.

At this stage the school is considering a plan to offer Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) as a fee-for-service program from 2020. For this program to be offered school council would need to be assured that there was sufficient demand from our community and enough places filled to make the program viable.

To assist us in our study we encourage all members of the Trafalgar Community interested in using either Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) or Long Day Care services to respond to our Feasibility Survey by 21st August 2019. We encourage members of the school community to distribute this link to interested parties. Individuals are welcome to repost this link.

Personal Information is collected in accordance with the DET Privacy Policy. Follow the link for more information about the policy.

Staff Learning

We believe everyone at Trafalgar Primary School is a learner. In Term 3 our staff will continue their learning about Reading and Maths which are our two focus areas in 2019.

Excellence in Reading Each week of Term 3, our staff will look at the latest research about the teaching of reading and the strategies that work best. Teachers will model and practice these strategies together before implementing these lessons in the classroom with students. The high impact teaching practices our teachers will be using are proven to improve outcomes in reading, writing and speaking and listening. More information about our approach to the teaching of Reading can be found on our school website and on the State Government website Literacy Teaching Toolkit.

Excellence in Maths To support our improvement in Mathematics, this term our staff will begin participation in the Professional Learning Communities Initiative. Professional learning communities (PLCs) are an approach to school improvement where groups of teachers work collaboratively at the school level to improve student outcomes.

Professional learning community (PLC) schools start from a simple idea: students learn more when their teachers work together. Over the next four years more than 800 government schools will receive intensive implementation support that includes a comprehensive program of professional learning and expert advice from regionally-based teams. To learn more about how the PLC initiative is transforming Victorian schools, see: How PLCs are working in schools

This year our school has appointed two teachers, Nadine Gulle and Stacey Cleversley as Maths Specialists. In the first semester these teachers gathered data on the maths understanding for all students. They then used this information to review our schools Maths resources, equipment and support material. At the same time our Specialists have been improving their own Maths skills through the The Primary Mathematics Specialists initiative.

This initiative is a successful Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) program that upskills primary teachers in government schools to become mathematics specialists. The Victorian Government has provided $27 million to train 200 specialists over four years (2016-19). Our school is fortunate enough to be able to employ two such specialists who will share their learning with other teachers at our school this term.

The initiative aims to:

increase student engagement and achievement in mathematics

increase teacher confidence and capability in teaching mathematics

increase understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM),

Student Chromebook Program 2020

We know that many families of students in Year 2, as well as families new to the school will be beginning to think about Chromebooks for 2020. A letter was sent home to all relevant families this week that includes some important information for families required to purchase a Chromebook. Please contact the school if you have not received a copy of this letter.

Reports

Semester Reports were distributed to families at the end of Term 2. We hope that you have taken the opportunity to discuss with your child their results and progress. We encourage all carers with questions or concerns about their child’s progress to contact the school. Our teachers will be more than happy to discuss your child’s progress with you. Teachers are also willing to meet with you to help you find and understand some of the reports and information available to you on Compass. More information about how we report to parents and carers can be found on our website.

Our school uses an ongoing reporting system that provides up-to-date information about your child’s progress throughout the year. Access to information about your child including their report can be found on the school’s management software Compass. While compass does provide a mobile application, a mobile device will not provide you with access to your child’s full report. Currently, parents and carers must login to Compass on a desktop computer to access the more sophisticated data sets available. From a desktop you can print and download most reports. If you are having trouble accessing your Compass account please feel free to contact the school.