Out and about with Mr Walsh

In the midst of our Fresh Food Fair last Friday it was World Teachers Day. We want to thank all of our teaching staff for their commitment and support of our students and school community. We were able to celebrate our wonderful teachers with a special 'Melbourne Cup' themed afternoon tea on Tuesday.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in the Geelong Advertiser this week with an article celebrating the importance of the Tutor Learning Initiative in Victorian schools. This is definitely a support that has benefited many students following the COVID experience and we are grateful for Mrs Trina Charleston and our collaborative teaching teams to best support student learning at Surfside. Keep up the great work Surfside!!

Classroom Structure 2023

As a school we have been busy preparing our classroom structure and staffing profile for 2023 .Next week we begin our Foundation transition sessions and we will start to work collaboratively on our student placements over the coming weeks.

At this stage we will be running with 23 classes in 2023 with the following classes:

• Foundation x 3 classes 
• Year 1 x 4 classes
• Year 2 x 4 classes
• Year 3 x 3 classes
• Year 4 x 3 classes
• Year 5 x 3 classes
• Year 6 x 3 classes 

Teachers will be meeting soon to begin the process of allocating students to classes and if there are any requests that we need to be aware of when allocating your child to a class, please make sure you put this in writing to me by Friday November 11th. It is not our intention to provide parents with the opportunity to select a teacher of choice or choose friendship groups as we have a very strong teaching team who work collaboratively as a Professional Learning Community at Surfside and parents can be confident the needs of their child will be met by any member of our teaching and learning team. Developing well-balanced classes that are best for all students takes a momentous amount of work from our teachers and placement requests must be founded on significant educational reasons and needs. We will endeavor to accommodate parent requests but we are sure that you will understand that this will not always be possible. It is also important when we come to organize classes that we know of any students who will not be returning next year. If your family is moving on for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible by contacting a member of our administration team or myself at the front office.

Principal email - peter.walsh@education.vic.gov.au

TERM 4 CURRICULUM DAY 

FRIDAY 25th NOVEMBER 

STUDENT FREE DAY

Thank You Team Awesome

A big thank you to our Garden Specialist Clancey McKenzie and Alice, Catherine, Elli, Nadine, Sue, Mike, John and Pete from Team Awesome Foundation who have granted us $1000 to develop a Sensory Garden space within our Surfside Garden Patch.

We plan to create a special place within our garden where students can come and sit, reflect on their day, calm their mind and just relax. In this space we will include sensory plants that students can touch and smell or also eat! There will be plants that look beautiful or may have unusual shapes. Plants that attract wonderful insects that the students can sit and watch while they busily collect pollen or rest on a flower. Logs will also provide vital habitat for ground dwelling insects with the hope these homes will bring in lizards too.

Birds will be resting in the nearby trees and will access the garden for food.

While all of the natural world is busy doing its thing, the students will have the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in nature. This experience will allow them to settle and regroup, giving them the ability to go back to class ready to keep going and enhancing their learning opportunities!

Congratulations Sofia 

Sofia has continued her run of fine form in 2022 by collecting another state championship gold medal at the recent State Primary Schools Track and Field Championships on Wednesday. Sofia collected a gold medal in the 100m, a silver medal in the 200m and a bronze medal in the Shot Put while posting some personal best performances. Sofia has had a cracking 2022 collecting state medals in swimming, cross country and athletics. Surfside is very proud of your achievements Sofia!

Welcome to Surfside

We have also been busy completing our staffing profile for 2023 and would like to welcome the following staff members. We look forward to them being a part of our transition program towards the end of term and working collaboratively with our staff at Surfside. We will continue to have a couple more staff to welcome over the coming weeks.

Mr Ande Santilli

Hello Surfside community,

I'm so excited for the 2023 school year to begin and getting to know you all. I am currently a Grade 1 teacher at Manifold Heights PS and have been teaching at this wonderful school for 13 years. During my time at Mano I have taught all over the school and had many different roles. I really love teaching maths and helping students to see numeracy in a real-life context and engaging them through their interests. 

I have lived on the Bellarine Peninsula my whole life, growing up across the bridge in Barwon Heads. My young family and I have recently moved to Clifton Springs and we love spending time in the garden and going to the beach. My eldest son, Luca, is currently in Prep and my youngest, Raf, is just about to finish 3 year-old kinder. 

Mr Finlay Florence

Hi Surfside Community, 

My name is Finlay Florence and I’m going to be teaching at Surfside next year. I’m from country Victoria, a little town called Benalla, but I have also spent time living in the Netherlands. I am the oldest of four and have three younger sisters. I play and coach footy at Geelong West Giants and am a massive Richmond Tigers fan. I am extremely passionate about teaching and am excited to begin my teaching career at Surfside Primary School next year. 

Mr Pete Davis

Hi Surfside Primary School!

My name is Pete Davis and I have been a teacher for nearly three years now. I am currently teaching a year five class at Christian College. Growing up my family and I would come to Ocean Grove every holiday and learn to surf, skate, and play golf around this beautiful place I get to call home.  I am passionate about all aspects of the great outdoors, and you will often see me with my eyes on the sky spotting and learning about our local birdlife, or sitting on one of my many surfboards with my gaze fixated on the horizon of the ocean, hoping the next roll of swell comes my way. I am over the moon to be teaching at Surfside Primary School and cannot wait for 2023 where I will have the chance to create more memorable learning experiences for all and provide my own positive contribution to this amazing community.  

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Ebony Anderson

Hello Surfside,  

I can’t wait to join the Surfside community, you will soon see me in the administration office as the new Business Manager from 2023.  

I have worked in various school settings across the Geelong region over the past 20 years and I look forward to participating in the school community and collaborating with staff, school council, and families, to contribute to the success of each individual student.

We are excited to welcome Ebony to Surfside but this also means that we will say farewell to one of the pillars of Surfside Primary School Robyn Frew as she has announced her retirement:

Robyn Frew

After 20 years at Surfside Robyn has made the decision ro join her husband in retirement. This is a sad moment for Surfside as Robyn is the heart and soul of our administration team and has been a fountain of knowledge of everything at Surfside. We are very sad to see Robyn leave and wish her all the best and look forward to celebrating her amazing contribution to the Surfside community.

Foundation Information Session

A big thank you to our 2023 Foundation team for coordinating our first face to face Foundation Information Evening since 2019. It was a great opportunity to connect with our new families for 2023 and begin the preparation for their school years ahead. We will be running our Foundation Transition Sessions starting next week and look forward to meeting our new students in our classrooms  If you see some new faces around the school please give them a friendly hello!!

2023 Foundation Team

• Mrs Steph Gillies
• Mr Brenton Barnes
• Ms Emma McLaren

Keeping our community COVIDSafe

The Victorian Government, Department of Health Services and The Department of Education continue to have specific guidance in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our local community. We can all do our part in the following ways:

• Continue good health and hygiene practice by washing hands regularly, coughing or sneezing into your elbow and using hand sanitiser regularly.
• When unwell it is recommended that you remain home, seek medical advice and undertake a Rapid Antigen Test (these are available at the front office).
• It is highly recommended that if your child tests positive to COVID-19 that your child isolates for 5 days and returns when symptom free.

For further support please visit the DHS Coronavirus webpage

Community Introduction Video

Student Introduction Video

Keeping our community COVIDSafe

The Victorian Government, Department of Health Services and The Department of Education continue to have specific measures in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our local community. For up to date advice or further support please continue to visit the DHS Coronavirus webpage

If you require further support or clarification please contact the administration office for further support on 5256 1411.