Principal's Report

Important Supervision Notice

It has come to my attention that a number of our students are being dropped at school early and they are leaving the school grounds to play at the playground across the road, directly opposite the school.  Parents may be unaware that their child may be doing this, and I have personally spoken to some of our children doing this.

It is very important that you discuss with your child, your expectations of before school routines.  For example, if you drop them at the park before school for a play, that is parent choice.

However, students are not to come to school, then leave the school grounds to cross the road to go to the park.  The crossing supervisor and staff will supervise this as much as possible, but children arriving before 8:45am will not be actively supervised, as staff are not on duty.  Parents should work out alternative arrangements, such as Team Kids.

Building Update

You may have noticed the next stage of our building works is well underway.  The 4 classroom building at the back of the school's north-east corner was being internally painted lasted week and cabinets and joinery were being installed.  There has also been plenty of action where the old school oval was located.  This is currently being levelled by civil engineers and will become 2 external basketball courts and a Year 3-6 playground. 

Our new multipurpose field opened at the start of this year, and the children are enjoying the new open spaces to kick balls, play chasey or do a handstand or two on the grass.  I will continue to update you with the progress of the building works throughout the term. At some stage during Term 2, we are expecting the completion of all of these works.

Staffing Update

Currently, we are advertising for a Visual Arts teacher and a STEM teacher to join our specialist team.  This process takes a few weeks, and we are hopeful of filling these positions with the right people.  In the meantime, we will be running these programs through the classroom program or with casual relief teachers.

On another note, I would like to congratulate the following staff who have been appointed a recent leadership position at our school.  Congratulations to Mrs Kate Couacaud who has been appointed as another Assistant Principal for our school.

Congratulations to Ms Jess Hamilton and Mrs Ash Bartsch who were appointed Learning Specialist positions and to Mrs Hayley Taylor for being appointed Leading Teacher for Wellbeing.  These new appointments join the other members of our Leadership Team, Mrs Sue Lumley (Assistant Principal), Mrs Kate Brittain (Learning Specialist) and Ms Jess Bowler (ICT Curriculum Leader).

2023 Parent Helper Training

Are you interested in being a Parent Helper at our school?  Parent Helpers are involved in many aspects of our school, including things like Breakfast Club, support for reading programs, camps, excursions, Mother's Day and Father's Day stalls etc.

If you are interested I invite you to attend an important information session where we will be outlining the expectations of helpers, ways to offer assistance and the Working With Children Check application process.  You must attend this training to be eligible to be a helper.  If you have attended a training session in previous years and have completed all of the requirements you do not have to attend the information session again.

            Date: Tuesday 7th March         

            Time : 9:00-9:45am 

 To register for this event please ring or email the school office. 

 Parent support is greatly appreciated. 

Being Sunsmart

Just a reminder to all parents that students are required to have their hat at school each day.  Please ensure that your child’s hat is clearly named to prevent it from going missing.

With the weather heating up and high-level UV, we encourage parents to support their

 child in applying sunscreen before arriving at school.  Sunscreen is also available within learning areas, and whilst teachers are not required to apply it on students, they will encourage students to do so as much as possible.  During heatwaves, the school may decide to run alternative programs, such as indoor lunch activities rather than being outside.

Medical Forms and Plans

Thank you to the parents who have already submitted medical plans to the school.  Please ensure you let the school and your classroom teacher know if there are any medical conditions we need to know about.  No issue is too small – the more information we know, the better.  This helps to keep our community safe!

School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS)

This term we are focusing on setting behavioural expectations in the classroom and non-classroom environments.  Because of the new build, it is important that the students are shown how to move around the school in a respectful and responsible manner, while showing resilience by having to wait.  Over the term, students will be reminded of the school’s expectations and school values while using tokens as positive reinforcements.

Below is this term's teaching foci for SWPBS.

If you have any questions about the SWPBS Program, please contact the office or Mr Russell, our SWPBS Leader.

Help with School Costs

There are options if you're having difficulties with school costs , such as uniforms, booklists or excursions

You can:

• talk to the office staff or Wellbeing Leader (Hayley Taylor) about your situation.  They may be able to arrange a payment plan or look at other options.
• ask about support from State Schools' Relief and the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund
• use the payment and service finder to see if you can get support from the Commonwealth government.
• ask us about support services near Clyde

A healthy start to the school day

Our school Breakfast Club provides a warm and welcoming space for students when they arrive at school.  Parent Helpers and staff help set up the Breakfast Club space and provide students with a variety of healthy, Victorian grown or manufactured breakfast foods.  These may include oats, muesli, wholegrain Cheerios, milk, baked beans, canned fruit, fruit cups, fresh apples, toast with vegemite and honey.

In addition to removing the barrier to learning when a child is hungry, creating a safe and social Breakfast Club environment for students also has other benefits.  Positive relationships are being built between peers, staff and volunteers.  

With the help of our wonderful volunteers, our Breakfast Club runs every Friday morning from 8:15 am – 8:45 am. This program is available to all students in the school and doesn't cost anything.  Students can just turn up on any Friday morning by entering the main doors into the Foundation building.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please click on this link to read our school’s collection notice,  which can also be found on our website.  For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents.  This information is also available in ten community languages.