Engagement & Wellbeing

Start of Year Reminders:

Supporting Students Medical Needs at School

If you have a child with a medical need (Anaphylaxis, Diabetes, Heart Condition, Epilepsy, Daily Medication, etc) please ensure you have contacted the office and provided current medical advice from your health professional (generally a health care plan in order to make the plan as effective as possible). Thank you!

Please also contact the school if your child has had any recent diagnosis’ that we need to be aware of.

Asthma At School

If your child has been diagnosed with asthma it is important that you have your child’s asthma plan updated annually and provide a copy to the school office. Please also provide a supply of Ventolin or other asthma reliever and spacer to the school office. These will be stored at the office so they can be easily accessed should your child require it throughout the day, head off on excursions, etc.

Please ensure you have updated your student/s plan for 2026 and bring a copy to the office as soon as possible.

Should you have any questions, please contact the office staff.

Medications at School

If you have a student with a condition that requires medication to be kept at school (such as asthma, allergy or anaphylaxis), please check with the office if the medication is still in date as quite a few are close to or recently expired.

Legal Documents & Paperwork

If you have any parenting or custody orders, intervention orders, etc. please ensure that the most recent and up to date copy has been supplied to the school.

If unsure, please contact the office or Narelle Sullivan.

Mobile Phone Ban in Government Schools

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours. This includes smart watches with mobile phone connectivity.

At our school, phones must be switched off and given to the class teacher at the start of the day and can be collected at home time.

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions and students can interact with each other face-to-face.

Please note that iPads with SIM cards inserted are also not allowed at school.

Emergencies: In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, please contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.

School mobile phone policy: A copy of our school’s local mobile phone policy, which implements the government’s mobile policy in line with our local context, is available here: https://buninyongps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Mobile-Phones-Policy.pdf .

Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones.

If you have further questions, please contact the office or narelle.sullivan@education.vic.gov.au.

Mobile phones owned by students at Buninyong Primary School are considered valuable items and are brought to school at the owner’s (student’s or parent/carer’s) risk. Students are encouraged not to bring a mobile phone to school unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

Student Attendance

PRIMARY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE -

EVERY DAY COUNTS & EVERY MINUTE MATTERS

Please note that it is a requirement that all student absences are reported to the school and this should be done prior to or on the day of absence by 9:00am.

Notifying the school of your child’s absence helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility. Please see the attached sheet for further information.

Please provide an attendance note for all student absences for your child/ren in one of the following ways:

Online: log the absence directly on Compass. Compass is quite simple to use to add a note for the unexplained absences for your child/ren, both past and future. If you are having issues with your login, you can now request a reset password link directly from Compass
Telephone: call the school on 5341 3560 - let the staff know your child’s name, class and reason for absences. -
Email: Email the school - buninyong.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au and provide your child’s name, class, date of absences and reason.
SMS notification: click on the link within the text message that you received when your child was away to provide a reason for the absence

If additional support is required to assist with your child's attendance, please reach out to your classroom teacher or Narelle Sullivan.

Early pick-up of students

At our school, student safety and learning time remain our highest priorities. To support this, we kindly remind all families that students will not be permitted to leave their classrooms early until a parent or caregiver has arrived at the front office to collect them.

This procedure is essential for several important reasons:

Duty of Care: There is not always a teaching staff member available at the front office to supervise students who are waiting to be collected. Keeping students in their classrooms ensures they remain safe and supervised at all times.
Maximising Learning Time: Occasionally, parents or caregivers may arrive later than expected. When students leave class too early to wait for pick-up, they can miss valuable learning time.

To help us maintain a safe and orderly environment, we ask parents to allow enough time for sign-out procedures and to arrive at the front office before requesting that a child be called from class.

We appreciate your cooperation and support in keeping our students safe and ensuring they make the most of every learning opportunity.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact the school office.

Breakfast Club

School Breakfast Club Update – 2026 Kick-Off! 🍎

We’re excited to be starting up our School Breakfast Club again for 2026, and we’d love to see lots of smiling faces each morning!

All students are welcome to come along and enjoy a healthy, positive start to their day. Breakfast helps students feel settled, focused, and ready to learn.

When & Where 🗓 Monday, Wednesday & Friday ⏰ 8:15am – 8:45 am 📍 Meeting Room (just off the main admin building courtyard)

Students can enjoy toast, cereal, and fresh fruit during this time.

Volunteers WelcomeWe’re seeking parent and community volunteers to help make Breakfast Club a success. You can volunteer as often as suits you – there’s no requirement to commit every week. We aim to have 2–3 volunteers each session.

👉 Please sign up using the form HERE

Additional SupportFresh fruit is available in all classrooms during eating times throughout the week. Home food packs are also available for families who would find this support helpful. If this could assist your family, please contact the office or Narelle, and we’ll happily arrange one for you.