Welcome back to returning students and a warm welcome to the new families, we look forward to a successful year.

First Aid

We are in the process of updating all student details. As such, we request that all Anaphylaxis, Allergy and Asthma plans are updated (if needed) including a recent photo of your child, or Medication Authority Forms (for any other medication held at the school) are completed for 2025, and forwarded to the office no later than the end of next week. This will ensure we have the most up-to-date information possible.

We also request all medications held for your child are in their original packaging and in date.

School's Privacy Policy

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 take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website https://macedonps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Collection_Statement-primary_school.pdf. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/Schools-Privacy-Policy-information-for-parents.aspx

Insurance

A reminder for parents/guardians and staff the Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to school and it has no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property.

Parents or guardians of students, who do not have student accident insurance, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport as well as any other transport costs. Parents/guardians can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers.

Camps, Sports, Excursion Fund (CSEF)

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps ensure that no student will miss out on the opportunity to join their classmates for important, educational and fun activities. School camps provide children with inspiring experiences in the great outdoors, excursions encourage a deeper understanding of how the world works and sports teach teamwork, discipline and leadership. All are part of a healthy curriculum. CSEF will be provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities. If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child. The annual CSEF amount per student is $125 for primary school students. Contact the school office to obtain a CSEF application form. If you received CSEF last year, please note that you must complete a new CSEF Form for 2025 and return to the office by the end of February.

Conveyance Allowance

Parents have primary responsibility for transporting their children to and from school. The Department of Education (DET) provides financial assistance in the form of a conveyance allowance to help families in rural and regional Victoria with the cost of transporting their children to their closest appropriate school. The conveyance allowance is a contribution towards transport costs and is not intended to cover the full cost of transporting children to and from school. The allowance is an acknowledgement of the often limited government-provided transport infrastructure available outside metropolitan Melbourne. A conveyance allowance is provided to a student on the basis of individual eligibility.

To receive a conveyance allowance individual students must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Attend a school/campus located outside the Melbourne Urban Growth Boundary.

2. Attend the closest appropriate school/campus. For students attending government schools, this will be the closest school appropriate to the age and gender of the student (e.g. primary, secondary, single sex).

3. Reside 4.8km or more from the school (shortest practicable route calculated by school at time of application from the student’s home to the school attended).

4. Be of school age (between five and 18-years-old at the time of application), and a resident of Victoria.

5. Be enrolled and travelling to school three or more days per week.

Students’ circumstances can change during their school years (e.g. moving residence or changing schools). Change of circumstances affects eligibility and a new application must be submitted with each change of circumstance. If you are unsure if you are eligible for Conveyance Allowance please contact the office.

If you received Conveyance Allowance last year, please note that you must complete a new Conveyance Allowance Application Form for 2024 and return to the office ASAP.

Conveyance Allowance applications must be lodged in early March, therefore the Conveyance Allowance Application Forms must be received at the office no later than Friday 29th of February 2025.

(No late applications can be accepted).

Accessing the School Saving Bonus

Parents and carers of students enrolled at a government school for 2025, by 31 January 2025, will access their School Saving Bonus via an email sent from the Department of Education.

The Department of Education and the Victorian Government will never ask you to provide your banking or financial details for the School Saving Bonus.

A School Saving Bonus email will be sent per child, so parents and carers with multiple children will get an email for each child in their family. The emails may arrive at different times.

The email contains a unique code for the $400 bonus and access to the School Saving Bonus online system.

To learn more about the School Saving Bonus online system, download the step-by-step user guide (DOCX, 945KB) or watch this video. User guide translations are also available in 14 languages.

Please check junk or spam folders for this email. For enquiries, please use the School Saving Bonus enquiry form.

Contact with teachers

During class time (bell times listed below) teachers are busy teaching. If you need to make contact with a teacher by phone, please do so outside of class time. Alternatively, you can email them. Parents are reminded that staff are not required to reply outside of school hours or over the weekend. All staff emails are available on the school's website under 'staff'. Please note new bell times for this year.

Bell Times

8:55 am Bell signals as a prompt for the commencement of the school day.

8:57 am Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

9:00 am Bell signals the start of the school day.

10:40 am Commencement of morning recess

11:07am Music commences as a prompt for students to assemble outside of their classrooms.

11:10 am Bell signals the end of morning recess

12:50 pm Bell signals lunch, students eat lunch inside

1:00 pm Bell signals students can go outside for lunch break

1:40 pm Bell signals 10 minutes until the end of lunch break

1:47 pm Music commences as a prompt for students to move to their classroom ready for the afternoon session.

1:50 pm Bell signals the commencement of the afternoon session.

3:30 pm Bell signals for dismissal for the end of the day.

The dismissal time for the last day of terms 1, 2 and 3 is 2:30 pm and 1:30 pm at the end of term 4.

School Crossing

I have received a message from our friendly crossing guards about some unsafe crossing use. Please make sure you are not parking over the crossing, or doing u-turns in front of the crossing. Our ultimate goal is to keep our most precious little people safe. Please do your bit by using the dedicated crossing and waiting for the guards to stop traffic and blow their whistle.

Staff Carpark

The car park bays on Smith Street are reserved for staff carparking. Can parents please refrain from parking in these carparks during school pick up and drop off.

Spare clothing

Please pack some spare clothing for your child/ren. Especially with the start of the year, children can have accidents. We have a limited amount of clothing in sick bay and cannot always give children spare clothing. If you child is excessively wet and muddy you will be contacted and asked to bring in a change of clothes.

Working With Children Checks / VITs

Would all parents please ensure their WWCC is current prior to nominating to help with activities during camps. It is a legal requirement for those assisting with child activities to hold a current WWCC (either volunteer or employee) OR a current VIT card (for teachers).

WWCC applications are free for volunteers and can be obtained online at https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/.

Photographing, Filming and Recording Students at Macedon Primary School

New forms regarding the photographing, filming and recording students at school were sent home at the end of last year. This is inline with the schools policy https://macedonps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Photographing-Filming-and-Recording-Students-Policy-.pdf

We ask all families to return the form for each child, if you do not return the form to school, we will assume that you do not consent to the use of photos and your child's photos will no longer be published in the newsletter.

A reminder that the office is staffed from 8:00am - 4:00pm Monday to Friday.

Julie, Emma (Mon, Tues, Wed) & Salina (Wed, Thur, Fri)

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