Late Arrivals / Early Leavers

Parents must always accompany their child if arriving late or leaving early.

Should your child arrive late to school, please ensure a parent/carer comes to the office with them, signs the Late Arrival book and gives the child a Late Arrival pass to take to class with them. The teacher will then know the child has been past the office and been signed in, not simply turned up late to class.
If you need to collect your child early from school, likewise, the parent/carer must first sign the child out from the Early Leaver’s book at the office and obtain an Early Leaver’s pass. Upon presentation of the pass to the teacher, your child will then be released to you. This is important as specialist and casual relief teachers do not always know who each parent is.

Please note, recess now finishes at 11:10am and lunch finishes at 1:50pm, to avoid disrupting classes, we ask that parents collect at students at these times.

If you return your child to school, the Early Leaver’s book can be signed then, stating the time they returned.
This book must be completed in a timely manner as we will refer to it should there be an emergency to determine which children are currently at school. Please do not write “returned” until the child actually returns.

Refund requests

If you require a refund for any reason we need to have it in writing, preferably an email addressed to macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Student enrolment information forms

All students should have received a stapled document titled 'student enrolment information form" with the current information we have about your child. Can you please check over this information and make any changes, sign and return it to school. It is important that the school has the most up to date information regarding your address, living arrangements, emergency contacts. All information will be treated with confidentiality.

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

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 2024 and return to the office by the end of February.

Conveyance Allowance

***** Don’t forget to apply for younger siblings who have just started school ******

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 1st March 2024.

(No late applications can be accepted).

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. The emails of all staff are on the school webpage. 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.

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.

EFTPOS

We now have a permanent EFTPOS machine in the office. If you would like to pay for excursions or school fees, we can accept all credit/debit cards.

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/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office on 54261518 or email macedon.ps@education.vic.gov.au

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

Macedon Primary School Newsletter

Respect, Responsibility, Creativity, Integrity, Teamwork

Issue 3 · 14 Feb 2024

In this issue