From the Principal

*NOTE: Year 6 Canberra Tour date change to 14/10/2024 - 18/10/2024

Welcome to IPS 

The week started off with a fabulous performance at Monday's assemby by the Corelli Strings group. They really are talented and captivated the whole audience, not just students and teachers, but parents and families who came along to watch and also managed to enthral our Foundation students who attended assembly for the first time.

Furniture Donation

Many thanks to Denny of Red Rabbit Removals and parent of Alby in FD for donating student chairs and desks. Not only did Denny's company donate the furniture, but they very kindly delivered it and brought it into school for us!

NAPLAN

The test schedule has now been set. Year 3 and Year 5 students will begin NAPLAN testing on  on Wednesday 13th March and the test period will end on Friday 15th March.  

On the 13th March, students will start with Writing assessments, on Thursday morning they will take Reading assessments and in the afternoon, Conventions of Language. NAPLAN testing will wrap up on Friday 15th March with Numeracy in the morning.

There will be a few opportunites from 18th March to 20th March for students to sit catch up tests for which they were absent for in the original testing period.

Anxiety

No doubt some children will be feeling nervous or anxious about the upcoming NAPLAN testing. It is common for us all to feel anxious about important events, such a test or a performance, etc

“Anxiety is what we feel when we are worried, tense or afraid – particularly about things that are about to happen, or which we think could happen in the future...It can be experienced through our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations.” 

Mind, UK Charity.

It’s important that children are taught about and made aware of emotions, stress, and anxiety. This will better equip them to deal with possible future occurrences. But what can you do right now if you can see that your child is showing signs of suffering with anxiety? 

Some Practical Strategies

• LISTEN to your child's worries and validate their worry.  
• Talk about how they feel and be a ROLE MODEL. Your children learn how to deal with emotions from you. By demonstrating that we all feel anxious at times and then how you manage those feelings goes a long way to helping your child. 
• RESPECT their feelings but try not to amplify them. Be postive and realistic.
• Set CLEAR EXPECTATIONS. Avoidance is not a good long term strategy. Ultimately, the goal is to help your child tolerate their anxiety and function as well as they can even when they are anxious.
• Support your child to find calming techniques that work for them. For example, Finger Breathing, Grounding, short mindfulness meditation from Smiling Mind.

To quote Anthony, our Pyschs in Schools Provisional Pschologist, 

"The best you can do, is to do your best."

https://childmind.org/article/what-to-do-and-not-do-when-children-are-anxious/

Good luck to all our students taking NAPLAN next week.

The tips above should help you support your child with mild anxiety. You should seek professional opinion and support if your child's anxiety continues beyond testing and becomes more prevalent.

We provide support in many forms for our students at school. In addition to wellbeing support, explict social skills teaching and some psychology, we also provide extension and scaffolding support for students who need additional help and those who need stretching. Our teachers are experts in differentiating teaching in order to provide all students access to learning at their point of need. In addtion, our support team have been extremely successful in providing intervention for literacy and numeracy. This year, Sarah Murphy will be providing her expertise as a trained high school Maths teacher to the support team.  

Students in grades 5 and 6 who have shown extremely high numerical and mathematical ability will benefit from an extension program. The core aim of the program is to explicitly teach students at their point of curricula need, with an addition of problem-solving skill development .

Sarah will be screening and selecting students to take part in the program who are working significantly beyond their expected level in Mathematics; she will utilise a variety of data sets and a screening process to determine which students would benefit from this support.

Sarah will contact families in due course to obtain parental approval for those students who are invited to take part.

I’m sure you’ll agree that this is another great string to the Ivanhoe bow!

Year 1 Friend Cafe

Extending the wellbeing support, from the classroom to the playground - the Year 1 teaching team have created a Friend Café. They developed it in response to having a number of children feeling a little lost at lunch time. They were either having trouble locating their friends in the school grounds, struggling to find a positive activity to engage with, or having trouble connecting with and establishing friendships. 

The Friend Cafe provides a common space where students can always find a friend or fun thing to do. It is certainly very popular!

First School Council Meeting

The first school council meeting took place last week where we welcomed members new and continuing.

The 2023 School Annual Report will be presented at a special meeting of school council on Wednesday 24th April. The Annual report is a reflection of the 2023 performance in the areas of Teaching and Learning, Wellbeing, Engagemnet and Finance.

There will be an opportunity to attend online and everyone is welcome. You don't need to be a member of school council to attend.  A link will be published on COMPASS and here in the newsletter closer to the date of the meeting.

"Smart" watches

While it is wonderful to see students wearing watches, it is apparent that some of these "smart" watches can be used to make mobile calls. We have been advised that some children have been using their watches to make calls during school time. The Department of Education is quite clear on its mobile phone (and devices) policy. Smartwatches must have their capacity to make calls switched off (similar to flight mode) or not be brought to school.

There are three categories of exceptions (relating to phones/devices). They are:

1. learning-related, 
2. health and well-being related, including:
   (Example: A student with diabetes may use their mobile device to monitor their blood sugar and the administration of insulin)
3. risk related.

*https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/students-using-mobile-phones/policy  

Please help your child set up their device so that they are not inadvertently breaking the rules.

2024 Education Week 13th to the 17th of May

Ivanhoe Primary School will celebrate Education Week with an Open Morning on Wednesday the 15th of May.

Education Week is an annual celebration of education in Victoria.

In 2024, Victoria will celebrate Education Week from Monday 13th May to Friday 17th May.

The theme will be Spotlight on STEM, a chance for schools to celebrate and share how they bring science, technology, engineering, and maths to life in the classroom.

Parent Representative for classes

The role of the Parent Representative is to maintain a good communication link with our community and to provide support for the classroom teacher. Ideally, there is a representative linked with each class.

Expectations of Parent Representatives are flexible, taking into account the time each rep has to give to the role. Ultimately, how and when a Parent Representative is used within the classroom is decided by the classroom teacher. An important role for the Parent Representative is to develop a supportive relationship with other parents in the class. He/she is not expected to carry out all the tasks that may arise and hopefully, he/she will be able to engage most parents in the arranged activities and to share the tasks throughout the year.  Parent Representatives may be involved in one or more of the following activities:

• Contact with families in the class and any families new to the class/school.
• Coordinating class support for the teacher for activities such as helpers for excursions or special activities.
• Assist with raising interest in fundraising activities such as encouraging families to attend and organising class groups to participate in school social events. 
• Encourage working bee participation.

If you are interested in being a parent representative, please read the entire letter on the special Parent representative page of this edition of Inside Ivanhoe and then complete the slip (or email/dojo) and return it to your class teacher as soon as possible.

Volunteers and Parent/Family Helpers

Last week teachers sent home information on how you can support your child’s learning and how you can be involved in our school.  Both teachers and students value the support you can provide. Don't forget to return the form letting us know if and how you'd like to get involved in the school program.  

Second-hand uniform  shop (Re-use Recycle)

The Ivanhoe Primary School Second-hand uniform shop provides an opportunity for families to buy quality second-hand uniforms, bags, drink bottles, library bags, and smocks for a reasonable cost. The second-hand uniform sales are held throughout the year. Please contact our office staff for any purchases. We accept cash only.

Secondhand uniform shop also provides an opportunity for families to donate these things that they no longer require. Please donate clean uniforms, bags, drink bottles, library bags, and smocks that you would be happy to buy yourself. 

Prices of items are as follows:

Long Sleeve Polo Fleece Jackets -$5

School Bags - $5 

All other items e.g. school t-shirts and shorts, library bags, drink bottles, and art smocks are $3 each.

We rely on parent volunteers who help us tidy up the Second-hand shop. Please feel free to contact our office staff if you wish to volunteer for the Second-hand shop.

We are  still looking for parent volunteers with first aid training to be available between 1.40pm and 2.40pm each day to provide occasional first aid to students who hurt themselves on the school grounds. Generally, these are very minor injuries requiring little more than a band-aid and reassurance. If you have the qualifications and the availability, or would just like to discuss this further please contact our admin team on 9499 1880. Note that all volunteers require a working with children check.

Upcoming PFA Event

Our wonderful PFA have organised a Barefoot Bowls event on Saturday 23rd March from 3-8pm  and would love to see you there.    

It promises to be a fun afternoon!  Come along and be part of what makes this community great!

Finally

Please make sure you drive carefully around the school. There was an unfortunate incident yesterday where Yvonne, our school crossing warden was nearly knocked over on the crossing when the lights were on red. Understandably, Yvonne was quite shaken but is ok. If you witnessed the incident please leave your name with the office staff.

Have a safe and relaxing long weekend.

Pam Wright

Principal

http://www.ivanhoeps.vic.edu.au/ 

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and pay respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.