Principal's Message 

Welcome to 2025!

Welcome back to Ceres Primary School for 2025 (our 150th year) and a very big welcome to the new families who have joined our school community for the first time.

The start of a new school year is always exciting, and it was wonderful to see the students walking back through the gates on Thursday looking so happy. It can also be an anxious time for some students (and parents) and that is perfectly fine too. Take your time to get back into your routines and talk to your child's classroom teacher nice and early about anything that can assist with the transition into a new school year.

After walking around the classrooms the past couple of days, all year levels have settled in nicely, especially our new Foundation students.

Some exciting news for Miss Petzke late last year as she became engaged to her partner Lachy. We all wish them well for their wedding planning. 

Staffing appointments

We are very pleased to welcome Michelle Chambers to the Ceres PS community. Michelle will be teaching Performing Arts in 2025 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Michelle is an experienced Performing Arts teacher across Geelong and we are very excited to have her on the Ceres PS team for 2025. I am sure the whole community will make her feel very welcome.

Information Sessions

This year we will again host Information sessions on Wed, February 19th for each cohort. These sessions will provide an opportunity for staff to inform parents of classroom expectations, routines, assessment methods and general happenings this year. These will still provide an opportunity for parents to chat with staff but please be mindful of time if you need to get to another session. Each will be held in the building where the cohort resides.

Times: 

• Foundation/1 (3:15-3:40) 
• Grade 2/3 (3:42-4.07) 
• Grades 4-6 (4:09-4:35)

An Open Afternoon for parents to visit their child/ren's class will be held from 2-2:30 on Friday, Mar 28th. This will allow parents an opportunity to view their child's work, have a chat to their teacher, and maybe take part in a whole class activity. Our whole school assembly will follow this at 2:30pm.

Newsletters and assemblies in 2025

Our newsletters will be released via Compass each Friday fortnight in 2025 along with our assemblies to be held @ 2:30pm on the same day. Teachers will inform you if your child has received an award before its release so that you can try to attend our assembly.

(Please note: Odd numbered terms will have assemblies and newsletters on odd numbered weeks Term 1: Weeks 1,3,5,7,9 etc, 

and even numbered terms will have assemblies and newsletters on even weeks Term 2: Weeks 2,4,6,8,10)

Student Leadership 2025

At today's Assembly @2:40pm (special time) we will be presenting our 2025 Student Leaders their badges. Junior School Council elections will be held over the next few weeks with the badge presentations expected to be held in Week 5.

Congratulations to the following students on their Leadership positions for 2025. We know you will all represent Ceres PS with pride and do a wonderful job in your allocated role.

School Captains: Eliza, Noah

Vice Captains: Jordan, Isla

Media: Angie, Emily, Edie, Evanna

Wellbeing: Scarlett, Nate, Millie

House Captains: Logan & Frankie (Lok Lok) and Sienna & Hamish (Kanyul)

Yard Update

Lots has occurred around the grounds these past holidays; 

• Our gardens are looking wonderful thanks to the wonderful watering efforts of some of our families over the break, some trees were removed by Alf's dad Chris (massive job so thank you Chris),  poles were freshly painted in the carpark with some nice happy colour thanks to the Seager family (they look amazing!) and our newly employed gardener, who mowed, trimmed and snipped before students returned to ensure everything looked fresh for our return. Our gardener will regularly maintain our gardens throughout 2025 and we will fund these services using our Buildings and Grounds Voluntary Contributions.
• We have had extensive yellow highlighting added to many aspects of our grounds to bring greater attention to steps, edges, handrails etc. This will support students and community members with low vision. Black mulch was added to the deck gardens for this reason also. 
• Blinds have also been installed in the 4-6 classrooms. This has been on our wish list for a while as these classrooms often had glare issues at certain times of year and made it unpleasant to be sitting on the mat for all concerned. They will also help to keep the rooms extra cool or warm when required. 

School Council 2025

Have you ever considered being on the School Council? A school council can directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students. Parents on school councils provide important viewpoints and valuable skills that can help shape the direction of the school. Those parents who become active on a school council find their involvement satisfying and may also find that their children feel a greater sense of belonging.

The Ceres School Council consists of 12 members, 8 parents, 3 staff representatives, and 1 community member.

It meets twice a term at 5.30 pm and is an opportunity for parents to have input into school operations.

Our first School Council meeting for the 2024 council will be on Tuesday 18th March 2023. This will follow our AGM on the same meeting date which will commence at 5:30 pm

Six parent and one staff terms end in March this year, therefore we are seeking expressions of interest for the vacant parent positions, and one staff representative.

The 2025 School Council process will be run over the next few weeks (see timeline below).

If you're interested, please collect the various nomination forms from the office. They are available now. You can either nominate another person with their consent or self-nominate.

Nominations will close at 4 pm on Monday, 17th February.

All nomination forms must be received by the Principal.

Please contact the office if you would like more information or pop by to grab a nomination form.

SCHOOL COUNCIL TIMELINE

Monday 10th February 2025  - Vacancies declared & nominations called for.

Monday, 17th February 2025  - Nominations close at 4.00 pm with the Principal.

Tuesday, 25th February 2025  - If nominations exceed positions, ballot papers will be prepared and distributed for community voting.

Tuesday 4th March 2025  - Close of ballot, if nominations exceed positions.

Tuesday 18th March 2025  - Annual General Meeting and first meeting for 2025 School Council

Please don't hesitate to ask if you would like any further clarification.

Bushfire Risk Category changes 

Ceres PS is considered a Category 4 on the Bushfire At-Risk Register, meaning we are in an area considered to be at some risk of bushfire or grassfire. As a school in Category 4, our school must close on days forecast as ‘Catastrophic’ by the Bureau of Meteorology in our designated fire district. 

We will advise all families immediately if we receive a notification of this rating via Compass if it is to eventuate.

For more information regarding this procedure please read the communication document below...

Sunsmart in Term 1

Just a reminder that broad brimmed navy hats are compulsory in Terms 1 and 4.  All students must wear a broad brimmed hat during recess and lunch from September to the end of April or whenever UV levels reach 3. Students without a hat will be playing in a shaded area. 

School hats are available for purchase from our uniform provider Beleza for $15. School hats with a broad brim meet all DET and sun safe requirements, baseball hats do not. 

Students will be actively encouraged to apply a broad spectrum water resistant sunscreen (SPF30+) at home before coming to school which is provided by their parents or guardians.

Please read our Sunsmart Policy attached below for further information.

Most importantly....please ensure all hats and uniform pieces are clearly labelled with your child's name.

For any other school uniform items please pay an online visit to our supplier Beleza Uniforms.

Yard duty supervision

The Ceres PS yards in 2025 will again be supervised from 8:35 am to 3:15 pm each day. This is in line with the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) for staff. 

If a student arrives at school before supervision commences at the beginning of the day, the Principal or nominee staff member will, as soon as practicable, follow up with the parent/carer to:

•           advise of the supervision arrangements before school

•           request that the parent/carer make alternate arrangements.

For those parents wanting after school care of their child, please contact Kelly Club for support if required, their details are on a separate page of our newsletter. 

At the end of the school day, children not picked up by 3:15 will need to sit and wait in the office for parent collection as staff have meetings on multiple afternoons each week that begin at 3:20 pm.

Punctuality 

The school seeks the cooperation of parents to ensure that children arrive at school no later than 8.45 am, to enable classes to commence on time and without interruption. If students arrive after 8:45 am they miss important introductions and instructions to learning sessions and this can cause unnecessary anxiety. This disadvantages the student who is late, and also impacts negatively on the other students and the teaching time for the whole class as the teacher often needs to stop teaching to re-explain instructions to the late member of the class. 

In 2024, we had an incredible amount of lates and we are very keen to reduce this number significantly in 2025, to do so, we need the cooperation of parents to prioritise early arrival and earlier morning routines.

Subscribe to our Newsletter 

Our newsletter is private to our school community and is not shared on our website or social media.  However, you may want to have a grandparent or other family member be able to receive our newsletter.  If you do, you can subscribe to our newsletter with the link below and then when the newsletter is published it will go to them. You can also subscribe if you would like to receive the newsletter directly to your email instead. Subscribe here

Reminder: 

Our student led Assembly is today at 2:40 pm (regular time will be 2:30pm in future)

Our assembly is an important part of our school. It is an opportunity to proactively reinforce our school values and expectations through the acknowledgement and celebration of our students and school. 

Tim Callaghan

Acting Principal