Dear Families,

We only have 5 full weeks remaining and lots of things on the calendar with what appears to be a strong emphasis on swimming and water activities, for all year levels. On Monday 18th November the 3/4 students will be heading to the Lord Sommers Camp to experience a variety of water activities. As they return from camp on the Wednesday, the 5/6 students will then replace them for the second part of the week.

The Year 1/2 Learning Community have swimming lessons each day in the week commencing Monday 25th November and Foundation students the week following. The Foundation to Year 2 swimming program is only possible with the support of parent volunteers to assist with children changing both before and after the lessons. We thank those parents very much in advance for giving up your time and helping the children.

Please remember that Monday 9th December will be a student free Professional Practice Day when teachers will work on finalising their assessments and student reports. And of course, the much awaited and anticipated Colour Run to be held from 2:30pm on Wednesday 11th December.

The first of our 2025 Foundation Orientation will take place on Friday morning, 22nd November, 9:30 to 10:30am. The 2025 Foundation parents, once they have delivered their children to the Foundation classrooms, with the assistance of our Semester 1 and Semester 2 Year 4 Community Leaders (our House and School Captains will still be on camp), will meet with Mary and I to collect their Foundation pack and hear information about the 2025 school year. All year levels in the school will step up to their 2025 year level during Foundation Orientation times. This will allow us to explore different groupings of students, seek feedback from teachers, students and parents and collect student-learning information in preparation for a smooth transition in 2025.

In the meantime, in subsequent transition sessions, the year 6 students will be able to work on graduation preparation and their own transition program in preparation for secondary school. Our final transition day, when students will meet as a 2025 Home group/ Literacy class with their 2025 Learning Community teachers in their designated learning space will be Friday 13th December. If you have any concerns about the group your child was placed in during this first transition session, please let me know in writing so your concerns can be investigated and addressed before the next transition session. Please note that we will be moving groups between teachers over the next 4 sessions and that the final allocation of teachers to Year Level Teams and Home groups will not be determined until after 6th December.

Prior to 2020, as a tradition, Essendon Primary School held the End of Year Concert in the evening hours at Moonee Valley Racecourse. It was always a major event with over 1000 friends and family members in attendance, with all staff giving up their evening to volunteer to supervise and support their students. Post COVID we saw the implementation of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement. The Victorian Government Schools Agreement allowed for an increase in protected planning time, the continuation of Professional Practice Days (PP days) and the full implementation of a Time in Lieu policy (TIL).

“For any structured school activity (such as parent–teacher meetings, camps, excursion, concerts, parent information sessions or after-hours sport) where staff are required to attend, they must be provided with time in lieu for any hours in excess of 38 hours for a full-time teacher (pro-rata for part-time).”

We have/will be able to acquit time in lieu for the parent teacher conferences, 5/6 production, camps and the Year 6 graduation. However, it would not be possible for the school to afford to compensate staff for an evening end of year concert. So, in order to continue the tradition of having a whole school end of year celebration we will again schedule the whole school concert, at school, during school hours, from 1:30 to 3:30pm on Monday 16th December and hope everyone is able to make it. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause families.

As the weather can be unpredictable, and often quite hot at that time of the year, we have decided that we will need to hold the concert in the gym. In order to have enough seating available for families, it will not be possible for the students to be part of the audience. Students will need to wait side stage (in the out of school care space) for their performance and then exit via the Art room. It will also mean that the announcement of the House & School Captains, and the Finn McMullen awards will need to be held over until the end of year assembly on Friday 20th December, the last day of school. We are disappointed that students cannot be part of the audience but have arranged for them to see other class performances during the rehearsal in the previous week. We had investigated accessing a stand at Windy Hill and hiring a marquee for the school oval, but both options were prohibitively expensive.

Thank you to all families on behalf of the fundraising team for your support throughout the year. Whether it be volunteering your time and energy to help out at one of our stalls, donating gifts for our Easter raffle or purchasing pies from our Pie drive earlier this year. It all helps and we are very grateful.

The fundraising team have once again teamed up with Brumby’s for a Festive season fundraising drive. Traditional Shortbread biscuits, Biscoff Christmas balls and fruit mince tarts will be available for purchase. More information and order sheets will be sent home with your children. And of course, our annual colour fun run to be held on the 11th of December. If you haven’t already done so, please register your profile online. Prize draw opens on the 15th and closes on the 20th November.

Christine Nash

Principal

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