From the Principal

Education Week and Open Night - Celebration of Cultures

Education Week is an annual celebration of education in Victoria.

This year's theme, ‘Celebration of Cultures’, highlights the diversity of our communities and the importance of every child feeling safe and welcome at school.

Our Open Day / Night will be held on Tuesday, 13th May during the following times:

Open Morning: Tuesday 13th May (9:00am to 10:30am)
Open Night: Tuesday 13th May (5:00pm to 6:30pm)

Families can only participate in the ‘Celebration of Cultures’ activities during the ‘Night’ session between 5.00pm – 6.30pm.

The night will commence at 5.00pm in the School Hall with a performance by our School Choir who will sing two songs. Thanks to Ms Hong and the Choir for displaying their

talents. The classrooms will be opened after the Choir has performed their songs, so we ask all people to meet in the hall at 5.00pm.

During our Open Day / Night times parents/grandparents/friends/community members will be encouraged to visit their child’s classroom (and all specialist classrooms) and talk to their child/children about their learning and look at the work they have been completing at school.

Parents and students will have the opportunity to visit all classrooms, specialist rooms, our STEM Room, our hall and our Green Screen Room during our Learning Expo. Please go around and visit all the learning spaces at our school.

We look forward to seeing as many people as possible on Tuesday, 13th May.

Thanks to the staff who are attending and preparing for this significant community event.

Mother's Day High Tea

Our Mother’s Day High Tea will be held on Thursday, 15th May at 4.00pm – 5.30pm. We

look forward to seeing many mums, aunties, grandparents, special people attend this event. The Junior School Council members have been planning this event, and we are sure that this will be a fantastic occasion.

Please refer to the Compass feeds for further information.

Student Reports and Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences: Thursday 3rd July 3:40pm-5:30pm and 6:00pm - 8:00pm

As our teachers are formally reflecting on your child’s achievements during the first 6 months of this year within the Semester 1 reports, it is worth remembering that all students (regardless of year level) are individuals and develop physically, emotionally, and academically at different rates. As educators it is our role to provide students with every opportunity to help them achieve their goals and reach their potential. This will vary from child to child, and is why we see our students as individuals, rather than students who we can compare against other students.

I know parents appreciate the many hours of work that go into these reports. Teachers review their assessments and moderate within their teams to ensure that each student’s report is as up-to-date and accurate as possible. Each report includes areas of achievement as well as future learning goals. These goals will be worked on in Semester 2.

Our student reports will be ‘live’ on Compass on Friday, 27th June from 3.30pm. Our Student / Parent / Teacher interviews will be held on Thursday, 3rd July between 3.40pm – 8.00pm.

Information about booking interviews will be communicated with families via Compass soon.

Parents will have the option to either attend ‘in person’ or ‘online’. The Compass communication will contain the individual links to the teacher’s Webex accounts for parents that request an ‘online interview’.

Attitudes to school survey for all Year 4-6 students

We value student voice to improve student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education to

assist schools to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.

Commencing the week of Monday, 19th May all students (except those that are exempted) from Years 4 -6 will participate in the annual Attitudes to Schooling Survey. Your child will complete the survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool. It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. All responses to the survey are kept anonymous. Personal identification data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is always protected. If you do not want your child to participate in this survey, you can choose for your child to ‘opt out’. Please refer to the Compass feed with information about how to do this.

To maintain consistency across the school, Ben Heys and I will administer this questionnaire to the children and results will be presented to the school community once they have been analysed and returned by the Department of Education.

If you would like more information, please speak to Ben or myself.

Year 5 Camp

We would like to wish our Year 5 students and staff all the best for their Camp to Sovereign Hill / Ballarat from Wednesday, 21st May to Friday, 23rd May.

https://www.sovereignhill.com.au/learning/

The student experiences are stimulating, immersive and connect to many areas of the

curriculum, with a focus on the 1850’s gold rush heritage and the environment. Experiences will be indoors, outdoors, above ground or below ground, providing tremendous variety to ensure a fun and action-packed camp.

Thanks to Mr Chris Young for coordinating this camp and thank to the other staff members (Ben Heys, Fiona Schwass, Linda Bett, Ilana Tusia) for attending the camp.

King's Birthday Public Holiday June 9th

A reminder to all families that the school will be closed due to the public holiday on Monday, 9th June.

Students will attend school on Tuesday, 10th June.

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys