Out and about with
Mr Walsh

We have definitely had a mixed start to summer with some really hot days, storms and plenty of wet weather. It has been another busy fortnight at Surfside in and out of the classroom and also a number of community events. It is definitely an engaging time of the year but it is also important that we listen to and recognise the feelings and emotions in our young people - feelings of tiredness and levels of emotion. It is important that we continue to focus on good sleep and predictable routines.

We thank all of the students and staff for the great work during our first transition session. We were impressed with the way that the students approached the sessions and focussed on building new connections and relationships. We are looking forward to our next transition session on Tuesday and our students meeting their teacher and class for 2025. . Our staff have put a lot of work and effort into class placements for 2025 over the past month and there are a number of factors that go into the process that include the following:

Academic needs
Educational Support
Gender balance
Social and emotional needs
Behavioural needs
Differentiating 2024 class balance
Friend (who a student works well with) requests. Most students across the school have managed to either be allocated 1 or 2 requests but this is not always possible

A big focus of our work in year levels is collaboration across classes so all of our students often work with students from other classes. We have left our transition support page on our Mental Health & Wellbeing Page so please check this out (Transition support has also been sent out via compass). It is important that we all discuss with our students the opportunities that come with a new year, transitions and new classes - new friendships, new teachers, new experiences, new learning and new spaces. These can all be positive experiences when supported in the right way.

Life at Surfside will continue to be extra busy over the next 2 weeks so please keep the following dates and events at the front of your mind and we look forward to an exciting and action packed agenda:

December

Mon 9th - Parent Helpers Morning Tea in the staffroom

Tue 10th - Year 6-7 Orientation Day (Government Based Secondary Schools)

Whole school Orientation Morning (new classes) 9am-11am)

School Council at 5:30pm (Finance at 5.00pm)

Wed 11th Final Day for Christmas Raffle tickets and Hamper Donations

Thu 12th - No Breakfast Club

Year 6 Graduation Ceremony

Fri 13th - End of 2024 Final Assembly @ 9am Christmas Hamper Winners drawn

Mon 16th - Year 6 Adventure Park Excursion

Tue 17th - F-2 Movie Celebration Day - Excursion

Thu 19th - No Breakfast Club

Fri 20th - Last Day of Term 4 - 2:30pm finish

Casual dress day - gold coin donation

Carols in the Park / Glee Club

Our Glee Club will be performing at The Carols in the Park on Sunday evening. We know that this is a fun night for the Ocean Grove community so we hope to see plenty of Surfside families in the crowd singing along. A big thank you to Ms Griffiths, Mrs McCredden and Ms Moss who have worked with Glee Club this year. This has been an engaging lunchtime based club for our students (and staff) who join together and have fun singing and dancing.

Breakfast Club 2024

Our breakfast club has been in operation all year on a Thursday morning from 7.45am. This Thursday saw our final breakfast club for 2024 and we invited our school community along to join in a pancake morning. A big thank you to Lydia Graham and Mr Chapman who have supported the breakfast club crew this year and a massive thank you to the collection of students who are up early and at school at 7.30am to get the day started and allow our students to get together, have a positive start to the day and enjoy some food together. We look forward to continuing with breakfast club in 2025 and welcome our new crew of helpers. Lydia who has been great for the program will see her daughter move into secondary school in 2025 so we thank her so much for her contribution to breakfast club, school council and school community events. If there are any parents or carers that are interested in assisting in 2025 please drop into the office and have a chat.

Junior Sports Day

It was a warm morning but the wet weather held off and allowed our F-2 students the opportunity to wear their house colours with pride and participate in a range of modified athletic and sporting activities (Long Jump, Shot Put, Egg & Spoon Relay, Tug-Of-War, Hurdles, Ultimate Frisbee, Parachute Games, Sprints, Relays, Sack Race, Hockey and a range of Tag Games). The weather did heat up but so did the action on the oval with plenty of thrills, spills, laughs and smiles. A big thank you to Mr Fraser and Mr Asher for their preparation, coordination and support for the event and a massive shout out and thank you to all of our year 6 helpers and event coordinators - you were superstars!!!

Coles Re-Launch

Coles Ocean Grove has always been a massive supporter of Surfside through donations and sponsorship of our major events. We were thrilled that our school captains were invited down to participate in the re-launch of the newly refurbished Coles Ocean Grove. The students were involved in the cutting of the ribbon and the opportunity to be a part of the festivities including a morning tea.

Snack Shack 2024

The Snack Shack has been an amazing student led and supported initiative in the 2nd half of 2024. Each Tuesday a group of year 5 and 6 students have been on a 5-6 week cycle that sees them work together to create a delicious snack for our Surfside students. This has built skills in planning, preparation, collaboration, marketing and financial literacy. The students have been supported by Clancey and Gill. The students promote their delights to our school community and have been involved in sales on a Wednesday. During the hot weather they have also used their earnings to purchase Zooper Doopers and refresh our students on hot days. Their experiences has enabled them to adapt along the way to cope with supply and demand, build efficient strategies and build their business. Next Wednesday will include another Christmas delight that the Snack Shack are excited about releasing.

Ryman Aged Care Ocean Grove Visit

Surfside has been working toward a partnership with Ryman Aged Care Facility in Ocean Grove throughout the year. A big thank you to Gill who has worked with the group at Ryman on engagement ideas, supportive opportunities and collaborative events. We were able to celebrate this partnership on Thursday when a group of students headed down to Ryman and participated in singing Christmas Carols to the residents. This was a great opportunity to build community connection and we know there were plenty of smiling faces in the crowd. We look forward to building this relationship further in 2025.