From the administration team
The new School Saving Bonus 2025
The Department of Education will email you in November 2024 with your $400 School Saving Bonus. You will be able to access it via an online system.
You can decide how to best use the School Saving Bonus for your family's needs. You can choose how to allocate the $400 in the online system.
The bonus can be used towards 2025 school costs, which may include:
• camps, trips, excursions and incursions
• swimming and sporting programs
• outdoor education programs
• graduations
• school uniforms
• textbooks.
Funds will roll over for use in future years if it is not all spent in 2025.
Families who have more than one child at the same school can combine their School Saving Bonus payments to use on one child, or for a specific activity. So, for example, a family with 3 children who are all government school students would receive support to the value of $1,200 and choose how they spend those funds.
Whooping cough
Whooping cough cases are continuing to increase across Victoria, particularly among school-aged children.
Whooping cough is a very contagious infection, mostly spread through coughing or sneezing. Symptoms include:
- blocked or runny nose
- tiredness
- mild fever
- severe bouts of coughing, often followed by a ‘whooping’ sound on breathing.
Whooping cough can lead to life threatening infections in babies.
If your child is unwell, they should not attend school. Please see a doctor if you or your child develops whooping cough symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment will help reduce the spread of the infection.
Students diagnosed with whooping cough must not attend school
If your child is diagnosed with whooping cough, they must not attend school for 21 days after the onset of the cough, or until they have received 5 days of antibiotic treatment. You must notify the school if your child is diagnosed with whooping cough.
To further reduce the spread of infection to your child and the school community, the Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations 2019 require that some students who were in the same classroom as a student diagnosed with whooping cough should not attend school.
Your child should not attend school for 14 days after they were last exposed to a person diagnosed with whooping cough, or until they have taken 5 days of a course of antibiotic treatment if they are:
- aged less than 7 years; and
- not fully vaccinated with 3 doses of whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine.
This exclusion is required by law – refer to the School exclusion table for primary schools and children’s services.
If your child is diagnosed with whooping cough, please contact the school to let us know.
More information
For more information about whooping cough, refer to Whooping cough on the Better Health Channel.
Vaccination is the best way to reduce the risk of whooping cough. The Department of Health recommends staying up to date with immunisations, including booster doses. A free booster dose of the pertussis vaccine is covered under the national immunisation program for students aged 12 to 13. If you are unsure about your child’s vaccination status for whooping cough, please discuss with an immunisation provider, such as your doctor.
I really appreciate your support in keeping our students safe and well.
Please participate in our survey.
2024 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey
Reminder to participate in the 2024 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey
Dear Parents / Caregivers / Guardians,
Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey and is seeking your feedback. The survey, offered by the Department of Education, is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement.
We sent you an invitation to complete the survey via email on 26/7/24 If you have misplaced this, please reach out and we can resend this invitation to you. Caulfield.jr.co@education.vic.gov.au.
The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will now remain open online until Friday 20 September 2024 (end of Term 3).
Note that the survey has been extended from the original close date of Friday 30 August.
Your opinions are important to us and will contribute to identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. The department will use the results from the survey for research purposes and to improve outcomes for students.
The survey is being conducted online and only takes 20 minutes to complete. It can be completed on any internet enabled device (desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.
The survey is available in English and 10 other languages: Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. If you require assistance in another language, resources may be available for you. Please reach out to the school if you require assistance in another language. Caulfield.jr.co@education.vic.gov.au
Invitation to take part to the Student Climate Survey
The department invites students in years 4 to 12 to take part in our Student Climate Survey.
We will use survey findings to help us understand what students think and know about climate change, and how they prefer to learn about it.
This will help us select teaching and learning resources. It will also ensure student voices shape the way students learn about climate change, its impacts, and potential solutions that will help us meet the challenges of the future.
We are not asking schools to administer the optional survey, but to share it. Local councils and youth organisations are also sharing the survey.
How to share the survey
If you want to promote the survey, you can use this template content to share information through your school communication channels with parents and carers of years 4 to 12 students.
Please note, students who choose to take part will need parent or carer consent to do so.
The survey closes at 5 pm on Friday 20 September 2024.