Spring Gully Primary School - Be Awesome

Assistant Principal's Report

Welcome back to the 2024 school year! I look forward to working with all students and their families through the year ahead. 

Cyber Topic of the Week: A Modern Parent’s Guide to Kids’ Learning

If you're a parent of a primary school aged student, you might feel that the landscape is shifting under your feet. So much is changing in modern schools.  The link below provides access to a comprehensive guide that will help you find the best teacher-approved apps, games, and websites to support your child in each grade and the best advice to help you understand current trends in schools and how they affect your child. (Please note, there is quality information in this guide but it is from an American source.)

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/guide/essential-school-tools

School Photos

School Photo Day will be held on Wednesday 13th March. Further information, including how to order, will be circulated when we receive it from the photo company. 

Medical Information       

If your child suffers from asthma, an allergy, anaphylaxis or any other health condition please ensure you have an Action Plan in place at school, if you have not already. Wendy will be able to assist you with this. 

Compass  - What can parents do on Compass?

  • Receive Newsfeeds: these are regularly used to communicate important information with families and as a means to circulate the school/class newsletter. 
  • Community Calendar: as events and important dates are set throughout the year they will be added to the Community Calendar. 
  • Attendance: view real time and historical attendance data & provide information about absences and late arrivals. 
  • Events: electronically provide permission and payment for excursions, sports days, incursions and camps. 
  • Achievements and Awards: receive notification from your child’s teacher about an achievement your child has been recognised for or an award they will be receiving on assembly. 
  • Learning Tasks: families will receive six classroom based Learning Tasks each semester and one Learning Task from each Specialist teacher throughout the year. These underpin our ‘progressive’ approach to formal reporting, providing families with information about their child’s progress regularly. 
  • Student Reports: issued at the end of each semester and are aimed at capturing your child’s overall progress at each point in time. Student reports are released to parents electronically via Compass in June and December. 
  • Parent/Teacher Conferences: book a meeting time with your child’s teacher in Term 1 and 3. 
  • Contacting staff: parents can contact staff through Compass. 
  • Sick Bay: if your child is attended to in sickbay, an entry is made which triggers an alert to families. In more serious cases, parents/guardians are immediately contacted via phone call. 
  • Canteen: order a Thursday lunch order quickly and conveniently.  
  • Payments: pay for your child's book pack, netbook and other school related fees and levies at the beginning of the year.  

If you can not access Compass or have any difficulties, please contact myself or the office.

Katie Moss, Simone Fraser & Elise Chambers - SGPS Allied Health Team

Our school is proud to have some awesome allied health professionals on our staff again in 2024. 

 

Katie Moss is an experienced Social Worker who is available to provide mental health and emotional support to students and families. Katie has expertise and experience in supporting families who may be struggling with issues relating to anxiety, poor mental health, trauma and navigating the NDIS, (to name a few). Katie's work days are Monday to Thursday. 

 

Simone Fraser is a Speech Pathologist who works at our school on Tuesday each week. Simone's expertise in speech and language development enable her to provide valuable advice to teachers and families so that they can best support students to develop their oral language and broader literacy skills.  

 

Elise Chambers is a Occupational Therapist who works fortnightly on a Thursday at our school. Elise's expertise were in high demand in 2023. She provided valuable insight and expertise for families and teachers about how to support students who may be having difficulties with everyday tasks.  

 

In addition to Katie, Simone and Elise's roles, we also have an ongoing professional relationship with Kate Elizabeth, Play Therapist & Social Worker and Tara Byron, Psychologist. Kate works runs her practice from our school fortnightly and Tara completes assessments periodically at our request and when available.

 

We feel very fortunate to have such a strong multidisciplinary team in place in 2024 to work alongside our staff and with our students and their families.    

Learning Tasks – Term 1

Families will receive the following Learning Tasks in Term 1:

* Learning Task 1 – Mathematics.                               Friday 1st March

* Learning Task 2 –Reading:                                         Friday 15th March

* Learning Task 3 – Writing:                                         Thursday 28th March

* Specialist Learning Task:                                            Thursday 28th March

^^ Specialist teachers will provide a Learning Task to one teaching department per term.                

 

Prep families will receive one Literacy and one Mathematics Learning Task on dates which the Prep team will communicate with families. 

Head Lice

All schools have issues with head lice from time to time. Anyone can get head lice. People get head lice from direct hair-to-hair contact with another person who has head lice.

For more information from Victoria Health about the treatment and control of head lice, please follow this link: https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/head-lice-nits 

The information on this website includes finding head lice, treating head lice, the life cycle of head lice, regulations and prevention. I encourage all parents to read this information, and to regularly check your child’s head.

SGPS Canteen

Families can place a lunch order each week via Compass. Our school has teamed up with local catering company, Fresh Five, to provide this service to our school community each Thursday. 

* Orders open at 3pm each Thursday 

* Orders close at 9am each Tuesday

* Lunch orders are delivered to students at 10:35am each Thursday.  

The first lunch order day for 2024 will be next Thursday 15th February, so please get your orders in via Compass by 9am on Tuesday 13th February. Please also note that each menu has a gluten free food option available to order. However, Fresh Five is not a gluten free kitchen, so the possibility of contamination can not be guaranteed.