Walkathon - donations close this Saturday

Following the huge success of our Walkathon last week, this is a final reminder that the My Cause donation website will close for donations this Saturday 30th November.

We have been blown away by the generosity of our community in helping us to raise $22,057 through donations to the portal. If however, there are a few final relatives planning to donate, please make them aware of this deadline.

We have received an incredibly generous donation from Smithburg at South Melbourne Market who are donating a voucher for each child in the class that raises the most money for the event.

A reminder that all money raised will allow us to upgrade our water bubblers and taps around the school grounds over the summer.

During the Walkathon, our students completed 5223 laps of the oval (by foot, bike, scooter or roller skates!). The class that recorded the most laps was 3/4G who completed an incredible 462 laps, working out as an average of 21 laps each!

As a result of this activity, each student in 3/4G has received a $20 Readings Voucher, donated by a SKiPPS family. Well done 3/4G!

Our major sponsor McGrath supported the event by donating 50 cents for each lap completed. This means they will be adding $2611.50 to the total - bringing our total amount raised (so far) to a truly amazing $24,668.50!

End of year arrangements

A reminder that our final day of the year for students will be Thursday 19th December. On this day students will finish at 3:30pm.

On this day we will hold an assembly at 9am for musical performances and end of year presentations to our Year 6 students.

There will also be a final assembly at 3:15pm for our graduating students to sing a final farewell! Students will be dismissed from the quadrangle at the end of this assembly.

New guitar teacher- beginning 2025

We have been lucky enough to have Taylor Macleod provide on-site guitar lessons for our students this year. Taylor has advised us that he will be moving on next month and we wish him all the best in future.

We are delighted to announce a new guitar teacher will begin at SKIPPS in Term 1, 2025. Jordan Donald will be available to provide private guitar lessons in the SKIPPS Drum Room from 9am on Tuesdays.

If you would like to arrange a guitar lesson for your child, please call Jordan on 0435 825 101 or email jdonnym8@gmail.com for further information.

On-site lessons for piano, drums and violin are also available (fees apply)- please see the Community News section for more information.

School Saving Bonus - Update

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus – a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

This week you will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code. many families have already received this.

If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian government schools for 2025, you will receive one School Saving Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder.

A step-by-step user guide will be available on the webpage on 26 November.

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au

It is clear that, due to the sudden nature of the School Saving Bonus announcement by the State Government, the guidelines for exactly what families can use this bonus for, and how they can do this, are still being developed and clarified by the Education Department.

For this reason, our very strong advice to SKiPPS families is to hold off on allocating any of the bonus funds at this point via the portal. Instead we recommend sitting tight for now and waiting until clearer guidance and instructions are provided at the start of 2025.

Doing this will not affect your access to the funds - the $400 will simply sit in the portal ready to be spent next year when we can provide you with a clearer picture of how you can best allocate funds to pay for 2025 school camps, swimming, excursions or parent payments.

Celebration of the Arts photos

How great was COTA?

Photos are now available online including all the COTA performances and rehearsals.

Galleries are grouped by performance and note photos are for personal use only (do not share online).

CLICK HERE FOR COTA PHOTOS

COTA on your Wall

Get your COTA keepsake! This fun photographic memento is a 40 cm x 30 cm print in either framed or unframed versions. A panorama of your child's year level performance above your favourite 3 photos.

COTA Keepsake: 40 cm x 30 cm framed - $179

COTA Keepsake: 40 cm x 30 cm unframed - $99

Packs & Digital

Print pack: 3x 5"x7" - $30

Print and Digital pack: 1x 8"x12", 2x 5"x7" plus 2 digital files. - $75

Digital pack: 3 images - $50

The “cut off” to order your photos is Thursday 5th December, in time for Christmas.

For any queries please contact our photographer:

e: bec@becwalton.com.au m: 0405 478 878

w: www.becwalton.com.au p: PO Box 2066 St Kilda West 3182

Team Kids Update