Principal's Prattle
Term Three starts
without a hitch!
The beginning of Term Three has had a smooth start with classrooms organised and lessons and programs up and running full steam ahead from day one. Students have celebrated 100 days of school and parents and teachers participated in 'Parent Teacher" conferences to share student learning and Year 5/6 students participated in their first rehearsal for the State School Spectacular. Before and After School Activities started this week with a range of activities offered including cooking, drumbeat, art, science and table tennis. Bookings are essential and will remain open on COMPASS until the end of the week. Casual bookings are available however must be made at least 24 hours prior to a session.
Looking forwards to the next few weeks, we will be busy hosting Wilson McCaskill who has developed the Play is the Way program. He will be working with teachers and offering a parent session on Wednesday 1st August which I recommend all families attend. We invite all families to join us for our whole school working bee and prepare for our annual Open Day. This year's OPEN DAY is "Bring a Special Friend". Students will be demonstrating their learning skills and giving performances along with baking and serving morning tea and taking their special friend on a tour of our school. We will finish Term Three with our Arts Showcase event and Footy Day.
A term calendar has been sent home for all families to assist with planning the term. Please be aware that updates on events, dates and times will be included in the fortnightly newsletter and on compass news feeds.
Parent Teacher Conferences
It was big day at Loch Primary School last Tuesday with lots of parents and teachers meeting to share student learning. We loved the family who arrived with a bottle of red and 3 glasses to share a quiet wine with their child's teacher while celebrating achievements! We think all Parent Teacher Conferences should start this way!! Thanks for the entertainment Mr & Mrs J!
Sincere thanks to all parents who braved the wild weather and joined teachers and participated in worthwhile discussions. This open communication is one of the great things about our learning community. Huge thanks to our teachers who didn't waver in their energy until the very end and showed their commitment to student learning by giving above and beyond yet again.
State School Spectacular
A group of ten students woke early last week to head into town for their first State Schools Spectacular rehearsal. They participated in a day of choreography requiring their full attention. Mr and Mrs Birnie accompanied students and reported back that all students worked hard and were fabulous representatives of Loch Primary School. There will be another three rehearsals for these students and then two huge performances on Saturday 15th September at Hisense Arena. This will be an amazing experience for our students as they join a cast of 3000.
The Victorian State Schools Spectacular is Melbourne’s biggest professionally staged song and dance phenomenon. A cast of 3000 will captivate audiences with show-stopping vocals, high-energy dance routines, electrifying special effects and awe-inspiring magic tricks in a slick, brilliantly choreographed three-hour show. Featuring a 74-piece orchestra, 1300-voice choir, 1100 mass dancers, 33 lead vocalists, 16 principal dancers, 20 ensemble dancers, nine backing vocalists, a magician, puppeteers and much much more.
Many thanks to Mrs Birnie for her willingess to take on such a special experience for our students and to Mr Birnie for driving the bus and assisting. Out students are indeed very lucky to be offered such a wonderful opportunity.
Tickets can be purchased at https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows.
Parent Opinion Survey
WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO
TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 23rd July to Sunday 26th August.
The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.
The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September. Please come and speak to me if you would like more information.
Parents will receive their invitation to complete the survey and log in details via COMPASS.
Exciting news
We have some very exciting news to share with our community - Loch Primary School will be opening a new OP Shop. This is a unique opportunity for our school and after much research and consideration the decision has been made by School Council to jump in feet first and set up an OP Shop for the benefit of our school and our local community. We are delighted to have the blessing of the Jenkins family to call our shop "Roma's Op Shop" after local identity Mrs Roma Jenkins. It is hoped that our community will support us in this endeavour and will provide quality second hand items for sale and will volunteer hours in the store helping to sell items to the public. We are well aware that parents are extremely generous in supporting all of our school and fundraising events and an Op shop will reduce the need for us to directly call on families for funds so often. In order for our Op Shop to be successful we will require assistance with the sorting of donated items and for community members to volunteer in the shop.
Ms Tracey King
Principal