Welcome back

I trust everyone had an enjoyable break. Our students have returned eager to learn and ready for the numerous opportunities in store for them. Now that we are back in the swing of things, staff and students will be making the most of this term, which tends to be the most focused in any given year on pure classroom learning.

Of course, there are still plenty of activities on the calendar to look forward to this term.

These include:

Whole School Production
Footy Fun day
Skateboarding clinics (Foundation to Year 6)
Year 3 – 6 Drama Incursions
John Monash Science visits (Various students in Year 5 & 6)
Year 5 & 6 Ski trip
2023 Foundation Student Transition sessions
Fire truck and fire fighters visit for the Foundation students
AFL Footy Clinics (Foundation to Year 6)
Athletics day for Year 3 – 6 students
Father’s Day – Pizza Night
Out of uniform day to support Tao He (A Year 5 student who is competing in the Australian Swimming Championships)

Please stay tuned to updates on school events via Compass and if you have any questions, either contact your child’s classroom teacher or the office for more information.

We express our thanks to the teaching and education support staff for their commitment to provide the best educational opportunities for our students; and thank the parents of our community for continuing to support us in the development of our young people.

We also would like to acknowledge the staff members who worked through their school break to ensure that their classes are ready to return. We are confident this will be an excellent term for the students, and they will thoroughly enjoy the next few months.

With most students returning to school following the holidays, it is important to reiterate the importance of attending school each school day, as every day matters. Of course, there have been many, many communications sent home to families over the past two years outlining the importance of staff and students staying home when unwell, especially when exhibiting COVID-19 related symptoms. This message remains as pertinent now as in the past and must be followed by everyone; thank you!

It is true that we are still very much in the midst of the current pandemic, which has now gone on for longer than most of us would have anticipated. That said, our community have worked exceedingly well together over the past couple of years, adopting a collaborative mindset, and demonstrating commendable adaptability and genuine respect for others, which I’m sure will continue.

Last week, several media outlets presented stories on the extreme stress that schools are currently under, especially in relation to maintaining effective staffing levels, and keeping as many programs running as possible. Camelot rise Primary School is not exempt from these pressures, and it has been organisationally very tricky to navigate through changes.

I think it would be fair to say we might be in for a challenging time over Term 3 as the current 3rd wave of COVID spreads. As always, we appreciate the care and support of our whole school community and will do everything possible to protect the wellbeing of our students.

We thank everyone for your support and understanding as we continue to do our best to ensure all students remain in the classes and attend all specialist classes.

Covid Update

From Saturday 25 June, all school staff (including casual relief teachers (CRT’s), pre-service teachers, and Outside School Hours Care staff), volunteers, contractors and visitors are no longer required to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements to attend work.

This will not cause any change to our school. In terms of Rapid antigen testing, the Victorian Government is providing up to three further deliveries of RATs in Term 3 and again in Term 4 to schools. These will be distributed as soon as we receive them. It is recommended that rapid antigen tests are used by students and staff when symptomatic. Household contacts are required to test negative using a rapid antigen test if they are attending or working at a school onsite.

As part of the changes, from 11.59pm Friday 24 June 2022, parents and carers who have COVID-19 can transport their non-COVID-19 children via private vehicle to their primary or secondary school when an alternative person is not available to assist. This will include school holiday programs held on school grounds.

This means that parents and carers will be able to leave COVID self-isolation to take their non-COVID-19 child to school or school holiday programs via a private vehicle.

The parent or carer must travel directly to and from the school only. They must always remain in the vehicle unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to walk the child to and from the entrance of the school safely. They must always wear a face mask.

Speaking of masks, they are now recommended in all indoor settings. It is up to individual families to decide if their child wears a mask to school.

The School Production

There is a lot to look forward to across Term 3 with School Production high on our list of exciting learning opportunities. We are very much looking forward to having this event, which has not been held for the past couple of years. The production will be performed on Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 August at the Alexander Theatre at Monash University. Please save those dates in your calendars. All Children will do two performances of the show.

All classes will once again participate in the production through a dancing/singing performance. Costumes, lights and a vibrant soundtrack will also be part of the fun. We run a very tight production schedule so that this event does not interfere with other learning programs. Students have been learning songs and dances as part of their Performing Arts classes and the main cast members have given up many lunchtimes to rehearse and learn their roles for our production.

For those families who have never had the experience of a Camelot Rise Production, it is a fantastic event, and the performances are an incredibly special moment for all. Information about ticket sales will be shared with the school community in the next few weeks.

Thanks to Ms Deb Hong, our Performing Arts teacher, for coordinating and directing this production.

Professional Practice days

The Victorian Government Schools Agreement is currently before the Fair Work Commission.

If approved by the commission, the agreement states that teachers will be entitled to 2 further professional practice days in 2022, 2 professional practice days in 2023 and one professional practice day in 2024 and beyond.

The department received very positive feedback from principals in relation to the option for schools to hold a common professional practice day in Term 2, 2022, including staff electing to use the day to collaborate with their colleagues.

In anticipation of this new agreement being approved by the Fair Work Commission, Camelot Rise Primary School will be holding two more professional practice days in 2022.

No students will be required at school on these days.

As a staff we are looking at the best way to utilise these days in relation to teacher planning, professional learning, moderating of student work and report writing. Once staff determine the most suitable focus and timeline for these dates, we present these dates to School Council. These dates will then need to be approved / rejected by School Council prior to the school community being informed of these dates if they are approved

When selecting these dates, we try to give as much time as possible to enable parents to potentially arrange their work schedules. Once we can confirm these dates we will ask if Camp Australia can provide an Out of School Hours service on these days.

We are aware that this is an impact on families, however, please be assured we endeavour to inform of these dates as soon as possible to provide you with time to make plans for the supervision and care of your children.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2020).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling
category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage, and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Policy Review

As part of our school review we have updated a number of our policies. These have been written using the Department and Education and Training templates. These new policies have been uploaded to our website under the 'Draft Policies' subheading and can be found here: https://www.camelotrise.vic.edu.au/policies-and-plans . They are still in draft form at this moment in time. If you have any feedback or would like to discuss them further, please contact Ben Heys in the office.

2023 Foundation Transition sessions

This Friday, 22nd July we have our first 2023 Foundation Transition session. We look forward to welcome new students and families (and many current families) to our school as we prepare our next cohort of Foundation students to Camelot Rise Primary School.

We look forward to a positive term ahead, filled with learning and fun. A reminder that our doors are always open for a chat or if you would like to raise an issue.

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys