Principal's Desk 

Corinne Pupillo 

Dear parents, carers and friends of the school community,

The School Improvement Teams are in full swing planning for the 2021 school year.   The school values and goals are at the forefront of everything we do with our students as we continue on our school improvement journey. 

The two teams will draw on the results from the school surveys (Student Attitudes to School, Parent Survey, Staff Opinion Survey and other school based surveys) to inform our practices and make improvements in all aspects of the school.   

At the centre of our organisational practices are our students and our conversations around learning growth for them in 2021. This requires many decisions around staffing, learning spaces, and budgets so that resources at our school are allocated to support student learning growth. 

Planning for our new 2021 Prep students is well underway with the orientation sessions commencing very soon which will include small groups of preps to visit onsite now that restrictions in Melbourne Metropolitan area have eased.   

We are always very eager to plan for a positive start to school for all our students and this work starts well before January 2021. 

A special thank you to Richard and Emmaleen (and Steph Di Salvo in semester 1) for leading the two teams. 

2020 Online Art Exhibition 

We hope you can join us and celebrate the visual arts curriculum. 

Monday 26th - Friday 30th October we celebrated the Secondary Visual Arts Program. 

Please check out the school's Facebook Page or the JSA website gallery to view the online exhibition.

2021 Hume Scholarship Award 

Congratulations to William Kelly for being the successful recipient of the Hume Scholarship Awards. 

William will receive $1,000 scholarship as he moves into his secondary years of schooling.    Whilst the presentation will not be face to face, William will share this event with his family and teachers on 21st November at the Hume Global Learning Centre in Craigieburn. 

2020 Student Photos 

Due to the restrictions schools are currently having with inviting visitors onsite, we have organised a small team of staff to take the 2020 Staff and Student photos.  This was done this week and we hope to have them printed for students to take home in the coming weeks.   We know that our families and staff really appreciate these important mementos as they create memories for us all.  

Transition Week – 14th – 18th December 2020

Schools have a variety of ways of preparing students for transition for the coming year. There are many advantages and opportunities for our students since the introduction of this model of practice. 

Transition week supports students to move from their current class to their new class. Feedback has been enormously positive from students, parents and staff. 

This year we have planned for the transition week again and this will commence Monday 14th December until Friday 18th December 2020. 

Your child will finish off the school year with their new class and the final day with their current class will be Friday 11th December 2020. 

Please arrange a time to speak to your child’s teacher if you anticipate any concerns regarding the transition. 

Acknowledging our volunteers 

Term 4 is when we typically acknowledge and celebrate the fantastic contributions of our volunteers. This year's celebrations will look very different due to COVID restrictions.  In recognition of the contributions of our volunteers, our annual volunteer’s morning tea will be replaced by a small gift that will be sent to all our 2020 volunteers. This year we acknowledge the hard work of School Councillors and also the efforts of our Fundraising Team and parent / carers that dedicate their time to improving our resources.

A special thank you to the following volunteers for your generous support.

On behalf of the Leadership team, I express my gratitude to you all for generously giving up your time to support our students. 

School Council Meeting News 

The following policies were endorsed by the School Council last night and if you would like a copy of any of our school policies, please don't hesitate to contact the office. 

• Anaphylaxis Policy
• Assistant Principal, Leading Teacher and Learning Specialist Tenure Policy
• Asthma Policy
• COVID Policy
• Emergency Management Plan
• Professional Learning & Policy Plan
• Staff Images Policy
• Staff Information Register
• Staff Leave Policy
• VET Policy
• VCAL Policy

Parent Opinion Survey

Reminder:  We would love your feedback -  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 12th October to Friday 13th November.  The link to the survey has been sent to families via a personal email address. 

The response rate so far is only 14% and ideally we would like at least 30% respondent rate, so if you have some time to provide feedback, we would really appreciate this. 

Curriculum Day: Monday 2nd November 2020

Staff will be participating in professional learning on this day and students are not required at school. 

Public Holiday

Melbourne Cup Day – Tuesday 3rd November.  Students and staff are not required at school on this day. 

Fundraising Team: Final Meeting for 2020 

The final scheduled fundraising team meeting will be held via Webex on Thursday 19th November, 2020 at 1.30pm to finalise the events  and to confirm the 2021 Fundraising Events.

We welcome any new members to the committee so please call reception if you would like to attend. 

Lisa Sette is our Fundraising Co-ordinator and can be contacted via the school office or Lisa.sette@education.vic.gov.au

School Council Meeting 

Our final school school council meeting for 2020 is scheduled for Thursday 3rd of December and will be conducted via Webex. 

School Council Sub Committee Representatives

Finance Sub Committee Representative - Sharon Borg 

Building and Grounds Sub Committee Representative – Alisha Minns 

Fundraising Sub Committee Representative – Lisa Sette

School Council Representative on Student Representative Council (SRC) – Alisha Minns

Reminder: Our newsletter is published each fortnight and will provide you with important information about the school and events that may be of interest to you. I encourage you to read the newsletter that will be sent home via your home email, on the school's Facebook Page or on the school's website. 

JSA also has a Facebook Page administered by the leadership team.  Please like and follow our page.

https://www.facebook.com/JacanaSchoolforAutism