From the 

Assistant Principal

I AM GRATEFUL FOR...

Our amazing new staff who have settled straight in to our school culture, welcomed all our students back to school, and become a part of our South Melbourne Park family. Welcome to the team!

STUDENT WELLBEING SUBCOMMITTEE

Hi, I am Anna, mum to Tom in Grade 6 and Luther in Grade 4. I have been a member of the Wellbeing Subcommittee since our first year in 2019. I wanted to highlight some of the work the subcommittee has worked on over 2021, as well as tell you a bit about what we do. You might even like to join us this year! 

I’m delighted that some of the policies that we were been able to review for implementation in 2021 included the School Uniform, SunSmart, Communication, and Pets on School Grounds policies. Not bad for a group who met on seven occasions over what I think we would all agree was a year like no other (just like the year before).

It’s not all about reviewing policy documents though (to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have stuck around for so long if it was)! Other topics we have discussed over the last year has included Story Dogs, Where’s Wally and the Vines community activities, the Shrine to Sea project, and, of course, the new playground. 

We speak a lot about the best ways to communicate with the school community, and how feedback can be accessed and used to make meaningful impacts, helping our school be a great place for our kids. In 2021 many of these discussions helped to shape communications around Covid-19 to make sure that everyone had the information they needed to feel safe and confident in the part they were playing in keeping our community well.  

Over the lockdowns, and various events of the last two years, the Wellbeing Subcommittee has been a brilliant opportunity to see how tirelessly the school has worked to do their best by the people who are connected to it. 

We are incredibly grateful to our subcommittee members who have specific skills (such as legal expertise, or knowledge around specific topics such as diversity and inclusion) as these are so helpful. Importantly however, all our members bring something incredibly valuable, which is their perspective as a member of our school community. These are what make up who we are. If you are interested in in wellbeing, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we welcome and love hearing the voices of anyone with an interest in making our school a place that kids love to be. 

If you would like to join our student wellbeing subcommittee please email the school at south.melbourne.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Other school council subcommittees you might be interested in joining are the Strategic and Development subcommittee and Environment and Facilities. Please reach out if you would like to discuss further.

MASKS FOR STUDENTS

It has been great to see so many of our students wearing their masks properly. This is a very important part of our COVID safe approach and keeping each other safe and healthy. A result of proper mask use by our students is that often masks can be lost or dirtied and require replacement. This can mean that we go through a large number of masks to replace them for those students. If you have an extra supply of child sized masks that you would be willing to donate to the school, or know of someone who would like to make a donation, please either contact the office on 9498 3396 or drop them in. Every extra one helps!

HEALTHY TRACKS UPDATE

In 2019 we started a partnership with the City of Port Phillip and the Healthy Tracks Project. One of the more visible outcomes of this project was the school logo on the pavement in the surrounding neighborhood leading to the school. Another big focus of the project was improving some of the traffic around the area to be safer for our families to walk, ride, skate, or scoot to school.

At Cecil and Napier Street, a raised crossing along with some rainwater garden treatment has been completed. The kerb line has been extended towards Cecil St (old kerb sat roughly in line with power lines in the right image), which will slow vehicles as they turn, as well as the raised crossing. The intersection at Cecil and James Service place is also coming along. This one has dramatically reduced the crossing distance for the pedestrians by extending the rainwater gardens on both sides as well as adding additional gardens on the other side of the blue stone kerb of Cecil, a means to slow cars down as they turn.

We would like to thank the City of Port Phillip for their continued support and hard work to improve our local community.

NATIONAL APOLOGY DAY INFORMATION

On 13 February, we will acknowledge the anniversary of the National Apology delivered by former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008. The National Apology can be read or watched via this link.

The official apology was made to our First Nations peoples, expressing regret for past government policies that resulted in the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families. Acknowledgement of past wrong-doings is an important step towards reconciliation and so Kevin Rudd’s speech was a significant moment in Australia’s journey towards reconciliation. 

This is an important time for us to reflect on how we are taking action towards reconciliation.

SCHOOL PRIVACY

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website Privacy Policy.  

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in nine community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese.

'LEARNING DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN AT SCHOOL'

One of our core values at South Melbourne Park Primary School is that learning doesn’t just happen at school, and we thought it would be a great time to let you know of all the partnerships we have managed to establish to support our students since 2019. Despite the global pandemic, we have connected with a wide range of local businesses and community to provide our students with incursions, excursions, and extra-curricular learning experiences. If you know of any organisations that would be interested in partnering with our school please contact our Strategic and Development Subcommittee by emailing the school email address at south.melbourne.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Please see the below list of organisations that we have worked with over the last few years:

• ACCA
• Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)
• Audio/Visual University
• Australian Grand-Prix
• Bunurong Land Council
• Chunky Move
• City of Port Phillip
• Embassy of Ecuador in Australia
• Lakeside Stadium
• Little Tackers Sailing
• MacRoberson Girls College
• Men’s Shed
• MSAC
• Parks Victoria
• Rotary Club
• School Focussed Youth Services
• SEDA
• Shrine of Remembrance
• Skinners Playground
• SMART Technologies
• South Melbourne Market
• Story Dogs
• The School Photographer
• Triathlon Victoria 
• Tuning Into Kids (Melbourne University)
• Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS)
• World Peace Games