Principal

Mother’s Day

I hope all our families had a wonderful Mother’s Day, whatever you were doing. I hope you managed to get outside and enjoy the lovely weather with your family.

Mother’s Day Stall

A big thank you to all who helped with the Mother’s Day Stall on Friday 12 May. The students had a wonderful time purchasing gifts for this special occasion. The stall raised just over $1,000 for the school. 

Prep 2024 Enrolments – Parent Information Sessions

A Prep Parent Information Session will be held on Thursday 18 May commencing at 7:00pm and a repeat on Saturday 27 May at 10:00am in the Prep Classrooms. Parents who have attended this session in recent years do not need to – but are most welcome to join us. Families are asked to register their interest in attending the tour by contacting the Office. 

Respect

It is wonderful to see the Respect raffle tickets building up as our Respect focus for Term 2 continues. It is great to hear about the way our students are displaying this school value. Bendigo Bank will be at the assembly on Friday 16 June to draw three winners!

ES Appreciation Day

Today is Education Support Staff Appreciation Day. We have a wonderful group of Support Staff who work tirelessly to support the students, staff and assist parents. Thank you to our ES staff in the office, library, classrooms and supporting our iPad program: Fiona Barron-Toop, Tonia Clifton Mills, Sheree Hughson, Anastasia Kotsonis, Sarah McDonell, Karen O’Neill, Louise Pearson and Steven Williamson.

Rubbish and the School Grounds

We love that families choose to spend time in the schoolyard, particularly after school and on weekends, when students can play with friends and parents can socialise. We ask families to help us reduce the school’s waste by using the rubbish bins or taking home any wrappers and containers, rather than leaving rubbish in the yard. We also ask that if you notice people in the school grounds that you ask them to do the same. We have been finding a number of items left in the school grounds over weekends or evenings and our students and staff are left to clean up the grounds. We have also noticed an increase in rubbish being dumped in the school grounds and waste station. Please report anyone you see dumping rubbish in the school or local community. We pride our school on our 5-star sustainability status, however the increased rubbish is tarnishing our name in the local community. 

Whole School Working Bee – Saturday 27 May

We depend on parents to come along and support the school to sweep up and dispose of the leaves, which are always a challenge at this time of the year. We look forward to seeing as many people there as possible. We hope the opportunity of a Saturday working bee will allow those families with Sunday commitments to attend. This will be an excellent opportunity to showcase our wonderful community to the 2024 Prep Tour group.

Maintenance

If you have been into the office or prep area this term you may have noticed the new colours. We are working our way through the school to update the paintwork and modernise the colour scheme. The Prep classrooms look so much brighter and fresher, as the 4 different paint colours in the room and doors, became two! We went from orange, green, cream and blue to white walls and grey doors. The Prep office and front office will be painted in the next school holidays. Other classrooms and the external buildings will be planned for into 2024. 

Grant Approval

Solway, with the help of one of our parents, received $19,749 in funding as part of the Schools Upgrade Fund, to install wall-mounted centrally monitored carbon dioxide monitors. This will give staff data to monitor air quality to assist with reducing the transmission of viruses. 

Attitudes to School Survey

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality of instruction. Therefore our students in years 4-6 will undertake the Attitudes to School Survey offered by the Department of Education and Training. This survey gives us an insight into the students perception and experience of school. Our school will use the results of the survey to improve your child’s school experience. A letter with further information regarding this survey has been posted on Compass for parents of years 4-6.  The Attitudes to School survey is anonymous and no personal identification data will be recorded. We will undertake this survey between 16 May and 9 June.

Staffing

It is with sadness that I let the community know that Sheree Hughson in the front office, has been offered and accepted another position. We are delighted for Sheree and congratulate her on the new role. Mrs Karen O’Neill, one of our Education Support staff  at Solway, will replace Sheree in the office at this stage. Karen’s excellent knowledge of Solway and the role, will be a great asset to the office team. We thank Sheree for her dedication to Solway and the students over the past 12 months and wish her all the best. 

Penny Lanyon will begin her family leave at the end of this week and will be replaced in the class with Mr Joshua Fisher. Josh began working in 5L this week, spending the week doing a thorough handover with Penny. We wish Penny all the best as she begins her leave and welcome Josh to Solway.

Principal Conference

Last week Kate Nancarrow and I spent Wednesday-Friday with our network of Principal’s and Assistant Principals. We heard from Dr Tom Brunzell, who spoke about his book ‘Creating Trauma-Informed Strengths-Based Classrooms’ and his work at Berry Street Victoria. He provided strategies that are effective for all students, not just those who are trauma-affected. 

We also heard from Simon Kuestenmacher, who spoke about the demographic trends and how this influences education. He talked about the skills our students will need to be successful in the workplace over the next 20 years. We will share our learnings with the staff at upcoming staff meetings.  

Student Achievement

Congratulations to Jack M year 6 and former student Rupert T who have recently completed their Grey Wolf Award at 1st Ashburton Cub Scouts.   It represents over a year of hard work and includes skills in camping, bushcraft, bushwalking and leadership.  Well done Jack and Rupert. 

Child Safe 

We are working through the updates to Policies from the Child Safe Standards. Attached is the Code of Conduct for community consultation. If you have any feedback on this document please email feedback to the school at solway.ps@education.vic.gov.au and title the email: Code of Conduct feedback.

Photos of Fair for Yearbook

If you have any photos of the Solway Fair or any parent events that could be included in the School Yearbook, please email them to: emilly.rose@education.vic.gov.au

VALE – Dane Nichols

Families will be saddened by the news that one of the parents, Dane Nichols, husband of Anne, and parent of Lucy and Teddy, passed away on Monday 15 May. The Solway staff and community sends its condolences to the Nichols family at this very sad time.

Lyn Rodda

Principal