Principal's Report

21st February 2020

School Council Nominations

The school is now officially calling for nominations from parents to fill four parent vacancies on School Council.  The term of office is two years. Earlier this week, information regarding School Council nominations was posted on Compass. Nomination forms are available from the office or you can download them from Compass. 

School Council assists in the governance of the school with responsibilities to: approve student camps and overnight excursions and student overseas travel; approve the annual budget; develop, review and update school policies in line with Department of Education guidelines and legislation; oversee the school grounds and building maintenance and oversee the strategic plan development and implementation.

The school council also :

• ensures that its decisions affecting students of the school are made having regard, as a primary consideration, to the best interest of the students
• enhances the educational opportunities of students at the school
• ensures the school and the council complies with any requirements of this Act, the regulations, a Ministerial Order or a direction, guideline or policy issued under this Act.

In order for School Council to be effective we need parents who can commit themselves to a monthly

1-2 hour meeting starting from 7pm, usually held the last Monday of the month.  Member absences from these meetings make the running of School Council difficult.  So if you have the time we would love you to contact us for further information and/or fill in a nomination form by the due date.  School Council is a great place to make a valuable contribution to your child’s education.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any further information regarding our School Council. Nominations close next Monday 24th February at 4pm. 

Coronavirus

The Department of Education advice regarding the coronavirus still remains the same as explained in the last update on Compass. After a disrupted start to the school year due to this issue, the school is nearly back to full enrolment, students are engaging in their learning and many school events and activities are occurring each week. Thanks again to those families who donated tissues and sanitiser to the school office, we have enough now. 

Prep Enrolment 2021

School Tours for Prep 2021 and have now commenced and we have already received enrolment applications.  Tours occur on Monday and Tuesday morning between 9.30am-10.30am and are booked through the school website.  If you have friends, family or neighbours with school age children, especially those commencing Prep in 2021 please encourage them to book a tour to find out more about our wonderful school and community.

Parents with children already at our school with a sibling commencing Prep in 2021 are most welcome to attend a tour.  We request that siblings for 2021 be enrolled as soon as possible to enable us to identify the number of places remaining for new families.

School Photos

School photos are coming up soon on Wednesday 11th March. Please make sure your child is dressed in full school uniform on the day. Order envelopes will be sent home with your child next week. 

Excursion and Incursions

Just a reminder to all families about the change to consent and payment for incursions and excursions this year. As approved by School Council, the school does not have an excursion levy this year. Therefore excursions and incursions will need to be paid for on an individual basis as they are posted on Compass throughout the year.

Excursions and incursions will need to be consented and paid for by midnight two days prior to the event occurring. For example if an excursion is on Friday it needs to be consented and paid for by midnight on the Wednesday night. 

If payment and consent has not been received by the due date, your child will not be able to attend the excursion/incursion and will be allocated to another classroom during that time.

Knowing who has consented and paid for an excursion or incursion two days prior,  greatly assists the school with numbers, buses, costs and other planning for these events.

Please check Compass regularly as well as the Year Level newsletters to find out when excursions and incursions may be occurring for your child. If you have any questions please contact the office.  

School Assemblies

Assembly occurs every Monday (except the first Monday of term) in the school gym at 2:40pm. Parents, families and friends of the school are always welcome to attend. Our assemblies are run by our student leadership team and feature student performances, Student of the Week awards, various presentations and student sports reports. We look forward to seeing you there. 

Upcoming Curriculum Day

Friday the 6th March is our next curriculum day and students will not be required at school.

Teachers will be doing a number of professional development sessions on this day. 

Student Toilets

Parents who need to use the toilet facilities need to go to the school office please. The office staff will direct you to a toilet you can use. Under no circumstances are parents, and older siblings who do not attend our school, allowed to use our student toilets. This is a safety issue.

Staff Availability 

 In 2020, classroom teachers will be available before school in their classrooms from 8:50am. Should you have an urgent matter to discuss with your child’s teacher, they are happy to briefly discuss the matter at this time. If you require a longer conversation, we would ask that you make an appointment to speak to the teacher. Once the morning music begins, teachers are required to start their lessons promptly at 9:00am. 

Extreme Weather, Events and Incident Management

There is an old saying I have heard many times regarding Melbourne’s weather.  ‘If you don’t like the weather in Melbourne, just wait a minute’.

We often seem to have all four seasons all in one day, which provides plenty of variety but can also create some challenges. When combined with the recent smoke from the bushfires and other unexpected localised events, such as a storms, our school has processes in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and visitors.  

The Department of Education oversee all extreme weather events and provide timely advice to schools through their Emergency Management Team.  This is what guides our decision making in regards to extreme weather and events or incidents.  Where required, the Emergency Management team provide schools with alerts whenever there is a situation requiring our future or immediate attention / action.  This includes examples such as asthma thunderstorms, poor air quality, fires and a range of other incidents both natural and man-made.

As a school, we also monitor conditions, for example visually, and utilise a range of web-based sources such as the Vic Emergency website, BOM and EPA for advice.  As well, we regularly contact the DET Emergency Management Team for advice if needed. 

To further support our community most of our teaching staff and Education Support Staff, as well as Ms Richards, Mrs Spicer and myself are also Level 2 First Aid trained and qualified.  We are also fortunate to have a defibrillator on site  I hope that we will never have to use it, however it does provide some peace of mind.

Movie Night

The Outdoor Movie Night postponed last week has been rescheduled for Friday 17th April.

More details will be available closer to the date. The movie screening will be Toy Story 4. 

Parking Update

Myself and Mrs Spicer met with traffic engineers from the Monash Council earlier this week to discuss the issues with parking around the school, especially on Threadbow Crescent. The council has been consulting with the local residents as well as has come up with the following plan below. Please contact Monash Council if you have any feedback.

Michael Ramsey

Principal