Welcome back to everyone, including new and returning staff members who have all settled in well. Leading Teacher Courtney Smith, Aimee Carroll in year 3 and the return of Mr. Seb Scanu in P.E as well as Mrs. Kate Fitzmaurice in eLearning.

Mrs Stephane De Cata’s last day is Friday before she takes time off to have her first baby. We wish Stephanie and husband Roni all the best as they embark on a parenting role and look forward to meeting the new baby sometime in term 4. Mrs. Chrissy Wilberforce will be taking over as teacher of 4-30 from Monday 9 September.

Excursion updates

The year 2 excursion to Edendale Farm was once again cancelled and it has been rescheduled to September. The year 1 Melbourne Museum excursion has also been rescheduled.

Fortunately the year 5 excursion to Sovereign Hill went ahead and all had a great day.

I have had a meeting with the Victorian School Building Authority regarding the upgrade to our facilities and will continue to update the school community as we move forward with ideas and plans to gain the best outcome for the school.

Work will begin in the September holidays to replace the roofs of the main buildings. Once we know details of the work and how it will be managed, we will let our community know.

School Concert

In term 3 every second year, we hold our school concert at Plenty Ranges Arts and Convention Centre (PRACC). PRACC has been chosen by the State Government to host an ongoing vaccination program providing both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. The City of Whittlesea made the decision to cancel all bookings at PRACC until the end of the year to allow the program to happen.

The school’s concert committee has met and is planning to run a modified concert using the gym for the performances during school time at the end of the term. As usual, there will be two performance groups. Committee members have already split their year level cohort and rehearsals can begin now that children are back on site. Your child’s year level committee member will inform parents about their year level performance and costume requirements closer to the concert performance dates.

Regarding family members attending the performances, a decision will be made closer to the date about whether we can have an audience. It will all depend on the COVIDSafe guidelines in place at the time. We have engaged the services of a video company to video the performances, which will then be made available to purchase.

Committee members are: Thomas Stubberfield (music), Jessica Marcy (drama), Laura White (visual art), Tenille Webb (prep), Stephanie White (year 1), Phillip Van Dorp (year 2), Marni Harry (year 3), Stephanie Hughes (year 4), Chloe Murphy/Meg Seidel (year 5), Emma Wallmeyer (year 6)

2021 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey (previously known as the Parent Opinion Survey)

Each year, all government schools conduct an opinion survey amongst a sample of the school community. This year, a sample of approximately 30 per cent of parents/caregivers/guardians were randomly selected and invited to participate. Results will be used to inform and direct our future school planning and improvement.

If you have been selected to participate, please take the time to complete the survey as your opinions are important to us and will contribute to the future management and organisation of our school.

Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential. The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to us that you complete the survey as honestly as possible.

NAIDOC Week NAIDOC Week (4th – 11th July) was an important occasion to commemorate Indigenous history, culture and achievement, not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but for the whole community, especially our young people. Australian Indigenous people are the oldest continuing culture on earth and have been custodians of our land for countless centuries. We should all celebrate the resilience of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and honour the place of dignity and respect they hold in the fabric of our nation. NAIDOC Week invites the nation to embrace First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia’s national heritage and equally respect the culture and values of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people as they do the cultures and values of all Australians. The 2021 theme for NAIDOC Week was ‘Heal Country’; it calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protection for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage. The Indigenous voice of Australia is over 65,000 years old.

Get Active Victoria

When children participate in regular physical activity, it boosts their physical and mental health and improves academic performance. Physical activity throughout the day also improves concentration and the ability to retain information and solve problems. There are many benefits to being active and getting a move on, but a lot of children aren’t moving enough, particularly when they were learning from home.

15 minutes four times a day is all it takes. To help support your children to stay active, families can access a range of free COVIDSafe ideas to stay active and games through, Get Active Victoria.

Click on link picture below:

Prep Parents: The Visiting School Nurse is commencing the yearly visit to Plenty Parklands Primary School. They may contact you by phone, email or text, using information you provided to them through the School Entrant Health Form. The nurse is hoping to provide a letter (in response to all completed forms) via email, however, please confirm your email details if you are asked to.

Hope you are staying warm and safe and can enjoy some of Victoria’s hard won freedoms.

Take care

Ms Julie Nixon – Acting Principal

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