This year in the wellbeing space, our school continues to focus on:

Building teacher capability to activate student voice and agency within the classroom
Reducing the % of students with 20+ days absence from 39% in 2019 to 25% in 2024.
Embedding a whole-school approach to the development of the social and emotional wellbeing of students
Developing and implementing strategies that involve parents and carers as partners in their child’s learning

Dear Parents and Carers,

Term 2 is proving to be another busy term with some very exciting events planned for our staff, students and community members.

Playgroup

Playgroup is continuing to build and we are welcoming new families each session. It has been great to see the varying ages of children and the excitement in their voices when they are greeted by new toys and experiences each fortnight. Stories, songs, slime play, craft, trucks, trikes, blocks, dress ups, sandpit and play equipment are offered to promote positive social interactions for our children and enhance their language skills and while supporting and connecting our families across our community. Our next session will be on Wednesday 7th of June from 9:00am. The theme for our next session will be winter. Spread the word! Refer to the article below, we featured in the local newspaper last week.

Upcoming Parent Seminars

We are lucky to have been asked to host 2 Triple P Parenting Seminars in May as part of the Flood Relief Funding. It was pleasing to see that our Fear -Less session was well supported on Tuesday. The parents who attended found the workshop to be very beneficial and it provided many strategies that can be implemented immediately without too much fuss.

Our next one is Building Resilient Kids on Tuesday May the 30th at 6pm in the Library. You can register by clicking on the QR code at the bottom of the flyer or just feel free to turn up on the night. More details can be found in the flyers advertised in the newsletter.

Berry Street Education Model PL

On the 1st and 2nd of June, our staff will attend the final two days of the Berry Street Education Model Training. This professional learning was financed through the DET Mental Health Menu initiative launched in 2022. The four-day course is arranged around the five Berry Street Education Model domains:

Day 1: Body – How to help your students to regulate their stress response, de-escalate in school and classroom contexts and provide strategies for increased focus.
Day 2: Relationship – Positive relational classroom management strategies that promote on-task learning
Day 3: Stamina – How to create a culture of academic persistence in your classroom by nurturing student resilience, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset. Engagement – How to motivate students with strategies that increase their willingness to learn
Day 4: Character – How to harness our values and character strengths approach for effective learning and for future pathways.

School Attendance

School attendance continues to remain front and centre of our 2023 key improvement strategy. Our overall school attendance was sitting above 90% for this fortnight. This is steadily improving and the fortnightly awards are certainly having the desired affect. Attendance is a key improvement strategy for our school this year. We'd like to thank our families for making this a priority and supporting your children to attend school every day.

Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

important skills and knowledge to help them learn
social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and team work.

Children who attend school every day and complete year 12 have:

better health
better job opportunities
higher income across their lives.

There is no safe number of days for missing school. Every day counts!

Attitudes To School Survey

Attitudes to School Surveys have been completed and we look forward to using this data to identify future Key Improvement Strategies and always enjoy the opportunity to analyse the results with our students.

IOC and Diverse Learner Hub

Michele Soleski who is an Inclusion outreach coach working with us for the next 2 terms. Michele’s role is to support staff to implement and tweak Tier 1 practices and also support the implementation of Disability Inclusion across the school and provide targeted professional learning to our staff in the wellbeing space. We look forward to working closely with Michele.

E Safety Week

Yesterday, our Grade 5/6 students had the opportunity to learn more about being safe and protecting their privacy while online. As part of E Safety Week, Leading Senior Constable Shane Roberts visited our school and presented some very important information to our students including what it means to be a responsible online digital citizen and he also addressed the legal and personal consequences when behaviours cause hurt to others.

We’d like to remind families that most social media apps are for students 13 years and over. Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc stipulate users must be 13 years of age or older. If you do allow your child to access social media, we ask for your vigilance. Just like their interactions in person, online interactions require supervision and support.

Below are some strategies that are known to be successful when monitoring social media usage. These include:

• Monitoring your child’s phone or devices for apps that are downloaded

• Enacting parental controls on phones and consoles

• Reviewing the messages they send on platforms and apps.

• Consider making monitoring part of a daily or weekly routine

• Setting expectations about what space and times they have access to devices. Ideally this should be a shared space in the home.

• Encouraging your child to share or discuss with you what they are doing online

• Encourage your child to share their concerns with you when they arise

There is a phone ban during school hours and phones must be handed into the office or your child’s classroom teacher upon arrival at school. Phones will be secured in a locked cabinet during the school day and returned to students at the end of the day. The is a Victorian Department of Education directive.

We are addressing these issues at school and educating our students about the permanency of what is posted online even if it ‘appears’ to disappear. Additionally, we are addressing the social, emotional and criminal implications for individuals if these platforms are used in a way to threaten, cause hurt and or bully others. Our values are inclusion, respect, resilience and responsibility and we wish to instil these values in all facets of our students’ lives. However, behaviours arising from social media misuse that spill over into the school environment will be addressed in accordance with our Student Engagement and Wellbeing Policy.

Please take the time to discuss this with your child and if you have any concerns regarding your child or would like some advice around this topic, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or the Wellbeing Team. Alternatively, visit this website for lots of wonderful information and advice for parents https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

Have a great weekend!

ETRPS Wellbeing Team ☺

Anglicare Early Help Services at ETRS

Free Positive Parenting Seminars

Wishing everyone a great weekend.

Kind regards,

ETRS Wellbeing Team.

2023 ETRS School Leaders

Our School Group Leaders