Leadership Report

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome to Term Two, Week Six! 

Who can believe we are more than half way through Term Two already? We have had a great two weeks of learning and activities at Saltwater College since our last newsletter. 

Minister for Education Visits Saltwater 

We’re still buzzing with excitement over our recent visit from the Victorian Minister for Education, the Honourable Natalie Hutchins, who visited our college on Wednesday 24 May. The Minister was greeted by our school captains and received a tour of our college, visiting classrooms and chatting with students, teachers and school staff. 

The Minister’s reason for visiting was to announce that our school would be receiving funds to initiate an upgrade to our buildings to accommodate the growth of our booming school population. We are delighted to confirm that Saltwater College will receive $37.321 million to expand our college and create spaces for prospective local student enrolments. 

The Minister was joined by our local MP, Mathew Hilaraki, who has been a great supporter of our school and has advocated for this generous allocation of funds, as he is aware firsthand of the challenges we face as a school in a growth corridor. 

All our visitors were impressed with our learning centres and enjoyed seeing our stimulating, rich learning spaces, in addition to hearing the wonderful welcoming words by our articulate students. The minister praised our college for its diverse and successful student population, for being outward looking and preparing our students for the modern world, and for our wonderful school learning programs and results. 

Our woodwork students showed their appreciation by gifting the minister a hand made cheese board, created by our students and depicting the theme of Saltwater. We hope that this is a gift she will treasure fondly. 

In addition to this, our aspiring future chefs created a banquet of treats for afternoon tea, in their Food Tech classes.  The afternoon tea was well received by all our visitors. 

We were so fortunate to have the Honourable Natalie Hutchins, Minister for Education, visit our school and we look forward to working with the building authorities to consider the needs of our growing school population.  We are grateful to our government for their commitment to education. Stay tuned for further developments and opportunities to provide input to our school.

National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week

National Reconciliation Week is a time for Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. 

National Reconciliation Week runs from Saturday 27th May to Saturday 3rd June. This year's theme 'be a voice for generations' asks each and every one of us to use our words and our actions to create a better, more just, and equitable Australia for all. 

On Friday 26th of May, all classes at Saltwater participated in a ceremony involving Boon Warrung Elder, David Tournier, followed by a walk around the perimeter of our school, as a tribute to the monumental display of support for Reconciliation that occurred back in 2000, when 250,000 Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

This was an important and exciting moment in our school’s history and the expression of respect and support we are making towards the Boon Warrung community is profound.

National Sorry Day provides a chance to focus on healing and pursue reconciliation in Australian society. We thank all our students for their respect towards this commemoration.

Preparing for the Cooler Weather

As the cooler weather approaches and the mornings are filled with dew, it is a timely reminder for our students to wear the school uniform jumper, long pants and a jacket, in order to stay warm and dress appropriately for the cooler weather. 

Staying warm and healthy will help us to maintain regular school attendance. In addition to keeping warm, elevated hygiene practices help to stop the spread of germs. Assisting children to practice washing their hands, and sneezing or coughing into their elbows is a useful hygiene measure. Small strategies such as these can assist with reducing the spread of illnesses. As always, we value the communication from our community about absences and the reasons, as this assist us with our focus on attendance. 

Riding to School Policy

We appreciate all our parents and students who frequently demonstrate caution when riding to and from school each day. However, after weeks of observations, the leaders have identified some common unsafe behaviours that pose a risk to the safety of our students and would like to reinforce the following expectations:

• All students on a bike, scooter etc. must wear a helmet. It is a law.
• Students must walk their bikes on any footpaths around the perimeter of the school.
• All students must cross the road at designated crossing areas (not at the corner).

Additionally, the school has created a Ride to School policy outlining safe/expected behaviours when riding to and from school which has been approved by School Council at the May meeting. We are communicating this policy with our wider school community, so that we are all aware of the expectations. Please see the policy sent via XUNO in week five.

Members of the leadership team will be observing this situation closely on morning and afternoon gate duty. If a student isn’t meeting these expectations, families will be informed to ensure they are practising safe habits.

We urge all our students to use caution when riding to and from school and to adhere to the policy outlined. Thank you in advance. 

Safety Around our School 

We are grateful to our parents and students who frequently use the school crossing. Although it is sometimes inconvenient to walk back to the school crossings, it sets a great example for young children and ensures that when they are by themselves, they will use the crossing and stay safe. By law, adults must cross at a pedestrian crossing if they are within 20 metres of one. 

Vic Roads recommends safe places to cross: 

• Whenever possible, cross at a pedestrian crossing, traffic signal or pedestrian refuge. 

• Make sure you have a clear view of approaching traffic, and where drivers can see you. 

Attitudes to School Survey 

Our students in Years 4-8, will have an opportunity to complete a survey providing feedback to the school this term. This is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education to assist us to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Our school will schedule survey sessions for all students in years 4-8, to complete the survey in class time during the survey collection period.

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and the survey results will be reported back to the school in aggregate form after the survey period. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. We look forward to receiving our student views to assist us to plan programs and activities to improve your child’s schooling experience.

Communication and Social Media 

As we publish significant events, accomplishments, and acknowledgements on our social media channels, we extend an invitation to our community to connect by following our social media pages.

A friendly reminder that our newsletter acts as the main form of communication and a bridge between all platforms, with our school website, XUNO notifications, Schoolbox and emails continuing to be our official channels of communication. We love your comments and feedback, and please continue to exercise respect for our school and our community when responding to our posts.

Reports, Three Way Students Led Conferences - Thank You

We wish to extend a huge thank you to all our families for attending the Student Led conference day in week 3. We appreciate your support with the scheduling of the day and the requirement of the early dismissal to enable these conferences to operate. From all accounts, its was a wonderful opportunity for children to present their Semester One learning and achievements to their families, to celebrate their learning, and to strengthen our home school relationships. 

Student End of Semester One Reports will be published to families on Xuno by 5pm Wednesday 21 June. 

Things to Note

A reminder about the King's Birthday Public Holiday. There will be NO SCHOOL on Monday 12th June. 

The Last Day of Term Two is Friday 23rd June, for a two week break.

Thank you, on behalf of the leadership team.