Welcome to IPS

“Today was a Difficult Day,” said Pooh.

“Do you want to talk about it?’ asked Piglet.

“No,” said Pooh after a bit. “No, I don’t think I do.”

“That’s okay,” said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.

“What are you doing?” asked Pooh.

“Nothing, really,” said Piglet. “Only I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don’t feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either. But goodness,” continued Piglet, “Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you’ve got someone there for you. And I’ll always be there for you, Pooh”

And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs… he thought that his best friend had never been more right.

A.A. Milne

I'm sending thoughts to those having a Difficult Day today, and I hope that you have your own Piglet to sit beside you…

I choose to include this because often we don’t feel like speaking about our ‘Difficult Days’ as we try to process our emotions and rationalise how we feel. I believe this applies to every student, sister, brother, parent, family member, teacher, support worker, in fact anyone that is a part of the IPS community. But know that on ‘Difficult Days’. There are friends, family and colleagues who are there for you and can support you.

I strongly encourage you to reach out for support on these days. Importantly, reflect on the great things that happen every day as well. The positive conversations with a friend, family member or teacher always help cheer us up. Remember… you are important, and loved.

A lot of what is in this week's newsletter is about speaking up, sharing and having a voice.

Student Voice and Agency

Ivanhoe Primary School has provided a quality Education to its community for over 170 years. That’s 20 years beyond when public schooling became compulsory.

Now another first for Ivanhoe Primary School. For the first time in its history, the Junior School Council will regularly make a representation to the School Council.

The Junior School Council will report to School Council at each of its meetings. The students will attend either in person, remotely or by video. We believe this will give our students greater voice and agency in our school's programs.

Soccer fairness

This week the school approved a Junior School Council request for some female only times to be provided on the soccer pitch in order to offer an opportunity for girls to have the chance to fully take part in a safe, less intimidatory setting. This timetable change was trialled lunch time on Wednesday and again next Monday recess.

Feedback from students was positive.

Letters from Year 2

Read some letters from three of our Year 2s about what they would like to see changed at IPS on the Student Voice page of this edition of Inside Ivanhoe.

Strings at Assembly

I always like to make sure that the microphone and PA is working before assembly on a Monday morning, so I was thrilled to hear the IPS Orchestra practicing in the hall before school.

They have not been playing together long but we think they are ready to perform at this Monday's assembly. This will coincide with our Foundation students second assembly so it will prove especially exciting for them.

IPS Diversity Week

Cultural Diversity Week (17th-23rd March) includes the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD) on 21st March. The 2025 theme of the International Day is “60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Racial of Discrimination (ICERD)”.

Neeva (4F) researched and her teacher typed the following for a class discussion and added some extra information that she practiced over the weekend to explain what diversity means to her. There is no room for racism at IPS!

More student contributions on the Diversity Week page and the Student Voice page.

Foundation at IPS

Our Foundation Students have enjoyed Term 1 and have made lots of friends and participated in lots of activities. Here is a snapshot of life at school for our newest students.

House Captain Award

This week the House Captain Award is in the form of a video "shout out" to all the Year 3 and Year 5 students (and teachers) who completed NAPLAN.

School Review - Update

The IPS School Review nears completion. The report is due within the next six weeks. Once delivered to School Council the summary will be available on the schools website and in the newsletter. The results are very affirming of the work that we do around teaching and learning. We can report that the goals for the 2025 - 2028 School Strategic Plan will be:

Goal 1: Optimise learning achievement and growth for every student in Numeracy.

Goal 2: Optimise learning achievement and growth for every student in Literacy.

Goal 3: To maximise wellbeing and engagement for all students.

Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Ivanhoe Primary School is excited to be taking part!

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 and aims to help young readers develop a lifelong love of reading.

It is not a competition; it is a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 5 September 2025.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

This year, the Challenge is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the theme ‘20 years of words and wonder’ and a year of special activities. For details, follow the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge Facebook

Since it began in 2005, more than 4.5 million young readers have taken part and together read more than 63 million books!

To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge

You can also contact our school’s Challenge coordinator, Francine Stroud with any questions.

Happy reading!

2025 Parent Contributions reminder

The ongoing support of our families ensures that our school can offer the best possible education and support to our students.

We’d like to thank those families that returned their forms at the end of last year.

We want to thank you for all your support, whether that is through fundraising or volunteering your time. This has made a huge difference to our school and the programs we can offer.

We also understand that life can be very busy. Families have a lot to juggle and for those families that may have overlooked returning their contribution forms we have added the opportunity to contribute via the Course Confirmation section of Compass.

We’ve attached a guide on how to use this option and the office team are always available to guide you through if this helps.

Kind Regards

Lisa Cascun | Business Manager

School Photos - Friday 21st March - TOMORROW

Don't forget that TOMORROW (21st March) is school photo day!

Sibling, group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link below.

Three easy payment methods: Visa, MasterCard or PayPal

To order, visit: www.advancedlife.com.au And enter online order code: TMA QV8 A9V

Online orders - Do not require an envelope
Sibling Photos - Don’t forget to pre-order your sibling photos online up to 24 hours before photo day. We provide your school with a list of sibling orders right up to the day of photography. If you miss the online order deadline, you can submit a completed sibling order envelope, found with the photographers first thing in the morning on photography day to the photographer. Please also inform the school so they are aware to schedule your children in for a photograph. Sibling photographs only apply to children enrolled at your school. Please note not all schools offer sibling photos.
Late fees – A late fee will be applied to each package purchased after photo day due to the additional cost of producing these packages separately. Please refer to the cut-off date on the flyer.
Package delivery - School photographs will be delivered approximately 8-10 weeks after the day of photography. Please note this delivery timeframe is dependent on proofing, the post-production process and additional photography days at your school.
Previous Years’ photos - Past years’ photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups are also available to order under the “previous years or group photo” tabs at your school’s advancedorder site, click on the “Order School Photos Here” button. You can also order past packages, portrait images and gifts from your child’s unique, individual and secure advancedyou image archive site using the unique 9-digit image code found on packages you have ordered in the past.

advancedlife would like to express our appreciation to Ivanhoe Primary School for placing your trust in us. Please remember we offer a 100% money back guarantee on our products to ensure your peace of mind. We would also love to receive your feedback or resolve any issues you may experience as fast as possible, to ensure your satisfaction. If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to your advancedlife experience, please contact us at: www.advancedlife.com.au/contact.

Class Rep Q & A - Every Class needs a rep

Find out a little more about being a class rep from Emily, who has done this a few times!

Emily's Q & A

Is it a lot of work?

Like most volunteer roles, you completely control how much time you commit to being a class rep at IPS.

Even just assisting in setting up a class WhatsApp group for all of your class’s parents and carers to join is a fantastic way of connecting the parent and carer cohort.

Wait a minute. It’s a Fair year – doesn’t that mean there will be SO much to do?!

Not at all! There is one extra task added to your responsibilities in a Fair year (more on this below), but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Fair Committee to run and organise the Fair.

So what is this extra “Fair responsibility” you speak of?

Your class will be assigned a stall to run at the Fair by the Fair committee. There are many ‘how to’ guidelines and instructions relating to your particular stall which the Fair Committee will provide you and guide you through, however the main duty you will be responsible for is liaising with all parents and carers in your class to create a roster of who can help run the stall on the day. If there are enough volunteers, it is possible to be allotted only 30 minutes of stall duty – plenty of time remaining to enjoy the Fair with your family. Quite often, two classes are assigned to run the one stall so you have plenty of people to support with what needs to be done.

What about producing an artwork masterpiece with the class for auction at the Fair?

Not this year! The Fair Committee has decided that this is no longer the responsibility of the Class Rep but do not fear! Each class will still be producing wonderful pieces of art to raise extra money at the Fair, however, creation of each masterpiece will happen under the guidance and leadership of the class teacher (with any parent assistance entirely optional).

Hmm, ok, I’m thinking about it…

Excellent! We would love you to be a Class Rep this year. Please reach out to your class teacher on Dojo to let them know. It is a wonderful way to connect with, and assist in connecting, the IPS community; something we all value and may it long continue…

Please help.

Each class needs a class representative to help get things done! Contact your child's teacher if you are interested. If you're happy to help out every now and again, or you're interested in social get-togethers, you might want to consider adding your contact details to your child's class rep list. Keep a look out for the request coming soon!

We welcome and value families who would like to volunteer with us. Take a look at our classroom helpers information along with our Child Safe Volunteer information and please do volunteer. You'll find it really rewarding.

Annual PFA Trivia Night Coming Soon...

Any profits from the IPS Trivia Night will go toward the purchase of a new portable stage for music events, graduations and celebrations. This was considered to be a number one priority by our Junior School Council.

Finally

Tomorrow is Friday is National Ride2School Day! It is also our school photo day too!

We plan well in advance for whole school events like school photos and in this case we booked the photography company over 12 months ago prior to the National Ride2School day being announced.

We really would encourage as many students as possible to participate but we do understand that some parents may not want their child's hair messed up by wearing a helmet before having their photo taken.

One of our school values is reslience and this might be a good opportunity for students to demonstrate just how resilent Ivanhoe Primary School students can be! Older students might like to bring a brush with them to school and perhaps younger children could opt to walk to school instead of riding or scooting. Why miss out on what always an exciting morning with Ride2School leaders handing out stickers and fresh fruit! Head over to the Ride2School page for more information.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mark Kent

Principal

http://www.ivanhoeps.vic.edu.au/

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and pay respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.

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