Principal's Report 

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to the 2025 school year. I hope your holidays were restful, and you were able to do lots of fun activities as a family. Our staff have been working hard leading up to the return to school date, to be ready for a positive start to the school year. We spent the first few days learning about the updated Victorian Teaching and Learning Model, based on the Science of Learning – a focus the Victoria Government wants all schools to follow. 

2025 Staff:

Over the January Holidays, we worked extremely hard to try to fill our vacant positions. Unfortunately, despite many outside agencies and staff within the Department of Education helping us, we still have 2 vacancies. This is not the way I wanted any class to start, however we are not on our own starting the year with some vacancies. Please rest assured, we will continue to work hard to find teachers for these two classes as soon as we possibly can.  We have communicated directly with the families of the classes affected and will keep them informed throughout the process. Below is a list of our teaching staff. In the next newsletter I will include our Education Support Staff and their roles.

School Policies:

Our school website includes many relevant policies that are applicable to all students. parents/carers and visitors. Please click on this link to take you to our School Policies page on our school website. Our School | Melton West Primary School (meltonwestps.vic.edu.au). In this first newsletter I would like to draw your attention to the following, which have been included in this newsletter for your convenience:

• Sun Smart Policy – This refers to the need for staff and students to wear a broad-rimmed hat when the UV rays are over 3, which have a UV-rating of moderate, typically during term 1 and term 4. Did you know that a UV rating of 3 (rated as moderate) or above is deemed dangerous for our unprotected skin. Even on cloudy days, the UV rating could reach 9 which is rated as very high. Children who do not have a suitable hat will be directed to spend their break time under the pergola. Please ensure your child has a NAMED broad-rimmed hat by Monday 3rd February 2025 for them to wear whilst outside at recess and lunch and during outside learning experiences. Please encourage your child to wear their hat at the appropriate times.

• Mobile Phone Policy – The Government has mandated that all students in Victorian schools are required to store their mobile devices, including Smart Watches, in a secure location. If your child is required to carry a mobile phone or smart device, they are required to sign it in at the office on arrival.

• Respect for School Staff Policy – This policy outlines how staff, parents/carers and visitors work together in fostering a safe and inclusive environment for the entire school community.

Communication:

Keeping parents informed about the happenings around school is very important to us as we believe it helps strengthen the partnership between home and school. We have a number of ways in which we send important information in the hope that all parents and carers can access it in some form. 

• Class Dojo is a great tool where messages can be sent direct to the teachers. It is important to remember that it is a written form, similar to text messaging, so lengthy detailed descriptions are not appropriate in this context. If you have a concern, a short text asking the teacher to contact you is preferable to writing the whole incident down. Please note, I do not get the chance to check Class Dojo often, so if you need to contact me, please call the office and leave a message rather than placing it on Class Dojo, which may not get seen for a few days!

• Sentral is the system we use across the school where we can send SMS messages direct to parents’ and carers' mobile phones or an email to the parent’s/carer's email address.

• Skoolbag App is app that can be put on any Smart Phone and can be set up to send you alerts when information, such as the newsletter, is available. It also sends reminders about things that are due such as camps and excursions. It is available from the App Store – type in Skoolbag and look for Melton West PS 

• Facebook is another platform we use to post messages.

• Instagram is a platform where we post some information, including celebrations. Consider following us @meltonwest_primaryschool on Instagram

Please remember for complex issues a phone call or face to face meeting with the teacher is the best way to ensure it gets sorted as quickly as possible. Please call the office to make an appointment.

“Getting to Know Your Child” Parent/Teacher Interview:

Another important way to communicate is via Parent teacher Interviews. We have organised these for Thursday 27th February from 2.00pm – 6.30pm. Information about these and how to book a time will be sent home shortly and posted on all the above communication platforms. If you would like help setting up an interview time, please call the office on 9743 5818. 

Census:

It is important that parent/carer details are up-to-date to determine the level of funding the school is entitled to from the Government. Twice a year we are required to provide parents/carers the opportunity to check the information we have on our system about their child/children and also parent/carer contact details and Occupation group.

Please note you will be receiving a Student Information report relevant to your child for your review. Please look over it carefully and update any information necessary on the form. 

Whole School Swimming:

This year, swimming is scheduled for Term 3 for all students. Information regarding securing a place will be available at the end of Term 2.

Year 3/4 and 5/6 Camps:

We have camps for our year 3/4s and 5/6s every second year and 2025 is the year for camp. These can be quite expensive, and we would like as many children as possible attend, so we aim to get pricing information to you as early as practical so you can adjust your household budget accordingly. The School Savings Bonus ($400 for every student in 2025, with parents able to use siblings portion for other children) and CSEF (for eligible Health Care Card recipients) can be used towards the cost. You do not need to do anything regarding camps at this stage, this is just to let you know.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal