Dear Parents and Carers,

We are now past the halfway mark for this term, with a lot still to occur.

Curriculum Day: The next Curriculum Day is scheduled for Friday 7th June, to coincide with the King’s Birthday Holiday on Monday the 10th. Students are not required at school on this day; however, staff will be present continuing their learning around School-Wide Positive Behaviour practices. They will also spend ½ the day on Report writing.

Student Academic Semester 1 Reports: Teachers have begun the important task of preparing the Semester 1 Student Reports. These will be finalised and sent home on Monday 24th June. If you require an additional copy to be sent to you due to separated families, please ensure you let your child’s teacher know so they can email it to you or arrange for it to be posted to your address.

Parent Teacher Interviews: An opportunity to speak to your child’s teacher about their progress will be at the June Parent Teacher Interviews scheduled for Thursday 27th June from 2.00 – 6.30 pm. More information about booking a time will be available soon, so please keep an eye out for this.

Prep Enrolments 2025 Open: If you or somebody you know has a child turning 5 before 30th April 2025, they are eligible to attend school in 2025. All children have a guaranteed place in their local school, and some schools, like ours, can accept enrolments outside their designated area. If you feel they are ready to start school next year and would like to find out more about what we have to offer, please call the office to join one of our small group tours. These are fortnightly on a Wednesday from 9.30am or monthly in the evening at 6.00pm. To help with organising staff and preparing for an effective transition program, enrolments should be received by 26th July 2024.

Year 7 Enrolments: Next week, secondary schools are letting us know when applications have not been accepted by them. We then forward the application to the 2nd, then 3rd preference. Secondary schools need to know how many students they are expecting in 2025 so they can plan for staffing, subjects they offer and individual support for transition as required. Some families have yet to submit their application, which needs to be done ASAP for them to secure a position at a government secondary school. If your decision is to attend a non-government school, you are still required to complete the documentation based on Department of Education policy. Please contact myself or Jenna Davies if you need further information or support around this.

Savers Plus: I have recently been made aware of a program that encourages savings, which is then doubled after 10 months through a contribution by the ANZ bank. When you sign up, you commit to saving up to $50 per month for 10 months, but it can also be less than that. For example, if you commit to $10 a month for 10 months, that will equal $100. After the 10-month period, ANZ would then give you $100. If you committed to save $25 per month, that would equal $250, and ANZ would match that and give you $250. The money ANZ gives needs to be spent on educational expenses for your children or yourself if you are studying. Things like uniforms, computer equipment etc. to be eligible to join then program your need:

To be over 18 years old.
Have a current Health care of Pensioner Concession card.
Have a child at school or starting next year or be studying yourself.
You or your partner to have a steady income.
And participate in free online financial education workshops (we can help with this at school if needed)

Please call 1300 610 355 for more information or make an appointment through the office with me and I can explain further.

I have attached a handout to the newsletter for more information as well.

Decommissioned Digital Technology Equipment: At the last School Council meeting, a decision was made to provide families with our old technology that we do not need anymore, as we upgrade devices students use in the school. School Council decided to pass these still working devices to families instead of contributing to landfill. To ensure these are given to families who need them the most we have created a list, based on the categories the Department of Education identify as needing the most support. We will be starting to contact families at the top of this list in the next few weeks and make our way down, in priority order, as equipment becomes available. Please note, these devices will be given free to families, however, we will not be able to offer any warranty so if they no longer work at any stage, we will not be able to fix it.

Policies for Community Consultation: Policies are an important element for any organisational setting as they set out the processes and rationale as to why decisions are made and what can and cannot occur within the organisation. In government schools, some policies are determined by the Department of Education and apply to all government schools such as the Mobile Phone Policy. Some require community consultation for feedback before going to School Council for final approval. In this newsletter I have included the following DRAFT policies: Digital Learning Policy, Visitors Policy, Complaints Policy and Volunteers Policy. Please take a look and if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please put it in an email or make an appointment to discuss it with me and we will incorporate these into the policy that will be presented to School Council at our June meeting. Feedback will need to be received by 14th June for it to be incorporated in the new draft of these policies.

Smoking and Vaping Ban: Parents, carers, schools, and community all play an important role in protecting children and young people from, and educating them about, the harmful effects of smoking and vaping. Research from the Royal Children’s Hospital shows many parents and carers are not aware of the harmful effects or how their views about smoking and vaping can impact the likelihood of a young person taking up smoking or vaping. The Department of Education has developed resources to help you learn more about the health risks of smoking and vaping. The resources include advice about how to talk to children and young people about vaping, and where to get support. To access the resources, go to https://www.vic.gov.au/smoking-and-vaping-advice-parents You can also view this video on smoking and vaping from experts at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne for health advice and tips for starting a conversation with young people.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal