From the Office 

News From the Principal

Curriculum Day

Don't forget that Monday May 20th is a Curriculum Day and students are not required at school. Lisa and Hayden will be working on aligning our assessment practices to our current teaching practices and auditing our teaching resources. It is important that we stay up to date with the most current research related to best practice in Education as well as match our curriculum content to each individual child's learning needs. Taking a day where we can both sit down to do this is vital in order to continue to offer the best learning opportunities and outcomes for every child. 

Cross Country

Last week we travelled to the Elmore Events Centre for our annual cross country event. We were joined by staff, students and spectators from the other five Campaspe Small Schools Cluster. It was a fabulous day with all of our students doing us proud. It didn't matter if they finished in the top three, middle or near the end, they all did their very best and showed great determination and sportsmanship. It is always lovely to see our students being supported and cheered on by their classmates, teachers and family members. Thank you to Mr Collins who organised this event for the cluster, a lot of work goes into to organising and setting up the day as well as running the event. 

The photo below was taken by one of our parents who forwarded it to me with a lovely message about how kind and considerate our students are. This photo shows Kiara, who had been battling a recent illness as well as a knee injury, in the final stages of her race, being supported by her Raywood team mates. 

School Saving Bonus- information for families

You may have seen the recent announcement of the School Saving Bonus, as part of the Victorian Budget 2024/25. We are sharing more information about how families will be able to access and use this support.

This one-off support will include $400 for each eligible student to help families cover the costs of school uniforms and activities in 2025.

It will be available to parents and carers of every child enrolled in a Victorian government school in 2025.

Cash will not be paid directly to individuals or families. Instead, families will receive the bonus as credits on their school accounts that will help meet the costs of your children’s activities and uniforms.

Existing supports

The School Saving Bonus support will be in addition to existing and continuing means-tested supports for camps, sports, excursions and uniforms.

The application-based Affordable School Uniform program, through State Schools’ Relief, will continue to be available to families experiencing financial hardship or other forms of vulnerability and short-term crisis. This program allows schools to make multiple applications for support on parents' behalf throughout the year if needed.

There will be more information and guidance about the School Saving Bonus in Term 3, 2024, ahead of its implementation in 2025.

We hope to see you.......

Our student performance of Alice in Wonderland will take place on the final day of Term 2. We invite all family and community members to come along to watch and enjoy. The performance will be in the main building and commence at 1pm ; so if the audience could please arrive from 12.45pm that would be much appreciated. A reminder that as this is the final day of term, we will have an early dismissal of 2.20pm. So those family members who are at school to watch the performance, may take their child/ren home at the conclusion of the show.

Student Attitudes To School Survey (SATS)

Each year students in Years 4-6 are encouraged to participate in an annual and confidential survey which asks them for their thoughts and feelings about our school, their wellbeing and their learning. This data is depersonalised and provided back to us at school as well as at a regional and state level. This data can then be analysed and used to improve our practice at school and approaches by region and the state. Families with students in these year levels will have received a letter with further details about this survey. Don't forget if you have any questions or concerns please contact Lisa at school to arrange a time to discuss. 

Walk Safely To School

Last Friday we participated in the annual Walk Safely to School Day. We ceased our bus run at Speke Street and walked to school as a group. We were joined by Marcus Uren, our local policeman. We were then all treated to a delicious sausage sizzle breakfast with fresh fruit and juice (thanks for cooking Bree). 

Mother's Day 

Thank you to Kiara and Lil for running our Mother's Day Stall last week. The students love selecting a few special gifts for their mums. I hope that all of the mums, step-mums and grandmas out there had a wonderful day last Sunday. 

School Council

School Council met last week for their May Meeting. We discussed the recent incidents at our school that involved children and youths on our site that are not connected to our school. We have had some minor incidents of damage and graffiti as well as rubbish being left about. Whilst school grounds are private property and we can ban outside of school hours visitors, we are reluctant to make this a blanket rule as we know that our new playground and spacious grounds are great places for families to bring their kids along to play in a safe environment. We are going to get some signage made up that outline the conditions of use of our grounds and equipment outside of school hours. Thereby informing those who choose to use our facilities the conditions upon which they can be here. If they are not abiding by our rules, then we will be asking them to leave the premises and not return. 

Our next meeting was scheduled for Monday June 17th, but due to it being Winter Sports in Colbinabbin that day and us needing to take our hire van back to base in Bendigo- we are hoping our council members can attend the following week on Monday June 24th. 

Breakfast Club

We have decided to put our regular Friday Morning Breakfast Club into hiatus for a while. This is largely due to the fact that we seem to be wasting a lot of food, despite me taking orders the day prior. Most students arrive already having had breakfast and are therefore not hungry and only taking a few token bites before binning the rest of the food. We had changed tact to offer some varied options but purchasing special items (waffles, ham, cheese, bacon, eggs etc) but we still seem to be wasting a great deal of food and therefore school funds. We hope to have the occasional special breakfast (as we did last week with our sausage sizzle after Walk Safely To School). We will from time to time send home grocery items to families to help with the cost of living expenses. 

That's all for this week- Lisa Duffy

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