Dear EHPS Community,

Welcome back to the new school year, and I believe that it will provide many great opportunities for children and families to join in a wide range of learning and fun experiences.

As I walked around the school last week, I was so pleased to see the children settled, happy and working so well. They were sharing so many great stories about their holidays, trips overseas and interstate, their many adventures as well as all the other things they had done since leaving school in December.

On Wednesday this week, we welcomed our new Prep children for 2024. The children and their families were all very excited about starting school at Essex Heights. Photos were taken and all the children had a very happy and engaging time with their teachers.

In the week before returning to school it was fantastic to see so many children accessing the Outside School Hours Care Vacation program. The children were having so much fun with their activities. A big thanks to Paul Davis and his staff for once again running an outstanding holiday experience for our children.

Staff

This year we welcome several new staff to our great team at Essex Heights – Cassie Cartwright (Year Level Support), Jemma Graham (1WG and Year Level Support), Sasha Lanyon (Year Level Support) and Gladys Wangke (Indonesian). We also welcome back from leave Lauren Davies (PGD), Maria Capsalis (Science), Con Papanicolaou (1P), Andrew Russell (Year Level Support) and Kelvin Tang (34T). Our school is so fortunate to have such high calibre staff in our school. We wish all our new staff well in their various roles at Essex Heights and look forward to their contribution to the children’s learning and enjoyment in 2024.

Welcome

A number of new children and their families have also joined our community this year - 78 children in Prep and 24 children in Years 1 to 6. We hope that their time with us will be enjoyable, productive and worthwhile. If you see new faces in the school yard please make sure that we live up to the Essex Heights value of ‘Friendliness’ and make them feel welcome and part of our great community.

The PFC have organised a Welcome Back to School Family Picnic on Friday 23 February. This will be a perfect opportunity to welcome our new families into the EHPS Community.

Learning

Staff have started the year with their classes by focusing on our ‘Starting Up and Starting Out Program’ which incorporates School Wide Positive Behaviours, a number of wellbeing activities, and school procedures in order to develop a positive working environment in each classroom and throughout the school.

Ensuring the wellbeing of all children is a high priority at Essex Heights. We know that children must first feel secure and happy at school, so that they can fully engage in learning activities. This focus will be a continued priority in 2024.

There has been a change to our specialist program for 2024. This year we have introduced Science to our weekly specialist sessions. This will mean that children are experiencing a much richer specialist program. The five specialist subjects are Health and P.E., Indonesian, Music, Science and Art/ArtSEL. In addition, children will have a weekly Choir class and Years 4 to 6 will also learn Marimba.

Parent – School Partnership

At Essex Heights we believe that an effective partnership with families is a very important ingredient to enable all children to reach their highest potential. To be successful at school, our children need support from both home and school.

I encourage all families to support the school and assist your child’s learning by ensuring that he/she:

Attends school every day and arrives on time (8.50am), ready for the day’s learning.
Completes all homework activities given by teachers.
Reads daily to develop a love for reading and to improve literacy skills.
Share school experiences, ‘what went well today’, with you so that you are aware of the many good things in their school life.

A key step in developing this partnership is to have an excellent rapport with your child’s teacher(s).

Next week, our Parent/Teacher Meet and Greet Discussions are an opportunity for families to share their knowledge of their child with the teacher; this is also an important step for classroom teachers to get to know your child.

Bookings for these discussions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are open on the Compass portal. Each teacher has sufficient bookings available for each family in their class to have a conversation about their child. Please note that the discussions are scheduled for 10 minutes duration. If a longer conversation is required, we ask that you arrange an alternative date and time with your child’s teacher after Wednesday next week.

I strongly encourage all families to take this opportunity to meet your child's classroom teacher.

School Council Elections 2024

All government schools in Victoria have a school council. They are legally constituted bodies that are given powers to set the key directions of a school within state-wide guidelines. School Council in collaboration with the school leadership sets the strategic direction for the school.

Parents on school councils provide important viewpoints and have valuable skills that can help shape the direction of the school. Those parents who become active on a school council find their involvement satisfying and may also find that their children feel a greater sense of belonging.

This year nominations for parent and Department of Education representatives on school council will open on Monday 19 February 2024. Nomination forms will be available from the Office or from the school website. Nominations for the four (4) available parent positions and two (2) School Employee positions will close at 4pm on Monday 26 February 2024.

Please refer to the School Council Elections page in this newsletter for the Notice of Election, School Council Election Timeline as well as School Council Information for Parents.

I would like to thank our retiring parent representatives Jennifer Bittner, Oudom Chhit, Graham Hawtin, Kim Huynh, Carolyn Mott, Kaye Nolan, and our School Employee representatives Kristi Lloyd and Paul Davis, for their commitment to our school, their guidance, advice and particularly for the support they have shown to me and our EHPS community over the past two years. I would like to especially thank Jennifer Bittner for her leadership of school council and for her unwavering support for the betterment of our school.

Communication

Good communication between home and school is very important so that we all know what is happening in our school community. It also ensures that students benefit the most from all opportunities offered at Essex Heights. All EHPS families are reminded that we will communicate with you using:

Compass; and
Contact, our school newsletter.

All families have been provided with their own unique login to access Compass. If your Compass access is no longer working, please contact Jo in our School Office to reset your password and restore your access.

Compass will be the main avenue for communication between home and school. All important messages for parents and carers will be sent through our Compass News Feeds. It is essential that you check Compass regularly for information from school.

When you receive a notification requiring your response, please ensure that you action this not later than the specified due date. If you access Compass on a smart device, ensure that you have turned your notifications on so that you receive an alert when information is published.

At Essex Heights we value the communication between parents and the school, however a few things must be kept in mind so that we have a common understanding of the procedures and expectations:

Staff are in class and teaching throughout the school day, as well as attending meetings after school. Therefore, sending an email or compass message during the day is not the most effective way to communicate with a classroom teacher, especially if the matter is urgent.
For matters requiring a rapid response, families should ring the School Office (98074944) and a message will be passed to the teacher.
We encourage our staff to have a healthy work life balance and we have agreed that their workday should be between 8.30am and 5pm. I have therefore asked staff to only reply to written correspondence during those hours. It would therefore be fair to expect a reply to a written communication within two business days.
All too often, staff receive texts or messages late into the evening. Staff will not reply to such correspondence until they are able. Please refrain from messaging at these times and please be assured that staff will respond to your message in due course.

Road Safety & Courtesy

This week I was again contacted by a school neighbour to report several instances of school families parking across their driveway at school drop off. This lack of courtesy and disregard of this family's access to and from their home is most disappointing.

When doing yard duty at the front of the school this week, I also witnessed inappropriate and discourteous behaviour.

I would like to again remind all families of ways to ensure that we respect our neighbours and ensure that children and families are safe on the roads around our school.

All road rules should be followed meticulously – speed limits apply in Essex Road, as do parking restrictions which City of Monash officers monitor and issue fines for infringement. Please:
1. Do not park across our neighbours’ driveways.
2. Do not park/leave your vehicle in the Kiss and Drop zone at the front of the school at the beginning and end of the school day.
3. Do not U turn across the solid white line in Essex Road in front of the school.
4. Follow speed limits in the streets surrounding our school. A permanent 40 km/hour speed limit applies in Essex Road in front of our school.
5. Park safely and courteously in the City of Monash Essex Heights Reserve carpark adjacent to the school while waiting for your child.
Children’s safety is the highest importance so please ensure that:
1. You use the supervised School Crossing to cross Essex Road.
2. Children get out of cars on the footpath side.
3. You do not walk through the Staff & Permit Carpark as an entry or exit point. It is not a pedestrian area. It was only used for this purpose due to necessity in COVID times.

I urge everyone to take collective responsibility for this matter. We are responsible for the safety of the children as well as being role models for our children. Road safety is a responsibility we all share.

Let's work together to keep our children safe and be respectful of our neighbours.

SunSmart – wear a hat

In accordance with our SunSmart Policy, I would like to remind all families that the children are required to wear hats throughout Term 1. These should be in the school uniform dark green, legionnaire, wide brimmed or bucket hats for maximum sun protection. I would ask parents to ensure that children are bringing the appropriate headwear to school each day. On hot days we also suggest that students seek shade and drink plenty of water.

School Times, Late or Absent?

At this time of the year it is timely to remind all families that children are expected to be in class by 8.50am. This will allow for brief chats or small organisational matters to be completed so that all classes are able to start their learning promptly at 9am. Good communication between school and home is so important, therefore if an in-depth discussion with the classroom teacher is needed then please arrange a suitable time with them.

As mentioned above, our Compass portal is the school’s communication tool between school and home and is to be used to send emails to a teacher and enter attendance notes for any absence from school. Please make sure that you regularly log into the Compass portal. If you need any assistance, please check the Parent Guide on our website or speak to the staff at the School Office.

If your child will be absent on any particular day, please enter an attendance note on Compass, or contact the school by 9am to report the absence verbally or in writing.

Please note that students arriving at school at or after 9am must be signed in to school at the Office, preferably by a parent or guardian.

Ideally, all arrangements should be made and communicated clearly to your child before the start of the school day. Our Office staff are not expected to pass on reminders to your child. However, if there are changed plans for the end of the school day or pick up arrangements for your children, please advise the school as soon as you know about it. Our Office staff will always pass on messages to students; however, this requires time and lack of interruptions. Please ensure that messages are communicated by phoning the Office; do not email.

Thank you for your cooperation and support in these matters.

Student Illness and Accidents

Early in the school year is a good time to remind all families of the necessity to keep the school updated with changed phone numbers and emergency contact details. If your child is ill at school, or suffers an accident, then staff will give immediate care and appropriate first aid. However, it is necessary on occasions to contact parents and we are often frustrated by out-of-date information that delays this process.

Please make sure you notify the Office of any changes to your or your Emergency Contact details. Obviously in extreme cases we may also deem it necessary to call an Ambulance before consulting parents and you need to be aware of this. Please also keep the Office informed of any change in medical issues faced by your children as this helps us to make the best choices for their welfare.

Parents and guardians should also be aware that they are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any Ambulance transport costs. Most medical costs are refundable by Medicare. If you are a member of an ambulance or health insurance fund, you may also be able to claim transport or other expenses from the fund. The Department of Education does not hold accident insurance for school students.

Is other Insurance available? Yes.

There are commercial providers of insurance for students and they can be found online or through your Insurance Broker.

Students, Parents & Staff Personal Property

On a similar topic, students, staff and visitors often bring personal property to school. This can include mobile phones, calculators, toys, sporting equipment and cars parked on school premises.

Please note the Department of Education does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and it will generally not pay for any loss or damage to such property.

The Department of Education mobile phone ban is also in effect. Mobile phones are not to be used at school. Any device brought to school must be handed into the School Office or class teacher before the school day starts and can be collected at the end of the day.

Please refer to the mobile phone policy on the EHPS website.

On a final note please refer to the Privacy statement linked below for information related to data collection.

Mobile Phones and Electronic Devices

I would like to bring to the attention of all families that Mobile phones and other Electronic Devices, e.g. smart watches, are to be switched off during school hours.

Please refer to the EHPS Mobile Phone - Student Use Policy

Our policy is in line with the Department of Education guidelines and policy on this matter.

In Summary:

A mobile phone is defined as a telephone with access to a cellular (telecommunication) system, with or without a physical connection to a network.

For the purpose of this policy, “mobile phone” refers to mobile phones and any device that may connect to or have a similar functionality to a mobile phone such as wearable devices (smart watches), cameras, iPads, and all other personal devices.

At Essex Heights Primary School:

Students who choose to bring mobile phones to school must have them switched off and securely stored during school hours.
Exceptions to this policy may be applied if certain conditions are met (see below for further information).
When emergencies occur, parents or carers should reach their child by calling the school’s office.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy: EHPS Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use digital technologies safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information.

Digital Learning Policy

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages.

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice.

Our EHPS Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy, describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages.

Happy Year of the Dragon

The Lunar New Year on the Chinese calendar commences tomorrow, Saturday 10 February, and is the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. The celebrations will continue over the next few weeks. Happy Lunar New Year to all those in our community celebrating.

It's been a great start to the 2024 school year.

I look forward to seeing you around the school and at the Welcome Event that our Parents & Friends Club are hosting on Friday 23 February.

Kindest regards,

George Perini

Principal