21st March 2025

Dear Families,

Harmony Week:

Harmony Week is celebrated from Monday, March 17 to Sunday, March 23, 2025. It is a time to celebrate the diversity that makes Australia unique, bringing people from all backgrounds together in a spirit of inclusivity, respect, and belonging. Students have been exploring Harmony Day in their classrooms and participating in various activities. Today, many wore a splash of orange to recognize the significance of this day. A big thank you to the Student Representative Council (SRC) for their efforts in promoting this event. The gold coin donations will support the ongoing work of the SRC.

SAVE THE DATE: Fly High Night:

Mark your calendars for our 5th Annual Fly High Night, hosted by the School Community Association, on Thursday, April 3rd from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. We look forward to seeing you there for this fantastic evening!

NAPLAN:

NAPLAN testing is now complete. Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students for their dedication and resilience throughout the assessments. A special thanks to Sam and the Year 3 and 5 staff for preparing our students so well. On Monday, March 24th, there will be a catch-up day for any students who missed a test due to absence.

Cross Country Day:

On the final day of term, Friday, April 4th, we will hold our annual Whole School Cross Country Day. We hope to see you there to cheer on our students! Mr Yusunaga will post details Monday next week.

2025 School Council:

We received 4 self-nominations for School Council , so it is my pleasure to announce the new members for 2025. Yemen Abbas, Tulin Cayvarli (returning) , Naelah Alyousefi and Hina Salman. They are joined by our teacher representatives Jane Black and Brooke Slopak (returning). Danielle Cerra, Isha Rao and Daniel Wright have 1 year left on their council tenure. We thank all of these people for their commitment to the governance of Keelonith Primary School.

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) is on Tuesday 25th March 6:30pm in the school Library. All family members are invited to attend. The AGM will be followed by our first 2025 Council Meeting.

Last Volunteer Induction Session:

We are offering a final Volunteer Induction Session for parents and carers interested in volunteering at the school. Please register for the event on Tuesday, March 25th from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Please use the below link to book in.

https://compasstix.com/e/5c9wmwzdac

3-Way Conference Day:

As mentioned in previous newsletters, we will be holding 3-Way Conferences at the start of Term 2. These will take place on Thursday, April 24th from 10:00 am to 6:30 pm. There will be no regular classes on this day as your child’s attendance at the conference is an important part of their learning. School’s Out will offer childcare, so please be sure to book in advance. While we encourage in-person conferences, we understand that video or phone conferences may be more convenient for some families, and these options will be available.

Learner Profiles:

On Friday, April 4th, our Learner Profiles will be available via Compass. These profiles outline the characteristics and skills your child is demonstrating as a learner and will form part of the discussion during the 3-Way Conferences.

Ride/Walk to School Day:

Unfortunately, the event was cancelled due to the weather. We will try to reschedule.

Compass Notifications. Can I please ask that all families set up their Compass notifications to go to phones and email, not just email. The only way for us to communicate with families in urgent situations, i.e., cancellation of an event, is through Compass text communication. If families are struggling to set this up on the phone, please reach out to the office staff for support.

Good Luck Jenn. Today is Jenn’s last day before the birth of her first baby. Jenn has been with us since Day 1 of Keelonith Primary. We are so excited for Jenn and cannot wait to meet her little bundle of joy in just over 1 months’ time.

Enjoy the weekend and the final two weeks of the term!

Schools Privacy Collection Notice

The Department of Education (the department) values your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal and health information that schools collect.

All school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law and the Schools' privacy policy. This notice explains how the department, including Victorian government schools (schools), handles personal and health information. On occasion, specific consent will be sought for the collection and use of information, for example, for a student to receive a health service. Our schools are also required by legislation, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, to collect some of this information.

Throughout this notice, 'staff' includes principals, teachers, student support service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners, and all other employees, contractors, volunteers and service providers of the school and the department.

On enrolment, and during the ordinary course of a student's attendance at a school, schools will collect information about students and their families for the following purposes:

educating students
supporting students' social and emotional wellbeing, and health
fulfilling legal obligations, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law
communicating and engaging with parents
student administration
school management
supporting policy in relation to student education and wellbeing.

If this information is not collected, schools may be unable to provide optimal education or support to students or fulfil legal obligations.

For example, our schools rely on parents to provide health information about any medical condition or disability that their child has, medication their child may take while at school, any known allergies and contact details of their child's doctor. If parents do not provide all relevant health information, this may put their child's health at risk.

Our schools also require current, relevant information about all parents and carers so that schools can take account of safety concerns that affect their children. Parents should provide schools with copies of all current parenting plans and court orders about or that affect their children and provide updated copies when they change.

When parents enrol their child in primary school, they will be asked to provide personal and health information in several ways, including via the Enrolment Form, the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and in some cases, the Early Childhood Intervention Service (ECIS).

The Enrolment form is used to collect information that is essential for the purposes listed above, and requests information such as:

Emergency contacts – Individuals that parents nominate for a school to contact during an emergency. Parents should ensure that their nominated emergency contact agrees to their contact details being provided to the school and that they understand their details may be disclosed by the department if lawful, e.g. in the case of emergency communications relating to bush fires or floods.
Student background information – Information about country of birth, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, language spoken at home and parent occupation. This information enables the department to allocate appropriate resources to schools. The department also uses this information to plan for future educational needs in Victoria and shares some information with the Commonwealth government to monitor, plan and allocate resources.
Immunisation status – This assists schools to manage health risks and legal obligations. The department may also provide this information to the Department of Health and Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to assess immunisation rates in Victoria, but not in a way which identifies students.
Visa status – This is required to process a student's enrolment.

All schools may use departmental systems and online tools such as apps and other software to effectively collect and manage information about students and families for the purposes listed above.

When schools use these online tools, they take steps to ensure that student information is secure. If parents or carers have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact the school.

School staff will only share student and family information with other school staff who need to know to enable them to educate or support the student as described above. Information will only be shared outside the school (and outside the department) as required or authorised by law, including where sharing is required to meet duty of care, anti-discrimination, occupational health and safety, and child wellbeing and safety obligations. The information collected will not be disclosed beyond the school and department without parent consent unless such disclosure is lawful.

When a student transfers to another school (including Catholic, independent and interstate), personal and/or health information about that student may be transferred to the next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of the student and assists the next school to provide the best possible education and support to the student. For further detail about how and what level of information is provided to the next school, refer to the: Enrolment: Student transfers between schools.

Schools only provide school reports and ordinary school communications to students, parents, carers or others who have a legal right to that information. Requests for access to other student information or by others must be made by lodging a Freedom of Information (FOI) application.

To update student or family information, parents should contact their school.

For more information about how schools and the department collect and manage personal and health information, or how to access personal and health information held by a school about you or your child, refer to the Schools' privacy policy.

Thank you,

Loren Peavey

https://keelonithps.vic.edu.au/

https://www.facebook.com/KeelonithPrimarySchool