Principal's Report

Welcome to the 2025 school year and our first edition of our fortnightly newsletter. I hope that you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Summer break. 

We have had a lovely smooth start to the year and it lovely to see the students return so positively about their new year levels. 

We extend a warm welcome to our new Foundation Families as well as families new to the Clyde PS community. It was lovely to see our Foundation students come in so settled and ready to start their learning journey and we look forward to getting to know them all and their families.

As the school year begins, there is already plenty of activity underway, and we look forward to an engaging and successful year ahead.

Upcoming events can be viewed in the Compass School Calendar - please login to the Compass Parent Portal and select the 'Calendar' image at the top of the screen in the browser version (next to 'Home'). Reminders about upcoming events are posted on Compass and can also be found in our fortnightly school newsletter.

Charlie, our school dog, has also enjoyed the holidays with lots of beach walks and

 swimming. He has already returned to school a few days this term and is finding his way around the new classes.

Assemblies

Assemblies are a great way for our school community to get together and share information and celebrate achievements. 

Each term we hold 2 Whole School Assemblies. Our first is coming up on Monday 24th February at 9:10am in the gym. After dropping your child/ren off at their classroom we invite parents and family to come along to the assembly.

Each assembly commences with an Acknowledgement of Country and the singing of the Australian National Anthem. Our Whole School Assemblies are hosted my our Year 6 Student Leaders, which provides them with the opportunity to model leadership behaviours  and to develop confidence in public speaking.

Our first assembly for the year will also be a longer than usual assembly, as it also includes the badge presentation for all of our Year 6 student leaders.

Once a term, we also hold PLT Assemblies. These are held mid-term and each year level has their own time/day. Teachers will send out a Compass message to you confirming dates and times later this term.

At Home Reading

On Monday, our school library re-opens for borrowing, this means students must have a blue reader satchel to bring books home. These are available at the office for $8.00. Our reading nights program also starts on Monday, students can start reading and recording their texts in their reading diary. Certificates for reading nights will be handed out at PLT assemblies.

Reminder for  Communication

Any communication regarding your child's academic or wellbeing must be made via your child's classroom teacher. This enables strong relationships between the teacher, child and parent to be built. I encourage all families to communicate with classroom teachers, in person, via Compass, emailing the school or via phone. If you receive a phone call from the school it is really important to listen to the message left so that when you return the call we can put you through to the staff member who made the call.

Time to Respond to Communications 

• Teachers will make every effort to respond as soon as possible to parent communications, with the understanding that the teaching day sometimes precludes immediate responses
• Teachers and staff may need some time to collect needed information before responding
• Teachers and staff will try to return any messages within a 24-48-hour period, depending on the matter that is being raised
• Please be aware that if a staff member is absent on any leave, they will be unable to respond to messages
• If a message is sent after a school teaching day or work hours, please don’t expect that a teacher will respond. They will try and get to you either the next morning or when they have “Non face to face’ planning time the next day

Whom to Contact

• Most communications of any classroom/playground concerns should be directed first to your child’s teacher. If you have a question or need, please contact your child's teacher first.
• If you have discussed with your child’s teacher and the issue has not been addressed to your satisfaction, please contact the school and administration will organise the most appropriate member of the school's leadership team to schedule a meeting time with you.
• The clyde.ps@education.vic.gov.au email account is checked regularly throughout the day and emails are forwarded on as appropriate. 

Members of Leadership 

Student Messages

• Please clarify arrangements with your child about after-school plans before school to avoid confusion and possible meltdowns later in the day.  A written note/ a phone call to the office or an email via compass portal or a note in your child’s lunch box can be a helpful reminder during the day.  
• If you have an unavoidable last-minute change in plans, please call the office and they will attempt to deliver your message to your student. Please note however that the office is not always able to get messages to children before they leave, so please do not rely on this for regular communication.
• All parents can message their child's teacher via Compass and can inform them of any concerns, change in pick up arrangements, any issues or concerns that may have come up over a weekend or holiday period.

Emergency Contact Details 

Please advise the school immediately of any changes to your details (address, telephone number and emergency contact/s), to enable prompt contact at all times.

Administration Office

The Office handles all administrative matters, payments and enquiries – please pop in and see the lovely office ladies should you require any assistance. Please note that the office is open from 8.30am to 4:00pm daily - earlier on the last day of term.

Medications at School

If your child requires medication to be taken at school at any time during the year, please come into the office to fill in a 2025 ‘Medical Authorisation’ form. This allows staff to give your child medication when needed.

Emergency Management Plan

 Our school plans for a range of hazards, such as bushfire, severe weather, medical emergencies, building fires, intruders, etc. We develop specific response procedure to address these risks. 

We also conduct drills regularly, ensuring that our core procedures of on-site and off-site evacuation, sheltering-in-place, and lockdown/lockouts are well-rehearsed and understood by staff and students. 

If we enact our emergency management plan, we will notify you by Compass notification with updates on our actions. If there is anything we need you to do, we will let you know. 

During emergencies, we will work with emergency services and the Department of Education for safety advice and support. 

School Gates and Supervision

Clyde Primary School’s grounds are supervised by school staff from 8.45am until 3.45pm. Students on the school grounds outside these times will not be supervised by school staff. The only current exception to this is on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when students can attend Breakfast Club (further details about Breakfast Club are below). 

We have 2 main gates which are both closed at 9:00am. 

If you arrive late to school (after 9:00am) you must enter through the main gate in front of the office as you must sign your child in (because they are late to school) before they can be sent to class.

The gate near the Foundation classes will be locked. This is to prevent unwanted visitors from entering the school, as this gate is not supervised at all times during the day.  This also ensures that any permitted visitors sign in at the office.  After 9:00am parents and students will only be able to use the main office gate from 9:00am for entering and exiting the school. The Foundation Gate will open again at 3:00pm to allow parents to wit near the front sand pit.

Families requiring care for their child outside of these hours are encouraged to contact Team Kids, our outside school hours care provider, on 1300 035 000 or by registering at teamkids.com.au  All Team Kids bookings are eligible for the Child Care Subsidy, and students can attend from as early as 6:30am or as late as 6:30pm.

2024 Parent Helper Training

Are you interested in being a Parent Helper at our school?  Parent Helpers are involved in many aspects of our school, including things like Breakfast Club, support for reading programs, camps, excursions, Mother's Day and Father's Day stalls etc.

If you are interested, I invite you to attend an important information session where we will be outlining the expectations of helpers, ways to offer assistance and the Working With Children Check application process.  You must attend this training to be eligible to be a helper.  If you have attended a training session in previous years and have completed all of the requirements you do not have to attend the information session again.

                        Date: Thursday 20th February       

            Time : 9:00-9:45am (approx.)

 To register for this event please ring or email the school office on 5998 5293. Parent support is always greatly appreciated.