The term is only young but we have definitely been able to squeeze in plenty of learning, engagement opportunities and highlights in the first few weeks. The below snapshot displays the many opportunities that our staff, students and community participate in at Surfside. We are very proud of the continuous learning that our staff participate in to provide our students with rigorous, evidence based and engaging learning opportunities.

A big thank you to our staff for completing CUST Training on Friday. Community Understanding and Safety Training (CUST) is professional learning for school staff to increase their understanding of Aboriginal culture, history, and experiences. The purpose of the training is to ensure a strong foundation for culturally inclusive schools and practices, which can have a positive impact on Aboriginal students’ health and wellbeing.

We continue to provide our students with a range of opportunities to allow them to thrive academically, emotionally and socially while being challenged to be the best they can be. We have enjoyed running our school tours for our 2025 Foundation students and a big thank you to our school community who have made them feel welcome with visits into classrooms and around the school grounds.

You can also see by the dates below that we have another busy fortnight ahead of learning and engagement opportunities:

Some important dates as a reminder for the next 2 weeks

Mon 6th - Foundation 2025 School Tours

Times Tables Rockstars Victoria Competition

Tues 7th - Times Tables Rockstars Victoria Competition

Wed 8th - Foundation 2025 School Tours

Times Tables Rockstars Victoria Competition

Thu 9th - SSV Winter Lightning Premiership (Year 6 & selected year 5 students)

Fri 10th - National Walk Safely to School Day

Assembly @ 2.30pm

Mon 13th - 17th - Education Week - Spotlight on STEM

Tues 14th - 17th - Year 6 Camp - Roses Gap

Tues 14th - Division Cross Country - Eastern Gardens (Qualified students)

Thu 16th - Breakfast Club 7.45am in the kitchen

Education Support Staff Appreciation Day

Annual Report to School Community

Each year every school prepares their Annual Report to the School Community. Our 2023 Annual Report has been presented to and endorsed by school council. Below is a link to our draft report and still requires VRQA endorsement. Once completed the finalised Annual Report will be posted on our website and presented via our newsletter.

Throughout the year when available we post the following data around school performance:

Annual Implementation Plan Goals
Annual Report to School Community
NAPLAN Results
Student Attitude to School Survey Results
Parent Opinion Survey Results

We welcome all of our families to take the time to engage with these data sets to celebrate our school achievement as well as highlighting the goals that we continue to work towards.

GRIP Student Leadership Day

A passionate group of year 6 student leaders attended the GRIP Student Leadership Conference in Geelong. They explored how everybody can step forward and lead, how our ideas can help Surfside in a meaningful way and how to maintain and drive change for a lasting impact. The day was filled with lots of interactive experiences and our students loved the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other student leaders from the Geelong region.

Student Voice and Agency at Surfside

Our class SVA reps did so well sharing their class’ voice! Hearing all the great things that were happening around the school was fabulous and they all had meaningful, realistic and interesting ideas for ways to improve various things at Surfside.

ANZAC Day Service and March - Ocean Grove & Barwon Heads RSL

As a school we remembered and celebrated the sacrifices of our service men and women with an ANZAC Day service at school on Wednesday afternoon. It was also a great opportunity for our students to focus on our school value of respect. We thank our student leadership team for facilitating this opportunity.

We thank our students, staff and families who attended and participated in the annual RSL ANZAC Day march and service at Ocean Grove Park on ANZAC Day. A big thank you to our school captains who laid a commemorative wreath on behalf of Surfside PS at the service.

Cyber Safety and Education - BATFORCE

We were lucky to have parent educator, Leigh Bartlett, from the Barwon Adolescent Task Force (BATFORCE) come in to run a parent, caregiver and student (year 4) workshop on cyber education and how to manage screen-time of primary aged children.

The workshop focused on how you can create ongoing screen-time conversations at home that mirror your own family values and supports young people to safe safe and have fun online. This is an ever evolving space and staying informed equips parents to support your children's wellbeing and safety.

https://batforce.org.au

Bebras Maths Competition

As a part of our high abilities program at Surfside Primary, students from 3-6 took the opportunity this week and throughout the year to participate in the recent Bebras computational thinking challenge which involves over 2.9 million students from 60 countries.

State Schools' Spectacular

The Victorian State School Spectacular students went to Western Heights College to rehearse for the Spectactular. Gemma and Hara lead the choreography and today the students performed six songs total, learning two extra songs today.

Students were super enthusiastic to get started and were dancing from the very start to the end.

The students are super keen to open up the box of props they have received and show off their dances to the whole school.

SSV District Cross Country Event

This week qualified students participated in the SSV District Cross Country. The students did us proud on a tough course against tough competition and you can definitely see the determination (and smiles) on their faces. Well done to all and all the best to those who are off to the Division Champs in a few weeks.

Smoothie Bar Incursion - Economics Year 6

Year 6 students have been exploring Business and Economics, as part of the Enterprise Education Program.

They embarked on a quest to create a smoothie product and marketing campaign that promotes health and wellness in their community.

The Smoothie Bar is a highly activated day that focuses on students developing skills in teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, financial literacy, digital literacy, communication, and presentation skills. This program links with the economics theme for the term and will help support the student's understanding of some of the concepts needed for Bonanza Day at the end of the term.

Enrolment Time at Surfside

Enrolments have now opened for new students and families who will be joining the Surfside family in 2025. If you have a sibling of a current student at Surfside they will also need to complete this enrolment process. We will be conducting tours early in term 2 for prospective families so please check the calendar and contact the office to book a spot. Please check out the enrolling your child in Primary School for more information.

Year 6-7 Transition Forms

Families in year 6 have received transition forms and information this week to start their enrolment and transition process to Secondary School. A reminder to our year 6 families that transition forms, for 2025 Secondary School enrolment are due to be returned by Friday 10th May. All families are to return these forms if you are enrolling in the government or independent school system for 2025. Please check out the enrolling your child in Secondary School for more information.

School Council - May Meeting

Our next school council meeting will take place on Tuesday 21st May at 5:30pm with finance meeting at 5.00pm.

Student Attitudes to Schools Survey - Year 4-6 Students

PARENT / CAREGIVER / GUARDIAN INFORMATION AND CONSENT LETTER

2024 Student Attitudes to School Survey

This notification is to inform you about the 2024 Student Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS), which will be administered to all government school students in Years 4 to 6 at Surfside Primary School.

About the survey

The AtoSS is a voluntary annual student survey offered by the Department of Education to assist schools and the department to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and will be asking your child about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer relationships, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general. ORIMA Research Pty Ltd has been contracted by the department to administer the online survey. This year, the survey will be conducted at Surfside between the dates of 29th May until 14th June.

What are the benefits?

Young people enjoy having a say! This survey has been running for nearly 20 years and is invaluable in helping schools understand student views to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience. The survey responses also help the Department of Education understand how student’s learning experiences can be improved.

What are the risks?

While we do not anticipate many risks of participation, some students may find some of the survey questions personal and sensitive in nature. Should you agree for your child to participate, they are still free to skip questions or to withdraw at any stage if the survey makes them upset or uncomfortable. A teacher will be present during the survey to support students.The questions are selected from validated survey instruments used in Australia and around the world, are strength-based, and tailored for each year level group.

What will my child be asked to do?

Your child will be invited to complete the survey online during class time using a purpose built secure online survey tool. It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Please note:

Student participation in the survey is voluntary and students may withdraw at any time.
The survey is available in a variety of different versions to enable all students to participate.
The survey will take around 20-45 minutes to complete.

How is my child’s confidentiality protected?

Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey from their teacher. The student login is an assigned identifier that will be used by the department to link data for analysis and research purposes only. Identifiable information, such as student name or Victorian Student Number (VSN) is not used for linking datasets. Some student demographic data (i.e. year level, gender, age, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status) is derived from department-held administrative records and is linked to the individual student login ID during survey set up work to support survey administration. ORIMA Research will only use student personal information for research purposes to facilitate the administration and data collection of the Attitudes to School Survey. To ensure the confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times, personally identifiable data will not be recorded in the survey response file that ORIMA Research provides to the department. All data is stored on servers located in Australia and access is restricted to staff who are working on the project.All information collected about your child will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Data and Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), as well as the Department’s Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please note that consistent with the above legislation and our policy, there are instances where we may be required by law to share information provided by your child. For example, where there is a threat to your child’s health and safety.

How will results be reported?

Aggregated state-wide survey data will be used to report on initiatives and may also be used in public discussions of issues relating to student engagement and wellbeing. An example of how survey data has been previously used includes reporting levels of student engagement in the Performance Summary in the Annual Report to the School Community.The survey results will also be reported back to the school in aggregate form throughout the survey period. Data or results about individual students will not be shared with schools. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. Where there are low numbers of students, the data will be suppressed so that the school cannot view the results for that group.Your school may share the results of the survey with parents and carers.

Options for participation

Participation in this survey is voluntary. If you do not wish for your child to do the survey, please opt out via email to your school: peter.walsh@education.vic.gov.au before Monday 6th May.Student personal information will be shared with ORIMA Research to facilitate survey preparations prior to this opt out process. If you opt your child out of participating, then your school will ensure that your child is not provided with access to the survey. Student details will be deleted by ORIMA Research at the conclusion of the survey.If your school does not receive a Refusal of Consent email before the survey commencement date, as above, this will be taken as your consent for your child to participate in the 2024 Attitudes to School Survey. However, as noted above the survey is voluntary: even with your consent, your child can choose to skip questions or withdraw at any time.

Further information about this survey, including the questions your child will be asked to answer, please visit the department’s survey information page.

If you would like more information, please speak to your child’s teacher, or contact the department at school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.

Yours sincerely,

Department of Education, Victoria

What's happening in our classrooms

Each fortnight we will provide all of our parents a snapshot of what is happening in our classrooms:

Foundation

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6