Out and about at Surfside

Surfside Fresh Food Fair - 2 Weeks to Go!!

It is 2 weeks to go until the biggest day on the Surfside calendar and it is all systems go and the team have been super busy organising so many aspects in preparation for the big day. Below are some of the important bits and pieces but please check out our Fresh Food Fair Newsletter special editions so you are prepared for everything. A big thank you to Stacey, staff, students and the many helpers - we definitely can't prepare for the day without you!

CLICK HERE FOR THE MOST RECENT FRESH FOOD FAIR NEWSLETTER SPECIAL EDITION

Entertainment Line Up

We are excited about our entertainment line up and we hope that you get an opportunity to get some food and a drink and enjoy the talented musicians on offer on the basketball court. We are very thankful to our parent community and students (current and ex students) who are prepared to showcase their skills and join us for a festive afternoon. The line up will be finalised and communicated next week.

Fresh Food Fair Wristbands

Wristbands allow the wearer unlimited entry to: 

• The Tornado is back by popular demand
• Cha Cha
• Chair-O-Plane
• Giant Slide
• Animal Farm

Families can now purchase wristbands for Surfside students via their Compass portal. Tickets for friends or relatives who do not attend Surfside can be purchased directly from our office or with the hardcopy note that will be sent home soon.

Wristband prices purchased on or before Thursday 5th November: 

$40 per primary/secondary school age child, $20 per pre-school age child.

Purchase on the day of the fair at the ticket box: Friday 6th November: 

$45 per primary/secondary school age child, $30 pre-school age child.

Students who have pre-purchased tickets will have their wristbands placed on their wrists, after lunch on the day of the fair. Any non Surfside pre-purchased tickets for wristbands can be collected from our ticket booth near the rides at the Fair.

Silent Auction

You can now view and bid at our online Silent Auction by  following this link 

We are gratefully accepting donations of items or vouchers to be sold through the Silent Auction. Funds raised will support the Surfside Primary School Kitchen and Garden Program, which helps students develop vital life skills.

If you're able to donate or would like more information, please complete this form or contact us on 5256 1411 or email freshfoodfair@outlook.com 

Thankyou to the below businesses and services for supporting our Silent Auction: clicking this link. 

The auction will close at 7pm on FFF Night, Friday 6th November and items will be available to collect from Monday 10th November from the school office.

How Can You Help Out???

Working bee and kitchen cook-ups...

Your enthusiastic support for our prize-winning Kitchen and Garden program warms our hearts. From gardening, lemonade prep to curry making, soups, pastries and preserves, we have exciting kitchen sessions lined up.

If you can spare some time to help, even if it is an hour or two - your help would be greatly appreciated on any day.

Thanks to the few helpers that volunteered their time in the school holidays to help preserve and make pastries - we appreciate you!

Let us know if you can join us in the kitchen or garden by completing this google form or by just showing up. Kitchen vols - Please sign in at the office and stroll to the kitchen.

• Saturday 24th October, 9-10:30am, working bee morning - RSVP HERE
• Tuesday 27th October, 8:45-3:15pm
• Wednesday 28th October, 8:45-3:15pm
• Monday 2nd November, 8:45-3:15pm
• Tuesday 3rd November, 8:45-3:15pm
• Wednesday 4th November, 11-3:15pm
• Thursday 5th November, 8:45-3:15pm
• Friday 6th November, 8:45-3:15pm, Fresh Food Fair Day!

• Monday 9th November, 8:45-11am, Kitchen clean up

   

We love that the Surfside community always shows enthusiastic support for the Fresh Food Fair. You are the essential ingredient to the success of our biggest fundraising event of the year.

We appreciate and are very grateful for all the help you give us.

We'll ask each family to lend a minimum of 2 hours to support our FFF event by signing up via this link or to help in the kitchen via this link. Whether it's helping with kitchen prep, setup, pack-up, or lending a hand at your child’s class stall at the FFF, your contribution makes a big difference!

In the lead-up, we'll be looking for helping hands in the Kitchen and Garden to bake, prepare produce, weed, preserve, and get everything ready. 

Sign up here to help in the kitchen. 

During Fair week and on the day itself, volunteers are also needed to help with set-up, class stalls, food preparation, activities, and pack-down.

Sign up here to help the week of the fair and at the fair.

Thank you for helping bring this event to life!

Band performance

On Friday the 16th of October the school band gathered all their equipment

and caught a bus to Geelong. This weekend was the weekend of the Geelong

show and that was where we were headed. When we arrived there we made

our way to the backstage; and since we were the first to perform we set up

straight away. There was one electrical musician who had to help us all so it

took a while but eventually we had everything set up and ready to go. By then

it was 11.15 and we had drawn in a crowd from setting everything up. Then we

performed our three songs; Cheap Thrills, by Sia, Zombie, by the Cranberries

and last but not least was price tag - by Jessie J. The fold back speakers -

speakers that face the performers to help them change their volume of tone -

made it weird for the singers to hear themselves but they slowly got used to it.

Then we watched the St Joseph's stage band; and they were very good with

all their saxophone’s and trumpets. We then went exploring through the

Showgrounds. Before packing up our instruments and catching the bus back

to school.

What we’ve been learning in Foundation this week.., 

This week our Foundation students have been exploring and theletter-sound of -ng. To help children remember where ng belongs, we have been using a fun memory cue: “ng is in love with the vowels a, i, o and u, but it never goes with e!” Children are learning to recognise -ng at the end of words following these vowels, as in bang, sing, long and sung. They are practising hearing the final /-ng/ sound, identifying the letters that represent it, and using this knowledge when reading and spelling words. These memorable little rules help our beginning readers connect sounds with letters and build strong spelling and decoding habits. Our Foundation students have also been learning about the suffix -ing. We add -ing to the end of a word to show that an action is happening now, such as running, jumping, singing and reading. To help children remember its meaning, we use a simple gesture: when we say “-ing means happening now,” and point down to the ground for “happening now”. Connecting a suffix to both its meaning and a physical gesture helps children recogniseand understand -ing when they encounter it in reading and use it in their own speaking and writing.

Year 3 Geology Incursion – Rock Stars in the Making!

In Week 2, our Year 3 students welcomed Kelly Clitheroe from Bellarine Secondary College for an exciting hands-on Geology incursion!

Students explored different types of rocks and discovered how they are formed before becoming geologists themselves and creating their very own sedimentary rocks. Following instructions carefully, they measured and combined different ‘ingredients’ to make their own ‘mud rocks’.

Now comes the tricky part – the waiting! Students are eagerly waiting for their rocks to harden so they can crack them open and investigate the layers inside.

This incursion built on our Term 3 learning about how waterfalls are formed, helping students deepen their understanding of how natural processes shape the world around us. We can’t wait to see what secrets are hiding inside their rocks!

Important Upcoming Dates

With a busy fortnight ahead please continue to check out our Dates for your Diary page and know what is coming up!

October

Sat 24th -   Working Bee - Fresh Food Fair Preparation

Wed 28th - Foundation  2027 Information Night 6:45-7:45pm

Thu 29th -  Breakfast Club @ 7.45am in the kitchen 

Fri 30th -    Assembly @ 2.30pm - courtyard (World Teachers Day)

November

Tue 3rd -  Foundation Transition Session #1

Thu 5th -  No Breakfast Club

Fri 6th -  2026 Fresh Food Fair

School Council 2026 - October Meeting Wrap Up

Our school council representatives met on Tuesday evening to discuss the following areas:

• Uniform and dress code policy updates
• 2027 Planning - workforce planning updates, enrolment projections, class sizes, etc
• Budget overview and planning for 2027
• Building project updates and timeline
• Fresh Food Fair update

School Council 2026 - November Meeting 

Our school council look forward to our next meeting which will be held on Tuesday 17th November:

• Finance Meeting at 5.00pm
• Council Meeting at 5.30pm

2027 Planning & Preparation 

As a school we have started considerable planning for 2027 and look forward to starting our 2027 Foundation transition sessions early next term. We hope to confirm our Foundation team for 2027 prior to transition beginning. 

We are planning class numbers and composition based on our known enrolments for 2027 so it would be great to know if you won't be with us in 2027. If you are relocating could you please notifiy the office administration team on 5256 1411. We plan to update you throughout term 4 regarding our 2027 planning. 

2027 Enrolments

Enrolments for 2027 have officialy closed but if you fulfil one of the following criteria enrolments can still be completed at the administration office:

Prior to completing an enrolment application for Surfside Primary School, it is important to note that all enrolments are confined to the following two criteria:

1. Students for whom the school is the designated neighbourhood school.

2. Students with a sibling at the same permanent address who are attending the school at the same time.

To correctly identify if Surfside Primary School is your designated neighbourhood school, please use this link:  www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au

Please check in with the administration office if you have any questions - 5256 1411.