Principal's Report 

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Miss Ralph’s Baby: It is with great pleasure that I can announce Sarah’s baby came a few weeks early and everyone is healthy and doing well. Sarah has shared the following for our school community:

Lily Jane Wilson Hi, my name is Lily. My nicknames include Lily Jane, baby Lil and Bubba. I surprised everyone by turning up early on Friday the 15th of July, my great Nan’s birthday. My Mumma (Miss Ralph) is recovering well and is completely head over heels in love with me. I really enjoy walks outside, bath time and cuddles. I have only been in this crazy world a short amount of time but have created so much happiness around me. 

Prep Enrolments 2023: We have started to conduct small group tours for potential 2023 Prep enrolments. If you have a preschool age child or you know someone who does, please ask them to call the school on 9743 5818 to book into one of these tours. We start our Transition Program in November and we would like as many children as possible to attend to help their start to school life be positive.

RATs: Thank you to those families who continue to test regularly for Covid or when your child presents with symptoms. We have a large number of test kits available for you and your household contacts. Please let us know if you require another box to be sent home. 

Parent Concerns: It is important that when issues arise that concern you, you seek help and support to resolve them as quickly as possible for the benefit of the children’s wellbeing and learning. The education of a child is a shared responsibility between family, the school, other students and the broader community. I have included a document the Department has created to help us all understand how we can all support the children. 

Parent/Teacher Interviews: Thank-you to the parents and carers who came along to the interviews or spoke to their child’s teacher over the phone. These conversations are an important part of the school family partnership.

School Values: Over the past few months, staff and a small School Council working party have spent time trying to articulate what the behaviours for each of our new school values look like. Our new School Values are: COMMUNICATION, HONESTY, KINDNESS, RESILIENCE, RESPECT and TEAMWORK. Please take a look at the attached document and if you have any comments provide feedback via email melton.west.ps@education.vic.gov.au or  by writing a note by Friday 5th August so we can finalise and publicise widely.

NAPLAN Results: If your child is in Year 3 or 5, the NAPLAN results will be sent to the school at the end of August. We will post these to families so please ensure your address is up to date. If you prefer us to hand it to your child, please let the office know. 

Professional Practice Day: Students are not required at school on Friday 19th August. Since 2018, the workplace agreement on staff workload and wages granted each teacher one day per term to develop their teaching skills in an area of their choice. These days are referred to as Professional Practice Days (PPD). Historically, teachers have been released from the classroom by providing a casual relief teacher (CRT). Our new enterprise agreement has three PPD scheduled in 2022, with the first next occurring in Term 3. As with most industries there is limited supply of staff and in the Education sector this affects the availability of CRTs to replace illness. Having the added burden of replacing all teachers across the State with a CRT for the PPD, the department has decided schools can provide all teachers the Term 3 PPD on the same day with students not required at school on that day. We are negotiating with Extend about whether they can have students cared for on this day and will let you know as soon as we have finalised this. Please make arrangements for your child for Friday 19th August 2022.

Mask Wearing: Attached to this newsletter from the Department of Education about updated advice for mask wearing. It is now strongly recommended that staff and students over the age of 8 wear a mask while indoors at school now. We have a supply of masks that students can use if you no longer have one for them to wear. Also, if a child is a household contact they can come to school, however they need to test each day for 5 school days and wear a mask at all times if they are 8 or over.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa