From the Principal 

Parent Teacher Student Conferences and Student Reports

It is pleasing to see so many of our parents take the opportunity to book a Parent Teacher Student Conference this Thursday. Parents have the option to either attend in person or conduct the interview ‘online’. You will have received a WebEx when you booked the session. If you would like to attend in person, please change this booking through Compass. Ben Heys posted an update on Compass last week with instructions on how to do this.

As our teachers formally reflected on your child’s achievements during the first 6 months of this year within the Semester 1 reports, it is worth remembering that all students (regardless of year level) are individuals and develop physically, emotionally, and academically at different rates. As educators it is our role to provide students with every opportunity to help them achieve their goals and reach their potential. This will vary from child to child, and is why we see our students as individuals, rather than students who we can compare against other students.

I know parents appreciate the many hours of work that go into these reports. Teachers review their assessments and moderate within their teams to ensure that each student’s report is as up-to-date and accurate as possible. Each report includes areas of achievement as well as future learning goals. These goals will be worked on in Semester 2.

Timetable for the last day of Term Two, Friday, 23rd June - End of Term

Friday, 23rd June is the last day of term and the timetable for the day will be slightly different.

9.00am – 10.40am           Students in class 

10.40am – 11.10am        Recess

11.10am – 12.50pm        Students in class

12.50pm – 1.00pm          Students eat lunch in class 

1.00pm – 1.40pm             Lunch play

1.45pm – 2.00pm             Whole school assembly

2.30pm                                Students dismissed from their classrooms.

Please note that there will be no ‘Student of the week’ awards presented at the end of term assemblies.

Our Camp Australia, Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) program commences at 2.30pm on the last day of term.

Semester 1 Student Reports

The 2023 Semester 1 Student Reports were made available for viewing and downloading from Compass last Friday afternoon. These reports will provide parents with information on how students have settled into the new school year, as well as the progress they have 

made. There will be a second round of reports at the end of December. These will provide you with information on how your child has progressed in the second half of the year. In June and December, schools are required to provide written reports providing information about student progress and achievement against the Victorian Curriculum.

Cyber Safety

Over the past few weeks, we have had an increase in unwanted and unacceptable uses of social media presented to us at school. This is a very difficult space for us to navigate as most of these incidents happen outside of school. This is why we implore parents to carefully monitor their children’s social media usage. 

While we understand parents need to attend to work commitments and other duties, it is most important to monitor your child’s computer/mobile phone usage at all times, but especially over weekends, after school and when holiday periods arrive. 

At a parent information forum last year, we had a federal police officer present to parents about the dangers of social media on young people and the strategies parents can put in 

place to help their children behave responsibly when online. One piece of advice was for parents to limit the time that their children are allowed on various platforms throughout the day. Another piece of advice was for parents to be ‘friends’ with their children on what every platforms the children are using so that you could monitor what your child is doing. 

There is no right or wrong with this, but we are asking parents to please keep an eye on your child and what they are doing when they are online.

The school has run cybersafety sessions for students and evening sessions for parents. We study units of work on cyber safety, yet we still encounter social media issues. It’s an area we can’t ignore.

At the moment, TIK TOK seems to be the main issue and the age rating is 12+. Yet many of our users are not 12. 

A quick search has given us the following tips for the use of TIK TOK:

https://www.ccyp.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/A-Quick-Guide-To-TikTok-for-Parents.pdf

All we can do is keep asking parents to support us as we try and educate the children on cybersafety.

What does it mean to be safe online?

Behaving safely online means:

·           Protecting one’s own privacy and personal information.

·           Protecting the privacy of others (this can be sharing personal information or images, which in most cases is unlawful).

·           Selecting appropriate spaces to work. The home computer should be set up in the kitchen area or somewhere common. Not laptops tucked away in bedrooms.

·           Being proactive in letting someone know if there is something that is “not quite right‟. At home this would be a parent or guardian, at school, a teacher.

·           Ensuring there are suitable malware/anti-virus programs on your computer

Of course, these principles of safety and responsibility are not specific to the web, applying to the use of the internet both at home and at school.

Further information can be accessed from the web addresses below:

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/online-safety-book

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/online-safety-for-every-family

School Wide Positive Behaviours

Next term will see us enter the next phase of our school wide positive behaviours work. We have developed a behaviour matrix which clearly and simply states the behaviours that we wish to see at school. These behaviours are based on our school values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience and are focussed on different areas of the school. As such, we have expected behaviours for the classrooms, outside spaces, toilets as well as digital spaces. The students helped to develop these behaviours and they are aware of the expectations. 

The next step is for us to set up a ‘reward’ system where students are given a token when 

they demonstrate positive behaviours and interactions. Staff will hand out tokens in the form of bottle caps when they see positive interactions taking place. Students will then be able to use their token to vote for the reward they would like to receive.

Next term there are three possible rewards to vote for: 

1. Free dress day 2. Pyjama day 3. Crazy hair day.

Happy Holidays

On behalf of the staff we would like to wish all students, families and staff a wonderful 

holiday. It has been a great Term Two at Camelot Rise Primary School and we look forward to this continuing in Term Three. 

We welcome the community using our facilities during the holiday break as it is great seeing children and families being active and playing outdoors, however, if you see anyone acting suspiciously or inappropriately around the school grounds, please contact the Glen Waverley Police Station 9566 1555 or contact 000.

We look forward to seeing you all back at school on Monday, 10th July.

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys