Working Bee - Saturday 28th October

Our final working bee of the year will be taking place next Saturday (28th October).

We will have a long list of jobs to complete on the day to keep the school looking great - this includes preparing the space for our new SKiPPS flow hive - the latest addition to our kitchen garden program.

We will also be doing lots of tidying, clearing, weeding, paining and generally making our school shine.

If you have an hour or two to spare on the day, we would love to see you down here - bring the whole family.

We will finish up with a free sausage sizzle for lunch to thank the volunteers.

Celebration of the Arts - volunteers needed

Later on in the newsletter we have a page providing lots of information about our Celebration of the Arts (COTA) evening, taking place in 2 weeks time on Thusrday 2nd November.

Please take the time to read this to ensure you are all over the costume, performance times and organisation of the night.

As well as the many amazing performances and the art show, a huge part of the success of the event are the food and drink stall on the evening that turn COTA into a wonderful community event.

SKiPPA, our Parents' Association, are once again coordinating this part of the night and need a large number of parents to volunteer for a slot. We ask that all families make an effort to donate some time to the success of the evening.

The phrase 'many hands make light work' is completely true and having a wide range of parents help out mean that our amazing SKiPPA parents get some time to watch their own children perform and enjoy the evening.

To allow you to choose a volunteer time slot that means you don't miss your child performing, the running order and performance times are listed with the sign up list at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B094BABA62EA3F85-45262830-celebration#/

Curriculum & TPPD Day Reminder

Students will not be required at school on the following days:

Monday 6th November - Curriculum Day
Friday 24th November - Teacher Professional Practice Day

Team Kids will be running a full day program on both days for any families requiring childcare. https://www.teamkids.com.au/venues/st-kilda-park-primary-oshc-5/

School Car Park - reminders

Once again this week, we have seen a couple of incidents in the car park straight after school due to school families not parking safely or considerately.

Due to congestion, our stroing recommendation is that families take advantage of the free parking on lakeside, Hockey and Village Green Drives at busy times. However, if you are using the small Parks Victoria car park at drop-off and pick-up times;

If you are using the car park at these times;

Please only ever park in the marked parking bays. Do not park on the footpath on the Bowls Club side as this blocks the footpath - forcing children onto the road and also blocks traffic flow and prevents other cars from passing safely. If you cannot find a marked, safe parking space please show patience, stay with your car and wait for a space to become free. Your child's teacher will stay with them until 3:45pm and then take them to the office so there is no need to act in an unsafe way & abandon your car on the footpath in order to make it into school for 3:30pm. Never park illegally and then leave your car unattended.

Move slowly at these times and be aware of who is around you. There are a large number of children who walk home in this direction and it is always a possibility that they will forget their road-sense and run between vehicles. Please help us to avoid a potentially highly distressing accident.

Remember that there is plenty of free parking on Hockey Drive, Village Green Drive and Lakeside Drive at these key times when you display a SKiPPS sticker on your windscreen. Often parking this little bit further away and avoiding the congestion of the car park actually saves time (and a huge amount of stress). Please drop into the school office to get your free sticker and further details of this arrangement with Parks Victoria.

Never drive onto the school grounds (even if dropping off or picking up from Team Kids). Before and after school (and during the school day) our school grounds are used for basketball training, as a play space by Team Kids and for many other activities that will see children running around. To add to this, at dawn and dusk light and visibility are poor. We have seen a number of parents driving into the school grounds to drop-off and pick-up at these times, often at high speed as they assume the school is empty. Please do not drive onto school grounds and use the car park instead.

Missing pendant

After school on Tuesday of this week, Ava KS (1/2B) lost this beautiful pendant from a necklace she was wearing at basketball practice.

Someone may spot it on the basketball court or in the park at the back of the school. If you do happen to find it, she would love to have it back as it is a special birthday gift from her family. It can be dropped off at the office.

A champion gymnast

We are really happy to share that last weekend, Rita L (1/2S) competed in the Victorian Rhythmic Gymnastics State Championships 2023.

She completed 3 routines in total (Free hand, Ball and Rope) and received a medal for each performance - coming home with two gold and one silver medal!

A huge congratulations to Rita on her hard work and this wonderful achievement.

We would love to share and celebrate any other achievements and milestones in our newsletter and at assembly each week. Please share any good news with me at neil.scott@education.vic.gov.au

Let us know if you are leaving

As we have now begun Term 4, we have started the process of employing teachers and setting budgets for 2024.

It is really important that we have an accurate idea of student numbers so we can plan ahead with confidence.

If you know that your child will not be attending SKiPPS in 2024 we would really appreciate you letting us know as soon as possible.

Please email the school on st.kilda.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au to let us know.

Enrolments for Chess in Term 4 are open!

Wellbeing Update