Out and about at Surfside

Welcome Back Surfside 

We have been so proud of our school community during the first week back at school. Wednesday was definitely a highlight to welcome our new Foundation students and families and it has been great to see them settle into their class based routines.

We hope that our school community have managed to have a restful holiday break and we hope that you had the opportunity to spend some quality time together making some life long memories - it has been fantastic to hear so many amazing stories over the first few days from students.

It has been great to see our students and staff settle in well to start the school year with a large focus on our STARTING RIGHT program. It has been fantastic to see students working towards, discussing and exhibiting our school values of Respect, Honesty, Teamwork and Achievement.This program is supported by the following aspects of our curriculum:

• Teaching & Learning program (especially the capabilities aspects of the curriculum)
• Behavioural Curriculum
• Social and Emotional Learning Program
• School Values system
• Berry Street Educational program
• Zones of Regulation

There is a lot of work that goes into our transition program to end and start the year and provide safe and predictable routines that enable for a less stressful and anxious transition back to school. It was great to see families visiting the school grounds during the break familiarising themselves with the grounds and classroom areas. We also hope families took the opportunity to use some of the tips and tricks to support transition back to school.

We would also like to welcome our new families to the Surfside community and we hope that you have all settled in well.

We hope that you take the time to engage with our newsletter content throughout the year as it is a great place to access the logistics of school, what is happening in the classrooms, how we can support student wellbeing and inclusion, what we are working towards as a school and community and celebrate the many achievements throughout a fortnight. We wish you all the best for the year ahead!

Mr Peter Walsh (Principal) & Mrs Lynda Patterson (Assistant Principal)

 2025 Newsletter and Communication

What can our newsletter provide you with?

We value parent/carer engagement at Surfside and compass and our newsletter are great communication tools to know what is happening at Surfside. Please engage with these avenues and we continue to work towards making these user friendly and easily accessible for you.

COMPASS - compass will be used for events, payments, reports, daily communication from teachers or school, etc. If you need any assistance regarding logging on, passwords or technical support please come up the office and we can support you. The above  presentation is what we use for our new prep families and might help you out as well.

NEWSLETTER - Our newsletter is a fortnightly electronic publication that is released on a Friday during weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and the end of each term. We have areas that are frequents to help with logistics, dates, celebrations, etc. The following pages will help support your time here at Surfside:

• Dates for your diary - here you can access our term and yearly calendar. Currently we have all of our known major events and milestones up for term 1 and we will add the remainder of 2025 in the coming weeks but check in on this calendar regularly. These dates are also available on your calendar in Compass.
• Administration News - logistics around school supports such as CSEF, Working with Children Checks, Student Absences, Parent Payment arrangements, school uniform, etc
• Out and About at Surfside - an overview of the fortnight at Surfside, celebration news, school based updates, etc that will be presented by Mr Walsh and Mrs Patterson.
• Teaching & Learning Page - This page will highlight work that is happening in the classrooms, methods of teaching, literacy and numeracy supports, etc. This will include videos, pictures, links, etc. and is presented by Mr Chapman and Mrs Charleston (Learning Specialists)
• Engagement & Wellbeing Page - This will include really valuable supports, strategies, links to a range of different supports, etc. It also explains work that is happening in the classrooms around our mental health and wellbeing strategies. This page will be presented by Gill & Kellie (Engagement, Mental Health, Wellbeing & Inclusion Leaders)
• What is Happening in our Classrooms - This page includes our fortnightly learning statements and outlines what our students are learning in each year level. This is a great conversation starter for your child about what they have been up to, working towards or what you might want to help them with at home.
• Student Achievements - This will include our fortnightly award winners and a group photo following our assembly as well as any of our special celebrations.
• Kitchen and Garden and Sustainability News - This helps to support our kitchen and garden program and includes what is happening, recipes, volunteer rosters, etc. A great place to visit if you are looking for a meal for the weekend - they are AMAZING! This is presented by Clancey and Georgie (Kitchen & Garden Specialists)
• Camp Australia - This page outlines a fortnightly newsletter from our Camp Australia crew as well as links for bookings or holiday programs.
• Sick Bay & 1st Aid News - medications, asthma, alergies and policies can all be found here as well as first aid procedures.
• Safe Travel to School - In a busy education and community precinct community safety is our #1 priority. We have many students walking, being driven, scooting, riding and even roller skating to school. This page highlights the many ways we can keep our community safe.
• Local Community News - music lessons, sporting organisations, art classes or anything that is going on around the Bellarine or Geelong will be available here.
• School Policies - As updated school policies can be found here and on our school website
• School Sponsors - it would be great if you could support our school sponsors who support our kids and school community. If you would like to have your business here please come in and see our admin team at the office.

Our newsletter showcases how busy a fortnight is at Surfside so keep in touch and check in regularly or pop into the office and say hello if you have any questions.

Student Attendance

Regular attendance at school is very important for your child's learning and social development. Very good attendance for a child is 95% and above.

It is important that children are at school as much as possible to ensure the BEST opportunity for learning growth. We need to utilise every available minute to ensure student growth academically, socially and emotionally, in and out of the classroom. 

If early collection for a shopping trip or to beat the traffic happens on a regular basis this can take away from valuable learning time throughout their schooling life. Please take the time to read the graphic below and to understand the long term affect this can have on student development. We understand that students are impacted by illness, injury or other ailments. If your child is going to be absent you are required by legislation to notify the school by:

• Logging onto Compass  and
• Enter the absence for full days only 
• If your child/children arrive late or are being collected early, the office staff will enter this onto Compass for you.

Student Leadership Team 2025

We welcomed our student leaders for 2025 at our final assembly and they are eagerly looking forward to their first leadership meeting next week to set goals and start working toward school and community based projects. We have an amazing group of young people to work with and look forward to what they will offer our school in 2025. You will hear more from our student leaders at different stages throughout the year but we wish the below students all the best with their year 6 and leadership journey

School Council 2025

Our first school council meeting  for 2025 will take place on Tuesday 18th February in week 4. This will be our final full meeting with our current school council. We look forward to welcoming our new school council following our upcoming Annual General Meeting in week 8 and returning members for 2025. Nominations will be communicated in the coming weeks via our newsletter and elections will take place if required.