More SSB Info and action items 

$400 School Saving Bonus - Action Required

Most families should have now received an email/s from the Department of Education detailing their unique $400 School Saving Bonus Code/s. 

ALL FAMILIES are required to access the portal to nominate how they would like to utilise their $400 bonus for each child.

Click HERE to be directed to the School Saving Bonus PARENT PORTAL

If you would like to use the bonus to assist with meeting the cost of extracurricular camps, excursions and activities at school for 2025 and beyond - you will still need to access the portal to nominate this option - 'school activities'. 

E.g. Utilising this bonus to assist with meeting the costs of the SLA and MLA Camps in Term 2, 2025. 

Families may also opt to spend some or all of their bonus on the purchase of new uniform items through Beleza School Uniforms or State Schools' Relief. Vouchers created for this purpose will remain active until 30th June, 2025. After such time, any unused voucher balances will transfer to family accounts at school, as a credit. 

(NB: We anticipate the release of our 'refreshed' and new NPS uniform items through Beleza School Uniforms to be during Term 2, 2025 (families will have the ability to purchase some/all of these new uniform options with their child's SSB, or a portion of, if they wish to do so).

Unfortunately, the SSB cannot be put toward the purchase of student resources/stationary packs (as detailed below) or contributions to Parent Payments for 2025. Please note: This was not a school level decision, but is a directive of the SSB initiative.  

If you have questions or require any additional support with the SSB, please contact the office. The Department have also created a dedicated email to assist schools and families with this initiative. school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au 

Below is a helpful instructional video to assist with navigating the SSB Portal. 

Click HERE to be directed to the School Saving Bonus PARENT PORTAL

Click HERE - to be taken to the School Saving Bonus Webpage 

Bookpack Reminders

A reminder that the COS Online Portal is still open for families to order their child/ren's 2025 Bookpacks, if not already done so.

Go to:parent.cos.net.au/

Username: newtownps@cos.net.au

Password: BTSparents-2025 

All orders placed by families will be delivered directly to the school and distributed to students. 

School Saving Bonus (SSB) - Unfortunately the SSB cannot be used when ordering your child/ren/'s bookpacks (this is a Department of Education directive, not a school decision).

The SSB can be used for new uniform items (via Beleza or State Schools Relief) or be directed to the school for the payment of camps, excursions and activities - or a combination of both.

For your convenience, contributions towards the 2025 Parent Payment and Building Fund can be made when ordering your child's 2025 book pack via the COS portal. Please note: Parent Payments and Building Fund donations can also be made directly to the school, at any time throughout the school year.  

If you have any questions about placing an order for your child's 2025 book pack or parent payment arrangements, please don't hesitate to email newtown.ps@education.vic.gov.au or contact the school office.

COS have also created a helpful tutorial video, which can be viewed HERE.

Private Music Lessons at NPS

We are excited to announce that in 2025 we will be offering private music lessons with At-School Music. Following an tender process, Andrew and Patrick were selected as a great fit for the Newtown Primary School community. The lessons will occur at school on Fridays during the day and are available to students from Prep to Year 6. Instruments availble include guitar, piano, drums and uekele.

Places are limited so we reccommend getting in contact early. All inquiries regarding music lessons can be made directly to andrew@atschoolmusic.au 

For more information, including pricing, see https://www.atschoolmusic.au/ 

A new year of learning

The Department of Education have developed a webpage titled 'A new year of learning'. A link to the webpage is HERE. 

It contains information and resources for parents and carers to help their children unlock their potential for a new year of learning in 2025. There is some great information here that is certainly worth viewing. 

Annual Privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice. Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students (this will be sent home next week with the Student Agreement form). The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. 

We ask parents to review the guidance we provide and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Gujarati, Mandarin, Somali, Sudanese, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese

Next School Council Meeting: Feb 18,  2025

2025 School Council Election Process - Coming Soon!

The 2025 School Council Election process is due to commence in the coming weeks, if you are interested in joining our School Council this year (from March 2025) please keep an eye out for the announcement to collect a nomination form.

Newtown PS is Social!

Are you connected with our social media accounts?

Did you know that we are on Instagram and Facebook? We love sharing our achievements and happenings with our school community, and one of the ways in which we do that is via our social media. We have recently re-activated our Facebook page and continue to post on Instagram. Follow us via the links below.