Book Week and Parade

Last week, students and families alike enjoyed our annual Book Week celebrations and parade. This year’s theme, “A Symphony of Stories,” was certainly reflected in the wonderful range of book characters we saw throughout the school.

We were particularly impressed by the effort many families went to in creating vibrant, handmade costumes and costumes inspired by favourite book characters. These are the special events and experiences that students remember for years to come, so making the effort to dress up and get into the spirit of the day makes such a difference.

Thank you to all our students and families for embracing the celebration and making it such a memorable day.

Hats

There appears to be some misunderstanding around the wearing of hats at school. Many years ago, the policy was that students wore hats during Terms 1 and 4. However, our understanding of sun safety and UV exposure has changed. Hats should be worn whenever the UV Index is 3.0 or higher, and this can occur at any time of the year.

To make things simple and consistent for everyone, our school expectation is that students wear their school hat every day throughout the year.

When students are not wearing a hat, they must play in the designated shaded areas.

Please remember to clearly label your child’s hat with their name. If your child comes home with a hat that belongs to someone else, we would greatly appreciate it being returned to school so it can be reunited with its owner.

Playground Areas and Yard Duty

Last year, we added an additional teacher to our yard duty roster, allowing us to establish four supervised playground zones.

Zone 1 – Front of School - This is a quieter area available to all students and provides an opportunity for students from different year levels to mingle. Due to the smaller space, ball games and running games are not permitted in this area.

Zone 2 – Junior Playground - This area is allocated to our Prep–Year 2 students.

Zone 3 – Senior Playground - This area is allocated to students in Years 3–6.

Zone 4 – Oval - The oval provides an additional supervised area, particularly for sporting activities. It allows staff to observe and support safe sporting games and assist students in developing their understanding of soccer and AFL rules. The oval is divided into two areas, with junior students using one side and senior students the other.

For obvious safety reasons, students are expected to play and remain within their allocated yard duty zone. The front-of-school area, Zone 1, is the exception, as it is available to students from all year levels.

Teachers on yard duty do more than supervise play. They actively patrol the boundaries of their zones and check that students are not playing in areas that are out of sight or not appropriately supervised, including around the school bathrooms.

These arrangements are in place to support safe, enjoyable and inclusive play for all students.

Eating Areas

We have recently noticed an increasing number of students, particularly in the junior area, continuing to eat their recess or lunch outside rather than in the designated eating areas. While young students can easily become distracted and move away to play, this can result in lunchboxes being left open and unattended.

Unfortunately, this can attract pigeons and crows, which may access food left in open lunchboxes. We are concerned when students then return to their lunchboxes and continue eating food that may have been exposed to birds.

With warmer weather approaching in Term 4, we are also mindful of the potential for food to spoil if it is left outside for extended periods.

To minimise these risks, we have clarified our eating expectations which will be reinforced across Term 4.

Lunch (Term 4)

All students are supervised by their classroom or specialist teacher while eating lunch inside the classroom for the allocated 10-minute eating period. Junior students are provided with an additional five minutes.

When the 1:00pm play bell rings, lunchboxes will remain inside classrooms. If students have not finished eating, they may take the food they need with them as nude food. Lunchboxes should not be taken outside and food packaging should be minimised.

Recess (Term 4)

There is no allocated or supervised eating period during recess. Students are therefore asked to take their snack out of their lunchbox before leaving the classroom and eat it in the designated eating area before beginning play.

Again, lunchboxes should not be taken outside and food packaging should be minimised.

Our designated outside eating areas are:

Prep and Year 1: The area between the portables and the main building.
Year 2: Under the verandah outside the staffroom.
Years 3–6: The paved area between the main building and the Arts Building, which we refer to as the Pizza Circle.

Students who purchase food from the canteen are also required to eat in these designated areas. Students should not eat while playing on the basketball courts or oval.

These arrangements are designed to support student safety, hygiene and food safety while also helping us keep our playgrounds clean and enjoyable for everyone.

Fundraising for Charity

On the final day of each term, students are invited to wear casual clothes in exchange for a gold coin donation. The money raised is donated to a charity or community organisation selected by the school in consultation with our Student Representative Council.

On the final day of this term, our gold coin donations will support the Story Dogs program, which brings reading and dogs together to help children develop literacy skills and confidence.

We have noticed over the past few terms that some students have been enjoying the privilege of wearing casual clothes without contributing the requested gold coin donation.

We are hoping our parent and carer community can help us reinforce the importance of giving to others who may be less fortunate than ourselves. The casual clothes day is intended to be an opportunity for students to enjoy a small privilege while also experiencing the joy of contributing to others.

Thank you for helping us promote this important message of generosity and community spirit.

Beauty and the Beast Jnr

Over the past couple of weeks, we have seen several classes practising their routines in preparation for our production of Beauty and the Beast Jnr, which takes place at Robert Blackwood Hall next week.

This year, we will be trialling a different system for collecting students at the conclusion of the performance.

We are asking siblings to join together while inside the building and then move to the exit door allocated according to the surname of the eldest child. For example, one exit door may be allocated to students with surnames beginning A–D.

Our hope is that this system will allow one parent or carer to collect all their children together from the same exit point, making the collection process simpler and more efficient for families.

We will provide further information about the collection arrangements before the performance.

Compass Continuum

The Compass Continuum contains the Victorian Curriculum learning objectives, presented as simple statements across each of the core learning areas.

Throughout a Unit of Inquiry, teachers are continually collecting evidence of student learning. This evidence comes from the wide range of activities, discussions, tasks and learning experiences students engage in across the six-to-eight-week unit. Teachers use this evidence to assess whether students have understood and can demonstrate the relevant learning outcomes.

Usually, we open the Continuum to parents and carers at the end of each term so you can view the progress your child has made.

This term, however, several year levels will not complete their current Units of Inquiry until the beginning of Term 4. As teachers update the Continuum as each unit concludes, we have decided to open it for parent and carer viewing at the end of Week 2 next term.

We will send a brief Compass post to let families know when the Continuum is open for viewing.

Chellee Plumb

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