Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 10 of the term and the last newsletter for Term 1. This week we enjoyed a relatively quieter week compared to the last few weeks, as our teachers take the time this week to plan for the following term ahead.

Last week our Grade 5 students attended Sovereign Hill Costume school and experienced school and life in the 1850s. From all reports from the teachers, the students were a little shell shocked on the first day and also discovered that wearing the costumes they did on a hot day, without air conditioning, made learning quite uncomfortable. A wonderful experience for our students to understand more about the history of Ballarat and life on the goldfields.

Last week 49 students (from Grade 3-6) competed in the Ballarat and District Schools Athletics. Many of our students placed in events and demonstrated all of our school values along the way. Our staff that attended, commented on how well our students performed, supported and behaved on the day. The overall result for the school was second place, only 46 points behind Buninyong PS who have a long history of winning the event.

Last week ended with our whole school Fete, which was a terrific way to finish up the week with so many people supporting the event. It was wonderful to see many past students and families as well as our current students and families that attended the night. I would like to acknowledge all the staff who worked tirelessly on the night and assisted on a variety of stalls. I would also like to thank the Fete Committee who ensured our Fete was a huge success. The funds raised appear to be in the range of $15,000 - $18,000 (including money raised from Mega jumps). This is significantly up on our profit from 2023 of $8900.

Lateness to Class

We have recently altered what has long been a ‘late pass’ to a ‘welcome pass’. We have also clarified with all staff what being late is.

Students will be considered late if they are arriving once they have arrived after the 9am bell.

SCHOOL BELL / MUSIC TIMES

8.50am - Children enter classroom

8.55am - Check home reading diaries

8.59am – Mark the roll

9.00am - Classes commence

9.00am - any student arriving at this time is required to go via the front office to collect a welcome pass which is put into the roll bag

Parent Teacher Interviews Term 2

In Term 2 we have Parent teacher interviews set for Wednesday 2nd July. Students will finish at 12.30pm on this day. The Parent teacher interviews will commence at 1.00pm and should be all completed by 5.30pm. The interview time slots will be 10 minutes in length.

Phone calls and video calls will be accommodated if required.

Garden Classes Term 2

In Term 2 we will not be running Garden classes. Whilst Jodie Golding is on medical leave we have Mrs Lucinda Dunne who will ensure the garden (Guinea pigs, Chooks, some garden maintenance) is looked after. We do plan to commence Garden classes again in Term 3 when Ms Golding returns.

School Council AGM - March

At the AGM we presented the Annual Report for 2024 and elected our School Council President and Vice President.

Our school council members for 2025 are:

Parent representatives

Daniel Cook – School Council President

Felicity Hickingbotham – School Council Vice President

Martijn Verheij, Amanda Anderson, Briony Oldaker, Breanna Tauschke, Anita O’Neill, Marnee Charles, Sebastian Borys (new), Elise Hart (new)

DE representatives

Stephanie Lindsay, Marnie Cooper, Scott Phillips, Michael Columbro, Danielle McCann, Brendan Arriagada

We also farewelled two of our members, Mark Wall and Kate McDonald who had been on the School Council for some time. I would like to acknowledge Mark and Kate for their work on and with the School Council and the support they have shown.

At school council we passed some recent policies -

School Purchasing card
Cash handling
Parent payments
Electronic funds management

Discussed the direction of the school as it continues to grow in student numbers and the appearance of some cracks in the P-2 corridor.

We also discussed the upcoming Parent teacher interviews in Term 2 and the replacement of an Open House in Term 1 for a “Meet the teacher” in Term 1 2026.

School Uniform

Below is a picture of students wearing our correct school uniform. Whilst we understand that the uniform shop has been a challenge for some to get all of the uniform items, one aspect of the school dress code that is not an issue to purchase is the colour and type of socks. The uniform policy has stated that socks are to be blue or white in colour. This part of the policy has been in place for a long period of time and this policy is reviewed every 3 years by the School Council.

You will see that our uniform policy is very similar to our main feeder school Phoenix College and in the case of socks this is common with many other schools for students. Implementing the uniform policy will occur in early Term 2 to set our uniform expectations for all students, if you are finding it a struggle to get items please let the school know.

School Update

Next term we scheduled a number of key events to be aware of. Please take note of some of these key dates in Term 2:

The first day of term commences on Tuesday 22nd April.

Thursday 24th April is our whole school Cross Country event that will occur at school.

Friday 25th April is ANZAC Day and there is no school on this day.

Week 2

Grade 3 Swimming - Monday 28th April - Friday 2nd May

Week 3

Mother’s Day breakfast will be held on Friday 9th May in the stadium. This will commence at 8.15am and will involve a pre-order of breakfast and an opportunity for you to have breakfast will your child at school before taking them off to their classrooms at 8.50am.

On the same day we will be holding a Mother’s Day stall and students can purchase a gift, with either cash on the day or QKR payment before Wednesday 7th May for their mother or special carer.

Week 5

Thursday 15th May is School Photo Day

Friday 16th May is Grandparents’ Day that runs from 9.00 - 10.30am

Week 7

Tuesday 3rd June - this is a Student Report Writing day and no students attend this day

Week 10

Monday 23rd June - Reports are posted on Compass

Week 11

Wednesday 2nd July - Parent teacher interviews from 2.00pm -7.35pm and students finish school at 1.30pm.

Friday 4th July - This is the last day of school and school finishes at 1.30pm

Mother’s Day and Special Carer's Breakfast - Friday 9th May 8am start

On Friday 9th May will be holding our Mother's Day breakfast. This is a revised initiative that we held before COVID and will be trialling for the first time since then. The difference in that time is that our school has grown and we require people who wish to attend this event to be organised and get their orders in early.

EVENT: MOTHER’S DAY AND SPECIAL CARERS’ BREAKFAST - 8AM IN THE STADIUM WHO CAN ATTEND: MOTHERS AND SPECIAL CARERS AND CHILDREN OF THOSE ATTENDING

PLACE: Delacombe PS Stadium 8am, sitting down at the tables provided in the stadium

WHAT’S ON OFFER: Tea and instant coffee available and barista coffee for sale at the Cafe on the morning of.

Breakfast orders of either granola, yoghurt and berries & juice, or croissant with cheese or cheese/ham & juice, can be placed via the QKR app for $6 and will close by Wednesday 30th April at 5pm. This will provide us time to work on our organisation for this new event.

Finally, the student portfolios for Term 1 will be sent home in the first week back of Term 2 and the return date will be in Week 3 of Term 2.

Have a great Easter holiday break – Scott, Marnie, Stephanie and Michael

Literacy