Principal's Message

Jackson School is a collaborative learning community for all. We aim to develop independence through safety, respect and responsibility. We aspire to offer authentic, quality educational experiences that develop futures, create opportunities and inspire student potential; enabling our students to be valued and contributing members of the wider community. We share and celebrate our successes and achievements.   

The Issue Highlights

• ANZAC Day
• Welcome New Staff
• New Car Park
• Before School
• Student Collection & Car Parking
• Late Arrivals & Early Leavers
• Signpost: Disability Inclusion Information Sessions
• Student Attitudes to School Survey (Years 4 - Year 12)
• PBIS Jack Store Official Opening
• Students of the Week from our PBIS rewards system.
• Showcase of students' learning from across the school in Primary and Secondary
• Health and Wellbeing information to support you and your child.
• Community news including from Jackson OSHC provider TheirCare.
• School Dates -For the most up-to-date calendar dates, always refer to the Xuno Calendar in your Parent Portal.

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope you all have had a relaxing and well-deserved Easter break. Many Muslim staff, students and their families will have also celebrated Eid al-Fitr on 10th April 2024 to mark the end of the month-long fasting of Ramadan. Term 1 was a positive start to 2024. We look forward to a busy term of learning, activities and events ahead, including the Fun Run today and the Winter Fete.

ANZAC Day

On Wednesday our students took part in activities to remember all of the Australian and New Zealander soldiers who have fallen in the First World War and subsequent wars and conflicts. Lest We Forget!

Welcome New Staff

On behalf of the Jackson School Community, I would like to welcome our new staff: Helen Kinna (Middle School Support ES), Louise-Amy Thomas (CRT), Melanie Watson (7/8E ES), Michelle Bollard (5/6E ES), Mirjana Sagoli (5/6D ES) and Ricki Platts (Senor School Support ES). Welcome to our community!

We sadly say goodbye to Soumey Pandey who has worked with us since 2021. Soumey has accepted a position as the Education Leader for the Their Care OSHC program at Concord Special School. We wish you all the very best for the future. Eva Collins has also left us this week whilst she travels and works around Europe. We wish Eva all the best with your travels and hope to see you again soon. Welcome back to Gordon who returns from his long service leave who will now be the class teacher in 5/6D. 

Our Assistant Principal position was advertised over the last month to replace Kris Parsons following his permanent transfer to the Victorian Public Service in the Department of Education. We will now form a panel to shortlist applicants and interview over the next couple of weeks. Robyn continues to be on leave. We hope to see you soon!

New Car Park

Over the holidays we have extended the School Bus Parking at the front of the hall. This will now allow all school-owned buses to park in this zone and not take up staff and visitor car parks. The front car park has been scraped and resealed. This has included a new and refreshed car park plan. The new line markings have depicted no standing zones and allocated drop-off and pick-up bays to support with the congestion at the end of the day. This has also increased the amount of staff parking at the front of the school. The disabled parking bay is now outside of the hall next to the bus parking to meet regulations.

Before School

Staff are allocated in the morning and afternoon to keep traffic moving. The vehicle entry gates are opened automatically from 8:40am. Parents/Carers are responsible for the supervision of their children until 8:45am. We are unable to open the school grounds before 8:45am due to staffing and supervision requirements. As per DE policy, schools are required to supervise students on school grounds 10 minutes before the start of the school day (8:50-9:00am) and 10 mins after school (2:50-3:00pm). 

Student Collection & Car Parking

We ask all family members entering the car park at this time to keep moving through the drop off and collection zone and not to park in the centre thoroughfare or block the entry gate.  Many families park in the neighboring streets around the school and walk into the school grounds to collect children from the school. We appreciate this and understand this is difficult like at most schools. This supports us in reducing traffic congestion onto Mulhall Drive. We understand many families are having to get to the school very early to collect children to avoid this congestion.

Over the last few years our parent drop-off and pickup of students from school has more than tripled with now up to 142 families (44%) collecting their child from school. Like most neighbourhood schools, we do not have adequate parking facilities for all staff, visitors and parents/carers. We also have limited car parking for the 124 staff at Jackson School. 

We have been made aware from Brimbank Council that they will begin issuing fines to vehicles which parked over the public footpath and obstruct oncoming traffic any public road. We do not have authority to change parking or traffic management systems around our school. 

Late Arrivals & Early Leavers

We are working with families to continue to support student attendance at school. If students arrive up to 9:15am, your child will have to sign in as late at the office. To ensure your child's safety, please wait with your child until a member of the classroom staff arrives to collect your child. There is an increasing number of students regularly arriving late to school or being collected early from school. This significantly affects your child's education over the year and disrupts the learning of other students. We understand families have a variety of commitments, and some appointments cannot be avoided. 

Between 9:00am and 9:20am and between 2:00pm and 2:50pm each day our students learn about our Independent Learning areas of the Victorian Curriculum including: our Allied Health programs (Jackson Social and Zones of Regulation), our PBIS behaviour program, RRRR our social and emotional learning program, eSMART online safety, Health and Fitness. This is vitally important to our child's learning and development. Thank you for your support in getting your child to attend school on time, for the whole day, where possible. 

Signpost: Disability Inclusion Information Sessions

This year we aim to revitalise the old Jackson Signpost series of professional learning sessions for families. These will include: NDIS, Sleep, Student Safety Online, Toileting.

After your Term 2 Family Morning Teas we will start our Signpost series by offering an optional information session on the new Disability Inclusion Reform. Any families are welcome to attend these sessions. We will also live stream/record these sessions.

Junior School (Prep-Year 4) - 24th May

Middle School (Years 5-8) - 14th June

All students at Jackson School must have a diagnosis of an intellectual disability in the mild range (FSIQ between 50-70). Most of our students are currently funded under the Program for Students with Disabilities under the Intellectual Disability Category. 

The Disability Inclusion (DI) Reform is currently implemented across the South-West Region and will impact Jackson School this year. This will replace the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) and the way students are currently funded to be at Jackson. This requires ongoing documentation of schools to provide substantial and extensive levels of adjustment (LoA) to help students with disability access education in all government schools. This reform is closely aligned with NDIS, including eligibility.

The 6 Domains and 31 Activities that make up the Disability Inclusion Domain Table are shown in the table below.

For more information on the Disability Inclusion Reform, please visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/disability-inclusion-extra-support-children-disability

Student Attitudes to School Survey (Years 4 - Year 12)

The ATOS is a voluntary annual student survey offered by the Department of Education to assist schools and the department to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and will be asking your child about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer relationships, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

This year, the survey will be conducted at Jackson School from 6th May. Participation in this survey is voluntary. If you do not wish for your child to do the survey, please opt out via email to your school. If you have any further questions, please contact Michelle Zammit (Leading Teacher) by email: michelle.zammit@education.vic.gov.au.

Please read the attached letter for more information about the survey:

PBIS Jack Store Official Opening

Last week we officially opened our new PBIS Jack Store. Congratulations to Adam in 7/8 who won the competition to name our new PBIS rewards shop. This is located off the library opposite the staff wellbeing room. Prizes include:

• Icey Poles
• Lego Kits 
• Soft Toys
• Balls
• Colouring and Sticker Books
• Games
• And much, much more...

Please see the Community News page for more information.

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Anthony