From Our Principals

Patrick Halpin and Aaron Jones

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we storm through Term 4, I wanted to express my gratitude to the staff and parent volunteers who are working hard to ensure the students have the best end to the school year as possible. The teachers spent the long weekend preparing for the submission of semester reports while the integration aides attended professional learning. Since then, we have had a busy fortnight with the Consultative Committee and School Improvement Team preparing for 2025, we were supported by an energetic group of parents for our working bee in the hall, the students in Year 2 attended Twisted Science, our incoming Preps visited for the first of their transition sessions, the Parents and Friends Association met to finalise the plans for the disco and Splash & Dash, we had our final icy pole day of the year, the school community gathered to watch the sliming of Mr. Workman and Ms. Crowley (Ms. Delaney somehow managed to avoid having slime poured over her but did have to wear the slimy cape!), and the week will finish with our school disco!

Looking forward, there are lots more exciting activities planned.

Swimming Volunteers

We are very excited about the upcoming swimming sessions. All volunteers will be required to attend an induction session in advance. Aaron and I have made ourselves avaialable on the following dates and times:

Wednesday, November 20th at 3:45pm
Monday, November 25th at 9:15am
Thursday, November 28th at 2:30pm

We are expecting the induction to take no more than 60 minutes.

We do not require parents to register to attend a session but will ask you to sign some agreement forms and will retain them as a record of attendance. If you can't make any of the sessions listed, please contact the school office and we will organise another time to work through everything.

We are grateful to all of the parents who have volunteered - we cannot run these programs without your support.

Sports Day

On Thursday the 14th of November, we held our annual Junior Sports Day for Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2.

Students represented their houses in sprinting, sack races, egg and spoon, long jump, shot put and hoop throwing. All students showed a great attitude, gave their all and had big smiles throughout the whole day.

I was extremely impressed and proud of our Year 6 students who ran the events on the day. Your leadership and enthusiasm was evident throughout the whole day and you were excellent role models to our junior students.

A big thank you to Mr Pannam for your organisation and planning for the event.

Remembrance Day Minute of Silence

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. We will remember them.

On Tuesday November the 11th, our student leaders led our school in our Remembrance Day Ceremony which was presented over the loudspeaker to all in the school community. Thank you to all students for showing the respect this day deserves.

Disco

We are looking forward our silent, 'Under the Sea' themed disco this evening. As per the notice that was published on Compass on Thursday, please be aware of the protocols and logistical arrangements that are designed to keep everybody safe and ensure that both discos can run smoothly and successfully.

All students are required to bring a refillable water bottle that is clearly labelled with their name. They will leave their bottles in a designated area in the hall when they arrive.
A staff member will meet your child at the main door to the hall to record their arrival on the guest list. At collection time all students will be signed out again by a staff member - all students in Foundation to Year 2 must be collected by an adult. We will dismiss the students by grade so please be patient with us as we work through the process.
If you are collecting your child yourself, please step back until your child's grade is called. We will dismiss one child at a time to avoid any confusion and parents/carers are kindly asked to step forward when your child is at the front of the dismissal line to maximise our efficiency.
If your child will be collected by somebody else (another child's parent, for example), please complete the appropriate slip at drop off time so we are aware of the arrangement and can dismiss your child to the correct adult. The staff will do our best to group the students who are travelling home together but this may not be possible in every case so please bear with us.
If your child is in Years 3-6 and you would like them to meet you somewhere other than the front door of the hall, please complete the appropriate slip when you drop your child off.
There is no requirement for any student to have any electronic devices at the disco so please ensure mobile phones, smart watches, etc. are left at home.

Policy Review

The School Improvement Team, in consultation with students, staff and parents are constantly reviewing and updating our policies to ensure we are engaging in the most recent, evidence-based practice in line with the current guidelines. In October, we reviewed the following policies, all of which are available on our school website:

Community members are invited to familiarise yourself with the updated policies and send through any feedback or questions to the school office.

We have started work on our Child Safe policies and practices:

If you have any feedback on the current policies, please send it through to the office for our consideration. Further updates will be provided later in the term.

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund

The CSEF provides payments to assist eligible families to cover the costs of camps, sporting activities and excursions.

Payments are made directly to an eligible student’s school. Schools must use a CSEF payment only for the eligible student and not for that student’s siblings or any other student (except where the eligible student leaves the Victorian education system and there are remaining and unspent funds).

To be eligible to receive CSEF funding, evidence of a valid Healthcare Card/or Veterans Affairs Card-Gold (in Parents/Guardians name not Childs)

Some common examples of school-organised programs for which a CSEF payment may be used include:

school camps/trips
swimming and other school-organised sporting programs
outdoor education programs
excursions/incursions
graduations.

The CSEF payment cannot be used towards:

books
stationery
school uniforms
before/after school care
music lessons
locker hire
classroom and homework materials
formals or debutant balls
other expenses unrelated to camps, sports or excursions.

For a confidential discussion about accessing these services, or if you would like to discuss alternative payment arrangements, contact Helen Taylor (Business Manager) on 9578 1327 or email Helen.Taylor2@education.vic.gov.au to discuss possible support options and flexible payment arrangements. Any information about your financial circumstances, payment arrangements or status is strictly confidential.

Please see the CSEF Application Form attached.

CSEF-application-form.docx

Transition to 2025

The teachers are currently working on the grades for 2025 and we have decided to run trial sessions over the next few weeks. Your child may come home and inform you that they have certain students in their grade and may name the teacher with whom they worked on a particular day. Please note that neither the grades nor the teachers will be confirmed until the final day, which will be run alongside the statewide transition day (December 10th).

Sometimes children worry about particular classmates with whom they have experienced challenges in the past and/or a particular worry that some/most of their friends are in a different grade. Please focus on the positives of the experience for your child. Consider:

What will remain the same in 2025 (you will still have lunch at the same time, you will still see you friends on the yard, you will still get to experience the regular Year X activities like excursions and camps, etc.)?
Who are the people you already know in your grade?
Who are the people you are not very familiar with but would like to get to know better?

We appreciate your support as we work through this complex process.

Regards,

Patrick Halpin and Aaron Jones