Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our new families

Our Foundation students have made such a wonderful start to school.  I am very proud of our new Foundation students for the enthusiasm they have shown in starting their learning journey and for the incredible energy that they bring to our Junior School Centre.  Mrs Bok and Mr Fitzgerald will be presenting our Foundation students with certificates to recognise their outstanding start to school.  We hosted our Welcome to Foundation BBQ two weeks ago and it was such a wonderful way for our Foundation families to get to know each other and make new connections and friendships. We look forward to many amazing achievements and a wonderful partnership with our new families over the next seven years.

We have had many new students start at our school at the beginning of the year, many of whom have just moved to Belgrave South or Heights.  I would like to warmly welcome all of our new families and I know that they will make many great connections with others in our local community. 

Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

The Get To Know You Interviews that are normally conducted mid-term will be replaced with Student Led Conferences and are booked in for Tuesday 16th April.  They will provide an opportunity to discuss the learning goals that students have set for themselves in relation to reading, writing and mathematics and will provide the opportunity for students to share samples of their work that shows the progress that they are making in their learning.  The date has been placed on the Compass calendar.

FETE – Lock it in! 

The 23rd March is fast approaching, I can’t believe that the fete is only four weeks away! Make sure you put the date on your calendar and let all your family and friends know that you would like them to come along.  It is a great chance to have some fun and food with friends!

Wonderful events like the fete don’t just happen – it takes the support of many volunteers and a huge amount of teamwork and community spirit.  We are holding a helpers meeting on Tuesday 27th February at 7pm in the staffroom to form stall teams and allocate key duties to make sure that we are ready on the day.  You are all invited to the session – many hands make light work!  Please come along, It is not too late to become involved. If you can make the meeting, please contact Mrs Bok or Mr Boyle if you are able to be involved.

A separate letter will be sent home early this week outlining the many different ways that you can support the event on the day through volunteering to help run a stall for an hour or two or through making a small donation of one of the items we need to run the activities and food stalls. 

If your business or workplace is able to make a donation of a voucher or item for the silent auction – please get in touch with Jackie in the office.  Thank you to all the families that have already made generous donations of items for the auction, there are some amazing things that will be auctioned on the day.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Grade 3 and Grade 5 students will begin on Wednesday 13th March. Communication will be sent home next week by Jackie Rawson in relation to the testing period  and student participation, please contact her if you require any additional information or need to discuss any aspect of the testing program.

Communication Channels 

Following the communication survey that was conducted by school council, the following forms of communication will be used to clearly communicate key information about school programs and events through Compass.  If you require further support with Compass, we will again be running parent workshops on how to navigate the program and use its key features in the weeks ahead. A reply slip will be sent home to each family with the session dates and times so we can make sure all our families know how to navigate Compass effectively.

Newsletter – now published monthly containing whole school projects and updates, celebrations of learning and achievements, assembly award winners, student work, student leadership projects, lunchtime club updates, sporting events, excursion and incursions reports and photos of school events.  We will be moving to a web-based newsletter in the middle of the year. These will remain visible in Compass for two weeks.

Year Level Updates – published fortnightly via Compass newsfeed.  Updates on student learning tasks and notification when learning tasks feedback has gone live, year level programs, key dates that relate to your specific year level, reminders about whole school events that the year level will be part of. These will remain visible in Compass for one week.

Compass Newsfeed reminders – sent a week ahead or day prior (depending on the reminder).  These will be targeted to the specific group of students and families that need the message.  The title of the message will indicate which year level it relates to ie. Grade 2 – Reminder to bring gumboots for gardening tomorrow OR Grade 3 - 6 – House athletics trials will be held next Tuesday.  The message will expire on the day of the event so the newsfeed doesn’t become cluttered. 

Calendar – our dates are placed on the calendar as soon as an event is booked. If the calendar item connects to an event requiring permission/payment, a place marker will be added to the school calendar and you will receive a separate communication linking you to the permission/payment for the event. 

It is advisable to check the calendar on an iPad or desktop computer so that you can see a week or month at a time.  The calendar feature of the iPhone/Android Compass app only allows you to check a day at a time – intended to be used to check a single day if you are making an appointment, it is not suitable for viewing the calendar for a block of time.  I also advise checking the full version of the calendar regularly as sometimes special events become possible for our school with short notice ie. visits from VIP’s or community programs and free incursions offered to schools, although we will send a newsfeed message if there is a date change or special event.

Dogs on school grounds

To ensure that our school remains a safe and inclusive place for everyone, we have in place a number of rules that we expect all families to follow if they wish to bring their pet dog onto school grounds:

• pet dogs must be leashed at all times and in the control of a responsible adult
• pet dogs must not be tied up on school grounds or left unaccompanied
• families that bring dogs to school that exhibit signs of aggressive behaviour, bark, or jump may be asked to remove the dog from school premises.

School Council Elections and Timeline

Our next school council meeting will be held on March 13th and will be the final meeting of our current school council.  I would like to acknowledge our school council members for the incredible job that they do and the support that they provide to the process of improving the facilities of our school and the learning programs that we provide. 

Four of our parent representatives, two community co-opted representatives and two DET representatives will reach the end of their tenure in March and we will have four positions in the parent category and two DET positions vacant as a result.  I would like to thank Glen Northway, Skye Hewatt, Meaghan Christian, Michael Barrett, Lynn Bok and Julie Price as the councillors whose tenure expires for their commitment to being on school council and for their service to our school community over the previous two years, they have worked tirelessly to improve our school and its facilities and programs with the remaining councillors whose tenure continues for a further twelve months.

TIMELINE FOR 2024 SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTION: 

Nomination forms will be available from the office from Thursday, February 22 2024.

Accident Insurance

A reminder for our families that Belgrave South Primary School and the Department of Education and Training do not provide personal accident insurance for students. 

Parents and guardians are responsible for the cost of any medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs. Student accident insurance policies are available from some commercial insurers which cover a range of medical expenses not covered by Medicare or private health insurance. 

The School and Department of Education and Training do not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools and there is no capacity to pay for any loss or damage to such property. It is advisable that students do not bring valuable items to school.