Greetings from Bale

Curriculum Day and Public Holiday

A reminder that Monday 4th November is a student free day. OSHC will be running an alternative program on Monday, bookings can be made directly through their website.

Tuesday the 5th of the November is Cup Day Public Holiday.

Have a great long weekend.

2025 Enrolments

As we continue to plan for the 2025 school year, we ask that if you are planning on your child(ren) not being at Northcote Primary School in 2025 that you please inform the office in writing to  northcote.ps@education.vic.gov.au  This information will help the school to confirm enrolment numbers for next year.

Road Safety

Recent news regarding the tragic incident at Auburn South Primary School was horrible to hear. Our hearts go out to the family, friends, and the entire school community as they navigate this unimaginable loss.

This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of road safety, especially in areas surrounding schools where our children are at their most vulnerable. 

I kindly ask that everyone drives safely and follows road rules while traveling on the streets near our school. Your attention to safety helps keep our children and community safe.

World Teachers Day

Last week we celebrated World Teacher's Day marking 30 years of recognising the extraordinary value of  work teachers do each and every day. I feel fortunate to work alongside such an incredible group of teachers. Their passion, experience, and compassion are truly inspiring. Thank you to all of the students and families who acknowledged our teachers and to those who helped create a special video.

Smile Squad

As you might be aware, we have had the School Dental Program - ‘Smile Squad’ – attend our school to give the students information on good dental health, undertake dental examinations and, where required, organise follow-up treatment. While the program is voluntary, many of you consented for your child/children to participate in the Smile Squad program. 

To better understand the delivery of the Smile Squad program including benefits and challenges, an independent firm (Abt Global) has been engaged to evaluate the program. This is your opportunity to provide feedback on your experience of the program. If you didn’t consent for your child/children to participate in Smile Squad they are also keen to hear from you.  The evaluation team want to understand why you chose not to participate. So, whether you participated or not, this is an opportunity to provide feedback so that improvements can be made to the Smile Squad program.

To participate in the evaluation, you can complete a confidential 5–10-minute survey. The survey does not require you to provide any information to the evaluation team that identifies you, however the survey does ask what school your child/children attend. Here is the link to the survey.

https://abtassoc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bf6YJUMs3NkfHWm 

We encourage you to participate in this short survey and provide valuable feedback on Smile Squad. If you would like to provide more detailed feedback to the evaluation team, please contact Eleanor at smilesquad_eval@abtglobal.com .

Working Bee 

Dont forget to mark the 30th November from 11am - 2pm on your calendar for our final Working Bee of the year! This time, we'll be focussing on the area surrounding the Top Turf and the OSH yard. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Photo permission change

You may have seen information in previous newsletters and compass around the departments changes regarding the policy on photographing, filming, and recording students. This updated policy clarifies how we manage images of our students and introduces a new, one-time consent form that will replace the annual consent previously required. Starting in 2025, this consent will be part of the enrollment process, meaning we’ll only need to collect this information when your child joins us at Northcote PS.

If you havent already completed the google form to indicate level of consent, you can complete the consent form using this link: Consent

Literacy: Systematic Synthetic Phonics

As you would have read in our newsletter last fortnight, the Victorian Department of Education is implementing significant changes to its literacy teaching approach, beginning next year in the F-2 levels, with the requirement that all schools teach systematic synthetic phonics. The term systematic means phonics is taught through a structured, sequential approach, from a specific scope and sequence, where children learn the simplest sounds (such as /s/, /a/, and /t/ and gradually move to more complex sound-letter patterns.

The term synthetic means to blend (or synthesise) sounds together to make a word. You can read more about phonics in this Department publication for families.

As mentioned in our last edition, to support the structured and sequential teaching of foundational literacy skills, we will be moving to straight grades in our 1/2 year levels from next year. This means we will have 2 Prep classes, 2 Grade One classes, and 2 Grade Two classes. Our 3/4 and 5/6 classes will remain in their current composite/multi-age structure.

Our staff have already begun professional learning around the key components of a comprehensive reading program and will continue this work next year.

Maths Olympiad Celebration

Maths Olympiad certificates will be awarded to all participating students in our Week 7 assembly. All of our students completed all 4 challenges with high levels of persistence and enthusiasm. A big congratulations to the following students for taking part in the competition:

Annabel, Chris, Connor, Dion, Edward, Eli, Elvie, Felix M, Felix W, Hugo, Innes, Isla, Jack, Lyra, Malcolm, Morrison, Ollie, Sabine, Tom, Zar

We also had 3 of our students finish in the top 25% of all students, which is a fantastic achievement! Well done to Edward M, Annabel P and Chris F - these students will also receive a Maths Olympiad Patch as well as their certificates of achievement. 

Class Placement Requests

As we begin forming classes for 2025, please remember that class placements are complex and involve various factors such as academic achievement, interpersonal development, learning needs, friendships, and class ratios.

If you have specific placement requests or wish to request a child not to be placed with someone, please remember to email northcote.ps@education.vic.gov.au by Friday, November 1st, 2024. Note that we do not consider requests for specific teachers, and changes after placements are unlikely unless requests were made during this period. If you submitted a request in previous years and want it considered again, please resubmit it. 

Lastly, please ensure that any requests are in line with our "Class Placements Policy" (see link below).