General Notices

Student Eyecare Program

The school is pleased to announce that the Student Eyecare Program will be running at the school in Term 2, 2024. An optometrist will be onsite during school hours to provide students with a free comprehensive eye examination that is covered through Medicare Australia. 

1 in 6 students have eye conditions that go undetected. This is due to the high level of visual demand on their eyes from books, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Every student will receive a full report about their eye health and a prescription will be provided if glasses are required. The prescription can be taken to any optical store to get the glasses made. Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity. To sign up, follow THIS link to register online.  

Wellbeing Team

Before & After School Yard Supervision

Student safety at Wantirna College is our highest priority and the safe and appropriate supervision of students is an important element of our duty of care to students. 

Part of this duty is ensuring parents and students are aware of our student supervision arrangements before and after school. 

Before school: School grounds are supervised from 8.30 am. 

After school: School grounds are supervised until 3.30pm. 

Students on school grounds outside these times will not be supervised (unless they are attending a before or after school care program or supervised extracurricular activity). 

Parents/carers are requested to ensure that students do not attend school outside of these supervised times unless they are attending before or after school care, or a pre-arranged supervised activity (i.e. sports practice). Families are encouraged to contact me if you would like any further information about our student supervision arrangements.

For a copy of our school’s Yard Duty and Supervision Policy please consult Compass in the School Documentation section. This policy includes Wantirna College’s student supervision arrangements across the school day, including before and after school.

Andrew Lewis

Assistant Principal

9801 9700

A New Name for the Health Centre

We are very fortunate to have our college nurses, Mel & Eva, and our other first-aid trained staff to care for our unwell and injured students, staff and visitors. Last year, I witnessed first-hand how they handled a serious cardiac situation with one of our staff members, and I want to do all I can to ensure we have that level of first response capacity for our community.

On the other hand, the following are (real!) examples of non-first-aid situations:

• Wanting a snooze after a late night gaming
• Strapping an ankle after an injury at netball on the weekend
• Getting a drink of water
• Having an in-grown hair inspected 
• Being dropped at school at 8:30am with an obvious heavy cold and wanting to be ‘checked’ by the nurse
• Having a time-out after being heightened by a tough exam

Together with feedback I have received from parents and students, this tells me that the name ‘Health Centre’ may be unhelpful as it may suggest we have a GP clinic onsite. 

Though the Department of Education trialled a ‘Doctors in Schools’ program which did offer a full-service GP clinic at some schools, Wantirna College was never part of that program. 

Students safely in class learning is our focus, which is underpinned by our Orderly Learning Environment protocols. Ultimately either a student is well enough to be in class and not be a distraction to others or themselves, or they are not well enough and need to stay home or go home or, in serious cases or where an emergency contact is not able to collect the unwell student, to hospital. 

Therefore, the newly re-named First-Aid Centre more accurately reflects its function in our school life.

To properly exercise our duty of care for every student, it is very important that students who become unwell or injured at school go to the First-Aid Centre, who will appropriately triage and care for students and follow the necessary protocols to contact parents/carers or emergency contacts should that be determined necessary. 

Students must not call home, nor use their mobile phone in the First-Aid Centre, both of which are not permitted under the government’s state-wide ban on phones at school. 

Finally, I would also like to ask families to ensure their emergency contact information is up to date with the school so we can contact you should the need arise. 

Please note the information provided in the first newsletter (available via our website) about insurances and ambulance cover is important for families to understand, as we do not hesitate to call an ambulance if we think it is in the best interest of a student’s health. Also, please remember that we are not equipped for unwell students to remain in the First Aid Centre for extended periods, and it is also not in the best interest of unwell students.

Carrie Wallis

Principal

Lost Property

Families are reminded to please ensure all items brought to school by students are labelled. Nobody wants to lose expensive clothes or other items and, likewise, we don't want to have to throw away found items that are not claimed!

Invariably, we get plenty of perfectly good clothing and other items piling up at Lost Property each Term.  Labelled lost property is returned to its owner. If it is not labelled, it will remain at Lost Property ONLY until the end of Term, after which time, any school uniform items will be washed and donated to support hardship situations, and any other items will be donated externally or disposed of. 

Lost Property is now located at the General Office and can be collected at any time by students or families.

School Saving Bonus

You may have seen the recent announcement of the School Saving Bonus, as part of the Victorian Budget 2024/25. Whilst details about exactly how the bonus will operate will be released in Term 3, it will include $400 for each eligible student to help families cover the costs of school uniforms and activities in 2025. It will be available to parents and carers of every child enrolled in a Victorian government school in 2025, which would mean current Year 12 students are not eligible, nor would it be available for use on activities at the end of 2024. 

Cash will not be paid directly to individuals or families. Instead, families will receive the bonus as credits on their school accounts that will help meet the costs of your children’s activities and uniforms. It is expected it will operate much like the CSEF process and families will be able to use the ‘credit’ by selecting that option at the final step when paying for an event via Compass. This option only appears in Compass when funds are available.

Existing supports

The School Saving Bonus support will be in addition to existing and continuing means-tested supports for camps, sports, excursions and uniforms.

The application-based Affordable School Uniform program, through State Schools’ Relief, will continue to be available to families experiencing financial hardship or other forms of vulnerability and short-term crisis. This program allows schools to make multiple applications for support on parents' behalf throughout the year if needed.

Peter Cameron

Business Manager