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
• Staff News
• School Grounds
• Parents and Friends - Mothers Day Morning Tea
• School TV
• Before School
• Student Collection and Car Parking
• Late Arrivals and Early Leavers
• Students Attitude to School Survey
• 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. 

It was lovely to have our first full week of school back with our students and families. 

Term 1 was a positive start to 2025 and we  look forward to a busy term ahead of learning, activities and events. We have grades going swimming, attending camp and a parent run career expo for the 7/8's to look forward to. Mother's Day is fast approaching and the Parents and Friends group have organised a special morning tea to celebrate our mothers and mother figures for all the work they do. We acknowledge Mental Health week coming up on May 12-16. The Mental Health Team have organised daily activities at recess and lunch times to encourage students to engage in activities that support positive mental health. The Winter Fete is always one of the highlights of the year for our school community to come together, so make sure you save the date for Friday 6th June and we look forward to seeing you there.

ANZAC Day

During our first week back for the term 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!

Staff News

As you are all aware, in the absence of Anthony this term, I have stepped up to an Acting Principal position. Kathy Pham who is currently the Leading Teacher of Middle School has been successful in being appointed as an Acting Assistant Principal to back fill my role. I am lucky to have such a supportive and collaborative team to work with.

On behalf of the Jackson School Community, I would like to officially welcome our new staff for Term 2.  ES staff: Cassandra Steffens (Prep B), Deb Kasic (1/2B), Phuong Truong (1/2C), Soumya Pandey (9/10E), Mark Butuin (Snr School) and Leyla Munir (Jnr School).

Roka Goldberg-Friedler will now be the classroom teacher in 4-6A and we also congratulate Rikki Platts on attaining permission to teach in Australia, who will now be part of the teaching staff supporting students in intervention programs.

School Grounds

We continue to work on improving our environment for our school community. Over the holidays we continued to have several trades in each day and some of the more appealing and obvious changes were: installing astro turf in the Prep Courtyard for our P-2 Assemblies and OSHC use, and the completion of the transport hub which now comprises a working PTV Myki reader and a clock installed along with a pedestrian crossing. This is a great initiative to support our travel training program.

Parents and Friends : Mothers Day Morning Tea

We have a newly formed group of parents and friends who are very enthusiastic and they have organised a morning tea for all mothers/carers and mother figures to come and meet new friends and have fun together. You deserve to be celebrated for all that you do. This will be held in the school hall on Friday 9th May from 9:30am - 11:00am.

Many of you have already responded but please feel welcome to come along if you have forgotten to do so.

Explore SchoolTV!

School TV is a a parenting resource supporting student mental health and wellbeing 

and is a trusted go-to resource to help support your child.

Modern-day parenting can be challenging. Like never before, parents are seeking clear, fact-based solutions. SchoolTV delivers credible and current information from wellbeing experts via a unique digital platform. Browse through the resource library and find practical strategies on a variety of topics that address the challenges of raising happy, resilient young people in our ever-changing world.

You can find this library of digital resources via a button on our website or by using this link. https://jacksons.vic.schooltv.me/

We will be highlighting topics of interest in each newsletter but please use the resource 

when and as you need. Go ahead and explore!  Any feedback would be welcome.

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 neighbouring 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.

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. 

The Brimbank Council has posted details about car parking around the area of the school, hospital and train station. 

The community consultation is now open for the Sunshine Hospital and Ginifer Station areas on Council’s Have Your Say web paged linked below.

https://yoursay.brimbank.vic.gov.au/car-parking-management-plan

Please share this with any relevant interested parties to provide feedback on the draft Car Parking Management Plan. The consultation will run until 12th May 2025.

Late Arrivals & Early Leavers

We are working with families to continue to support student attendance at school. If students arrive after  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. 

Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS)

The AtoSS is a voluntary student survey offered by the Department of Education every year to help schools and the department understand students' experiences of school. We will ask your child about their thoughts and feelings about their school, their learning, relationships with other students, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general. For more information about the survey please click on the link below:

Please let any of us know if you have any queries about anything in this edition of the newsletter.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Bernadette