'Picnic in the Park' - Tuesday 6th March

With the School Fete happening so close to the start of the year (read more later in the newsletter), we have made a few changes to our traditional start of year school social event.

For the last 29 years, we have held an event called 'Jazz in the Park' at school in mid-February and this has been a chance for families to come together, enjoy some live music, food stalls and a bar and connect.

As we will soon be asking families to volunteer for a big number of jobs at our fete, we have decided to run something smaller and less formal that will not require a huge commitment from parents to sign up and run stalls on the night.

In 2024, Jazz in the Park will take a break (ready to return in 2025 for a huge 30th anniversary event) and we will instead run a slightly different, more relaxed event that will still provide a great opportunity for families to attend, meet one another and enjoy a picnic.

On Tuesday 6th February, we will run our first 'Picnic in the Park' from 5-7pm in the park and on the oval - bring a picnic dinner and drinks - children can play on the playgrounds and families can get together and connect, build connections and catch up after the summer.

Please note, food and drink will not be for sale on the night so we encourage you to grab a pizza or bring a picnic to enjoy with the family.

2024 Midsumma Pride March

Once again our school will be taking part in the Midsumma Pride March down Fitzroy Street this Sunday morning (4th February) to show our support for equality, acceptance and our diversity of school families.

Everyone (parents, students, friends & pets) are invited to join us for this wonderful St Kilda community event. We encourage you to wear SKiPPS Orange.

What: Midsumma Pride March 2024 - https://www.midsumma.org.au/whats-on/events/midsumma-pride-march/
When: Sunday, February 4th 2024 arriving before 11am (when the march begins)
Where: Meeting at Ian Johnson Oval (directly beside SKIPPS). We are a part of 'Wave C' which will be closer to lakeside Drive than the school (look out for the people wearing orange)
Bring a refillable water bottle and stay hydrated
Bring a hat, sunscreen, and other sun protection (long sleeves, scarf, umbrella/ parasol)

Please note, there will be road closures for traffic on Fitzroy St, Canterbury Rd, Grey St & Princes St from 8 am and Beaconsfield Parade from 10:30am.

Spread the word and see you there!

Information evenings

With the school year starting, we understand the importance of providing opportunities for you to meet with your child's teacher to share information and understand what 2024 will look like for them.

In week 3 of term (week commencing Monday 12th February), all year levels will run Parent Information evenings. These sessions are a chance to come along to understand about the learning, routines and events for the year directly from the teachers and ask any questions that you may have.

Sessions will be run as follows;

Year Level	When?	Where?
Foundation	Tuesday 13th February 3:45 - 4:30pm	Foundation classrooms
Year 1/2	Wednesday 14th February 3:45 - 4:30pm	Upstairs Year 1/2 classrooms
Year 3/4	Tuesday 13th February 4:30pm - 5:15pm	Downstairs Year 3/4 classrooms
Year 5/6	Wednesday 14th February 4:30pm - 5:15pm	Year 5/6 classrooms

A reminder will be provided on Compass by your child's class teachers.

Parent Teacher Interviews

The following week, (week commencing 19th February), we will run Parent Teacher Interviews for students in Years 1-6. These are an opportunity to meet 1:1 with your child's teachers, to share any information that is important and to ask any questions specific to your child.

Whilst most interview slots will be on Wednesday 21st February, teachers will provide meeting times throughout the week to support all families to attend.

We ask that you try your best to attend these sessions to help us build a strong partnership between school and home - something that is essential for children to achieve their best.

Interview bookings will open up on Compass from this coming Monday (5th February) and you will receive a notification when this takes place

This week our staff have already completed a full handover to allow 2023 class teachers to pass on any key information about students to their new teachers.

A reminder that our teachers are always available for short chats at the start and end of the school day and are contactable via email.

Staying connected to SKiPPS

In an age of information overload and busy lives, we completely understand that it can be a challenge to stay up-to-date with what is happening at school and easy to miss important messages and events regarding your child.

To combat this, we have tried our hardest to streamline and simplify communications from SKiPPS - giving you the best chance to never miss a thing whilst staying sane and not having your phone buzz every 5 minutes...

Compass

As a school, we use Compass School Manager as our whole-school platform. We strongly recommend that all parents and carers download and login to the Compass app from the Apple or Google app stores (rather than using the web browser login which we understand can be challenging).

The App makes it easy to receive and read messages via your newsfeed (as well as provide permissions, make payments, read reports and manage your child's school attendance all in one place). It also allows you to stay logged in, meaning you don't need to login each time and remember your details.

Please contact the office if you require a reminder of your Compass login details.

Apple App Store link

Android/Google Play link

Newsletter

Our school newsletter is released every Wednesday and is our primary form of communication to families. It is the best place to stay up to date with what is happening at SKiPPS in one place.

We ask that all parents find 5 minutes each week to read the newsletter and, in return, we will not send hundreds of push notifications and additional emails during the week. Sounds like a good deal right?

SKIPPS Parents have already been subscribed, however if you need to subscribe for a different email, please subscribe at: www.skipps.vic.edu.au/community/newsletter/

2024 Student-free days

As the new school year begins, we are happy to share with you our student-free days for this year. These are days that our staff will be using for training and professional learning and are a combination of Curriculum days and Teacher Professional Practice Days. Students are not required at school on these days and we will work with Team Kids to ensure that a full-day program of care is offered for families.

As always, we have tried to minimise disruption for families by keeping them at the start or end of a week and/or attaching them to public holidays.

Friday 22nd March
Wednesday 1st May
Tuesday 11th June
Friday 19th July
Monday 4th November

Staying Sunsmart

A reminder that, right from the start of the year, our Sunsmart policy applies and we ask that families support us to help keep children safe from damage caused by the sun over break times and lunchtimes.

Until the 30th April, all students are required to wear a broad-brimmed hat when playing outside at break times or during sports lessons. If you require a new hat, these are available at the school office for $10 and we ask that you clearly label them with your child's name. Children with no hat will need to play under the shade sail in the quadrangle.

We also ask that children apply SPF30 or higher sunscreen before school each morning onto face, arms and legs. Please provide your child with SPF30 or higher sunscreen in their bags (a small roll-on or bottle attached to the outside of the bag is perfect) to reapply before going outside at break times. Teachers will remind and support children to reapply at these times.

In addition, whilst SKiPPS does not have a school uniform, students are expected to wear clothing that covers shoulders and, on days with high UV levels, we recommend that this includes clothes with collars, elbow length or long sleeves and longer style shorts, dresses or skirts to provide maximum protection from the sun.

Kids Unlimited- Robotics and Chess

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website https://www.skipps.vic.edu.au/community/school-documents/

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

Amharic
Arabic
Dari
Gujarati
Mandarin
Somali
Sudanese
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese

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