Jenny's Retirement

As you are aware over the recent break, Jenny Hassett has made the decision to retire. She is very much looking forward to spending more time with her family and travelling.

Jenny’s connection to Rollins spans over four decades, having first started at the school in 1981. During this time, she has witnessed and contributed to many changes, both within our school and across the Department of Education. Jenny has taught across a wide range of year levels and curriculum areas, including Information Communication Technology, leaving a lasting impact in every classroom she has been part of.

Her leadership journey has been equally significant. Jenny was appointed Acting Assistant Principal in 2008, became Assistant Principal in 2012, and then proudly stepped into the role of Principal in 2017.

Throughout her time in leadership, Jenny has been instrumental in many key improvements to our school. She played a pivotal role in the upgrade of our oval and fitness track, worked tirelessly to secure and oversee the building of the Administration and Junior Building, as well as the Multi-Purpose Room. Most recently, her determination helped secure the grant for our new school fence; affectionately known as “The Great Wall of Hassett.”

Jenny has made a profound impact on hundreds of students, families, and staff over the years. Her dedication, care, and commitment to our community will leave a lasting legacy, and she will be greatly missed.

We are, however, very fortunate that Jenny will remain connected to our school, continuing to support selected students through wellbeing sessions.

Please join us in thanking Jenny for her extraordinary service and in wishing her all the very best for this exciting next chapter.

Fundraising

Dear Families,

Thankyou for supporting our fundraising efforts so far this year. The following special days raised :-

2nd Hand Uniform Stall - $571.00

Thanks to Sue –( Education Support), who washed all donations and set up the stall.

Easter Raffle - $1616.00

Thanks to everyone who donated Eggs/Gifts for the Raffle, it was a brilliant effort. Congratulations to the 27 lucky prize winners

Thanks to Families for donations and Meagan for wrapping and making up the prize baskets.

Special Lunch Term 1 – Sausage Sizzle - $1363.00

Thanks to our School Council Rep Bernie and Acting Principal Daniel for cooking the sausages, and to Liana, Suzi, and Chelsea for getting lunches to the students and staff on time.

Grandstand

School Crossing and Parking notice

We have been formally notified by the City of Greater Geelong, of an ongoing safety concern at Crossing 55 Ernest St, Bell Post Hill involving parents dropping children within the crossing flags and areas signed no standing or no parking.

Please do not drop off children within the flagged area and we ask for you to obey parking signage. This also includes the emergency parking bay zone outside the main entrance. This is not a ‘drop and go’ area and must be CLEAR at all times.

The bus zone is also a no standing/parking zone and must be kept clear at pick up time due to the number of excursions coming up throughout this Term.

Please note that you will be fined.

2026 Curriculum Contributions

The following curriculum voluntary contributions can be made via compass or at the school office.

Curriculum Contributions - items and activities that students use, or participate in, to access the Curriculum	Annual Amount per Student
Classroom consumables, materials & equipment Art – paint, crayons, canvas, glitter, coloured paper Stem – Pipe Cleaners, paper, cups, cones, string, cooking supplies, tape, experiment equipment – gloves, powders, liquid. Sports – equipment – Balls, Frisbees, Games,	$40.00
Online subscriptions - Essential Assessments, Twinkl, Pevan & Sarah, The Song room, Teach Starter, Pobble, Top Teacher, Book Creator Other Apps/Programs may be added during the 2026 year	$40.00
Printing and photocopying of worksheets and learning materials	$ 5.00
Curriculum Programs Resilience Project Reach Program Wingaroo Kids	$ 25.00
Total Curriculum Contributions – The total of curriculum contributions for 2026 equates to $2.70 per week per student (based on students attending 41 weeks of the year)	$110.00

Other Contributions - for non-curriculum items and activities	Amount
Digital Subscriptions including Compass, Newsletter, Dojo	$25.00
Student Welfare – Supports the school to outsource services to assist the emotional wellbeing of students.	$25.00
First aid Supplies, including, bandages, band aids, vomit bags, sick sand, slings, icepacks, excursions bags, yard duty bags, classroom kits.	$ 5.00
School grounds maintenance and improvements – With this contribution families will not be asked to donate their time to mowing lawns and supporting the general upkeep of the school grounds.	$20.00
Total Other Contributions:	$ 75.00
2026 Total:	$185.00

Student drop off/pickup

The school gates open at 8.30am. Children should not be arriving alone or left unsupervised before the gates are opened. Staff are on duty from 8.45am at the main gates and playground to supervise students. The doors to the classrooms open at 8.45am.

Students are welcome to leave their bags in their line-up area or neatly against a wall near their classroom until doors open at 8:45am.

To help build student independence, we kindly encourage families of Grade 1 to 6 students to say goodbye to their child/ren before entering the school buildings.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support as we work together to create positive morning routines for all students.

All students should have arrived by the time of the first bell at 9.00am so they are ready to move into learning time and to receive important instructions for the day.

Gates are closed soon after 9.00am. If the gates are closed, parents and children are to come in via the front office. Parents are to sign the late student in via the Compass Portal which will update the absence status on the roll. DO NOT JUST SEND CHILDREN IN.

After 9:00am, parents are not to walk their child to their classroom or through the school grounds. If your child needs assistance to class, someone in the office will walk them through.

If needing to pick your child up for an appointment during the day, please either email or call the front office in the morning so we can have your child ready when you arrive. Please do not Dojo your child’s teacher, the office will set a reminder. Students will need to be signed out when being collected, this includes picking your child up for an illness or injury.

Nut aware school

Rollins Primary School is a nut aware school. We aim to create a safe community by minimising nuts and nut products, as far as reasonable and practicable, in the school.

This will be managed by:

• Parents and caregivers being requested NOT to send food to school that contain nuts. This includes peanut paste, Nutella, peanut butter, all nuts and cooking oil containing peanut oil, as well as foods containing nuts.

• Students being encouraged NOT to share food.

• Students being encouraged to wash hands after eating.

• Parents and caregivers being requested NOT to send boxes that have previously contained nut products, e.g. cereal boxes, muesli bars with nuts, cake boxes, biscuits.

Please see our Anaphylaxis policy for further information.

Dogs on site

Please note that we DO NOT allow dogs within our school grounds. This includes at morning school drop off and in the afternoon.

Camp Australia Non Attendance

If you child is away from school on a particular day and was booked in to go to After School Care, please contact Camp Australia before 3.30pm and let them know. Sometimes they are waiting for students to appear and then trying to locate them before activities can begin. It would be great if all parents could do this.

Spare clothes

Just a reminder if you could please pack spare clothing in your child’s bag for any toileting accidents. We have limited supply in the sickbay.

Mobile Phone Policy

In line with the Department's policy on mobile phones, student mobile phones must not be used at RPS during school hours.

Students who choose to bring mobile phones to school must have them turned off and brought to the office for secure storage at the beginning of the day and can collect them at the end of the day.

Compass events

Please make sure your are checking Compass regaularly for upcoming events for your child. Life can get pretty busy and sometimes we forget things, but unfortunetly your child will either sit out or remain at school if payment/consent has not been updated.

Compass will send out multiple reminders to those who have not actioned leading up to an event. We can no longer place follow up phone calls or DoJo messages.

Lost Property

This is a friendly reminder to please make sure ALL of your children’s uniforms and other items are clearly labelled with their names.

All uniforms that remain in lost property at the end of the term will be added to the school uniform sale, and any item that is not clearly named eg. water bottles, lunchboxs etc will be thrown in the bin.

We understand that replacing lost items can be expensive and frustrating. Naming items makes them easy for us to return.

Medication

If your child requires any medication to be taken at School, please ensure it is sent to the office and in date. This includes Asthma Plans that should be up to date and signed by a doctor.

State School Relief

State Schools' Relief (SSR) is an autonomous, charitable organisation that assists Victorian government school students who are experiencing financial disadvantage because of short-term crisis or long-term chronic need.

SSR is supported by the department to provide assistance with uniforms and other essential items for students who need assistance to continue their education.

Short-term crisis and long-term chronic need are the primary qualifying criteria for support from SSR, including refugee status, homelessness, family violence, house fire, natural disaster, financial hardship, illness and emergency.

SSR assistance will be provided by either direct supply of uniform items or uniform vouchers for redemption from school uniform suppliers.

Please contact the school office if you would like to apply for any school uniform.

Toys at school

We are noticing a lot of children bringing toys from home to school to play with at recess and lunch. Can we please remind you all that we cannot take responsibility for items that have been brought from home like plush toys, balls and other objects. Children are coming up to the office asking for their lost items and becoming upset. Please be aware of what your child is bringing to school and if they choose to bring something from home, it must be clearly labelled and the responsibility falls onto your child.

Illness and exclusion days

We are noticing a lot of students coming to school who are unwell or who are still showing syptoms from an illness. We understand that it is very hard to keep children home when parents need to work or who have no other arrangments to look after their children, but in order to keep other students and the Rollins community safe and healthy, we ask families to follow the department guidelines on the exclusion from school timeframe as per below -

Conditions	Exclusion of cases
Chickenpox	Exclude until all blisters have dried. This is usually at least 5 days after the rash appears in unimmunised children, but may be less in previously immunised children
Conjunctivitis	Exclude until discharge from eyes has ceased
Covid	Excluded for 5 days
Diarrhoeal illness	Exclude until there has not been vomiting or a loose bowel motion for 48 hours, and for all other diarrhoeal illnesses exclude until there has not been vomiting or a lose bowel motion for 24 hours
Hand, Foot and Mouth disease	Exclude until all blisters have dried
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)	Exclude until 48 hours after initiation of effective therapy
Herpes (cold sores)	Young children unable to comply with good hygiene practices should be excluded while the lesion is weeping. Lesions to be covered by dressing, where possible
Influenza and influenza like illnesses	Exclude until well, this includes running nose and cough.
Meningitis (bacterial other than meningococcal meningitis)	Exclude until well
Meningococcal infection	Exclude until adequate carrier eradication therapy has been completed
Molluscum contagiosum	Exclusion is not necessary
Pertussis (Whooping cough)	Exclude the child for 21 days after the onset of cough or until they have completed 5 days of a course of antibiotic treatment
Ringworm, scabies, pediculosis (head lice)	Exclude until the day after appropriate treatment has commenced
Rubella (German measles)	Exclude until fully recovered or for at least four days after the onset of rash
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)	Exclude until medical certificate of recovery is produced
Streptococcal infection(including scarlet fever)	Exclude until the child has received antibiotic treatment for at least 24 hours and the child feels well

CentrePay

Those who receive payments from Centrelink can choose to set up CentrePay to arange regular fortnightly payments towards the school, which can go towards your vountary Curriculum Contributions/excursions. Families can nominate to have Centrepay paid fortnightly and the amount will be at the discreation of each family. You can collect a form from the office.

Thank you to those families who have payed for their annual Curriculum Contributions. These are still available to pay either via Compass, EFTPOS through the office or you can set up CentrePay. Other contributions for non-curriculum items for our school grounds maintenance and student welfare are also available and are warmly welcomed.

If you are using the Compass app and are having trouble accessing the required forms and information, please select "more" at the bottom of your screen and then "open in browser". You will then have full access and will be easier to navigate.

Conveyance Allowance

Eligible students living in the school zone and residing more than 4.8km from your closest school may be eligible for conveyance allowance.

Forms are available at the office for families to apply.

Attendance

If your child is going to be away sick, has an appointment or family holiday. Please make sure you add an attendance note via Compass. Otherwise you will receive a text message saying that your child has not arrived at school. You will also receive a call questioning why your child has an unexplained attendance.

Please try and enter attendance note prior to 9:00am.

Rollins Primary School recognises that being at school on time and attending every day contributes towards a student's learning and that maximising school attendance enhances academic outcomes.

We take attendance very seriously at Rollins PS and have a goal to have as close to 100% of student attendance as possible.

For more information regarding attendance please follow the link to the Education Department's Attendance Policy

Rollins House colours

Smoking

Unfortunately, we have noticed quite a few parents/carers who are smoking within school grounds and at the exit gates. Smoking in these places is a fineable offence.

A person must not smoke cigarettes including e-cigarettes (regardless of whether they contain nicotine) within school premises and within 4 metres of any pedestrian access to school premises.

Court orders

Please inform and provide the office of any current or updated Court orders that may be in place. It is important that we have current, in date orders updated in our system.

Rollins Uniform Supplier -

DCS Uniforms

Orders are ONLINE ONLY and will be delivered to the school free of charge every Thursday. To order please visit www.dcsuniforms.com.au .

Inclusion/ Wellbeing Update