Dear parents and caregivers,

We welcome everyone to Term 1 and what we are sure will be another wonderful year at Tarneit Rise Primary School. This week it has been wonderful to see excited children about the school and observe how settled they are, ready for learning. Even though staff have been preparing for the start of the school year for some time now, the school only truly comes alive once the sounds of our children can be heard across the school grounds.

We would like to extend an extra warm welcome to all our new families and children. We are looking forward to getting to know you all!

We have many new staff joining us this year. We welcome to Tarneit Rise Primary School the following new staff whose names are in bold:

Executive Leadership Team

Principal: Nadia Bettio

Assistant Principal Disability and Inclusion: Sarah Narres

Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning: Alana Stathoulis

Assistant Principal Prep: Gemma Skeen

Assistant Principal Year One: Adam Oliver

Assistant Principal Year Two: Stephen Zhang

Assistant Principal Year Three and Four: Ali Cummins

Assistant Principal Year Five and Six: Missy Kloss

Prep Leading Teacher: Kelsey Pritchard

Year One Leading Teacher: Ashlee DiMartino

Year Two Leading Teacher: Leonie Hegarty

Year Three Leading Teacher: Cobie Canny and Lauren Fleurette

Year Four Leading Teacher: Taleisha Williams

Year Five Leading Teacher: Rowena Ostyn

Year Six Leading Teacher: Jamilee Pearce

Professional Learning Teams (PLTs)

Prep: Gemma Skeen and Kelsey Pritchard

Taylah Fredrickson, Jess Cox, Priscilla Koueik, Emma Wilby, Breanna Rayner, Juliette Tardif

Amie McLeod, Jenny Nguyen, Lauren Faulkner, Donita Delantar, Karlee Sobing, Casey Marando

Year 1: Adam Oliver and Ashlee DiMartino

Monica Yianni, Amanda Dunn, Niesha Santos, Marcelle Fetolofai

Rachel Newman, Hannah Atkinson, Mikaela Stafford, Sunny Tesfaye

Laura Madigan, Jodie Chandler, Kim Mill, Sammie Lee

Year 2: Stephen Zhang and Leonie Hegarty

Hilma Diaz, Lee Watkins, Amanda Williams, Kirsten Elliott

Jake Sewell, Avinash Kaur, Emily Hanson, Kelsey Duff

Elizabeth Anastasi, Ashley Jeon, Rachel McPhee, Claire Gervais, Jess Manning

Year 3: Ali Cummins and Cobie Canny and Lauren Fleurette

Jodie Rickerby, Luke Westwick, Ainslee May, Phoebe Hawe, Mele Pikula

Marina Bestawrose, Shannon Briscoe, Damien Shaw and Liana Agathangelou, Ria Mani, Kaiya Edwards, Liam Martin

Year 4: Ali Cummins and Taleisha McCalman

Megan Stephenson, Edwandie Kruger, Stephanie Kelly, Annie McNaughton, Cameron Russell

Hannah Mitchell-Frey, Alicia Zammit, Heather Richmond, Ash Stafford, Christina Christopher, Piumi Arumapperuma

Year 5: Missy Kloss and Rowena Ostyn

Christian Garcia, Amy Jones, Yesmeen Rassool, Emma Lockyer, Ruaridh Wood

Sarah Hix, Jacqui Cannon, Anna Janiszewski, Anya Morrish, Erin Po-Ching

Year 6: Missy Kloss and Jamilee Pearce

Graeme McWhirter, Charlotte Hobson, Shalveen Singh, Jackson Scott, Rebecca Mitchell

Lauren Ireland, Becca Varella, Katie White, Rosie Smith

Specialist PLTs - Mitchel Marley

Performing Arts Fiona Patton, Max Barker, Jamie Stanley, Victoria Andrew, Guilhem Kirby

Visual Arts Jessica Stewart, Cody Nahu, Victoria Andrew, Mary Skram, Jade Macfarlane

PE Grant Dew, Tom Sandry, Matt Tivendale, Giovanni Raffaele

STEM Haslinda Gould, Charlotte Taylor, Carmen Barnes, Mel Gunsan

French Zacharie Beaulieu, Martine Julie, Antonio Martins, Jianrui Ma

Literacy Intervention Brooke Healy, Miranda Obieglo, Steph Wright, Jessica Vernon, Prabhjot Kaur, Anu Thukral, Jolly Gupta, Carla Floria, Kylie Flower,

Education Support Team

Inclusion Liaison Coordinator: Arjana Sheremetaj

Inclusion Aides: Anchal Patidar, Beata Werner, Poonam Sharma, Kunjan Shah, Harjot Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Mariya Imran, Jaswinder Kaur Jemmu, Zoya Uman, Vidya Nambiar, Minakshi Shori, Sumaira Akhtar, Arifa Rehana, Mehreen Fatima, Zarmina Butt, Garima Dhawan, Maree Archer, Syeda Fatima, Sun Lam, Shelly Costanzo, Andrew Wilson, Anna Varga, Anvi Shah, Ashwini Karulkar, Avneet Kaur, Bhawna Gaur, Hanan Hanan, Jayna Patel, Kamrun Nahar, Khola Khan, Leenah Ansab, Lavpreet Kaur, Mazeda Mansuri, Misbah Razvi, Nav Saroe, Neha Mehta, Faye Sheremetaj, Rene Murchie, Rahwa Tesfay, Sabahath Fatima, Syeda Zehra, Sandhya Kakarlapudi, Rajwinder Kaur, Sumaiya Imran

Business Manager and Office Manager: Alyssa Tobin

Assistant Business Manager: Maddison Herbert

Executive Assistant to the Principal: Angela Rich

Enrolments Officer: Daniela Catania

Receptionists: Allison Winter, Arjana Sheremetaj, Sarah Suban, Hayle Schuijers

Grounds and Facilities: Travis Jensen, Shard Hubbard-Poka, Deagan Christie, Alen Yalda

ICT Technicians: Parminder Jassal, Thomas Vo, Jack Harvey

Speech Pathologists: Annabel Mander, Stephanie Zaharis, Lottie Morison

Speech Pathologist Assistant: Lama Dabbous

Social Worker: Jade Cruz

School Community Liaison Officer: Lisa Gerring

Psychologists: Jessica Bickham, Marita Mercer and Rebecca Sjoevold

Disability and Inclusion Officer: Faith Jere

First Aid Officer: Marianne Uldall

Library Technician: Georgie Newton

Here at Tarneit Rise Primary School, we celebrate the many different cultural and religious backgrounds represented in our student cohort, our families, and our staff. We would like to pay respect to the staff, children, and parents/ caregivers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. We would also like to acknowledge the increasing diversity in the gender identities of the adults in our community, and we invite those of you who identify as non-binary to let us know if you have a particular preference regarding your title or pronoun reference. We are also here to support our children who are navigating their gender identity and their families.

Throughout the year you will often hear us address the importance of attending school each day. Daily school attendance is important for all children to succeed in education and ensure they do not fall behind both socially and developmentally. Children who regularly attend school have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes, and higher incomes across their lives. It is important children develop the habit of attending school daily at an early age. There are no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their longer term educational and social outcomes. It is just as important for students at the beginning of their school journey to be at school each day as it is for those who are moving on to secondary school next year. EVERY day is important to ensure solid foundations for learning are built. We will continue to rigorously monitor student absences, particularly unexplained absences, which means you will receive a phone call from the school any time your child is absent for unexplained reasons and sometimes even when the absence is explained. If your child is absent, please inform us before 10 am of the reason. We will also not approve absences due to extended family holidays which occur during the term. Whilst it is more expensive, in terms of your child’s development, it is an investment in your child’s future by going on family holidays during the school holidays.

When at school, it is expected all children are wearing either the complete sports uniform or the complete academic uniform (please see below). Our school uniform is important because it fosters a sense of belonging, it represents Tarneit Rise Primary School within our community, and it reduces the focus on what children wear in comparison to others. Therefore, uniform infringement notices will be issued to children who come to school wearing non-uniform items of clothing or who are wearing a combination of items from the sports uniform and the academic uniform. Regarding our school uniform and children’s personal presentation, it is essential:

children only wear the complete sports uniform or the complete academic uniform
children are in full school uniform every day, unless there is a casual dress day
all uniform items are clean in appearance
garments are kept in good repair
children wear their uniform neatly
all uniform items are clearly named. We recommend student labels be ironed or sewn on to each uniform item rather than written. Student name labels should also be on the inside of garments only
nail polish or false nails (acrylic, shellac, SNS, gel) are not worn
only small, plain, and round gold or silver stud or sleeper earrings are worn in earlobes
if children’s hair reaches their collar, it is secured off the face using black, teal or hair colour clips, clasps, hair bands and hair ties only
cultural headdress is to be either white, black, or teal only
the only hat that is worn is the Tarneit Rise Primary School hat

We have many children here at Tarneit Rise Primary School who ride their bike to school. Given this, it is important our community understand bike laws in Victoria. Of particular importance are the following:

when you are riding a bike, you and any passengers must wear a properly fitting and fastened helmet unless you are riding on private property. Your helmet must meet Australian safety standard AS/NZS2063
A person can also be exempt from wearing a helmet for religious reasons if religious headdress makes wearing a helmet impractical. An exemption certificate is not required in these circumstances. Visit the VicRoads website for more information about exemptions from wearing a helmet.
riders must ride at a safe speed, especially around pedestrians on shared paths and footpaths and slower bike riders
children 12 years old or under and 13 years or over and riding with a child who is 12 years old or under permitted to ride on a footpath
when riding on a footpath, riders must keep to the left and give way to pedestrians
children can ride on the road, but it may be safer for them to ride on the footpath. Children 12 years or under can ride on footpaths, bike paths, shared paths, and separated footpaths. If you are 13 years or older and you are accompanying a child 12 years or under, you can ride with them on a footpath.

And finally, here at Tarneit Rise Primary School we are very proud of our school, our students, and our community. One of the reasons our school operates so well is because of our active and enthusiastic School Council. Each year we conduct elections for School Council. Parents and Department of Education (DE) members are elected for a period of two years. Community members can also be co-opted to School Council for up to two years. This year there are three parent positions to be filled (2 years) and one DE position.

Returning parent councillors are Mahadevan Narayanan, Lucy Williams and Ed Agarwal
Returning DE councillors are Grant Dew

We encourage people to seriously consider getting involved in School Council which meets once a month (last Monday of the month – dinner is at 5.30pm and the meetings begins at 5.45pm). School Council is an important decision-making body in the school. Any parent or carer of a student can be on School Council. School Councillors need to be prepared to work in a positive and constructive way with other parents to shape the future of our school, support our students and improve our school. No experience is necessary. Information and induction/training sessions are provided.

This year our school is undergoing our school review and school council plays a big part in this review, and setting up the next school strategic plan.

How do I nominate for the election?

If you decide to stand for election, collect a nomination form from the front office, or call so we can arrange to have one sent home with your child. Nominations open on Monday February 10th and close the following Monday February 17th. Complete all details and return the form to school. It is that easy! A ballot will only be held if the number of nominations exceeds the number of vacant positions. Please see us or any other councillor if you would like more information or have any questions about being on School Council. Current councillors are Nadia Bettio, Sarah Narres, Naomi Strauss, Lucy Williams, Nycole Jarvie, Mahadevan Narayanan, Ed Agarwal, Grant Dew and Vidhi Patel

Remember these dates:

Monday February 10th – Nominations Open
Monday February 17th - Nominations Close
Tuesday February 18th – Ballot Papers issued (if required)
Tuesday February 25th – Close of ballot
Monday March 24th – AGM and first meeting of new School Council

We look forward to seeing you all at Meet and Greet on Thursday 20th February and at our Harmony Day celebration on Friday 21st March.

We wish you all the very best for the year ahead!

Warmest wishes,

Nadia, Sarah, Alana, Gemma, Adam, Stephen, Ali and Missy 😊

The Fortnight Ahead