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

• International Women's Day - 8th March
• Indvidual Learning Plans (ILPs) Published
• Social Media & Parent Controls 
• Student Collection & Pick Up (Late Arrivals & Early Leavers)
• Labour Day - 12th March (NO SCHOOL)
• Students of the Week from our PBIS rewards system.
• 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,

International Women's Day - 8th March

Friday 8th March 2024 is International Women’s Day (IWD), an annual day to celebrate the social, cultural and political achievements of women across the world. The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion. When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment. We are proud to promote a gender-equal school community for our staff, students and our families.

Read more about a definition of what it means to inspire inclusion here.

Individual Learning Plans (ILPs)

Following your Term 1 Student Support Group (SSG) meeting your child's teacher will finalise your child's Term 1 Individual Learning Plan (ILP). Revisions and additional goals will be added in Term 2. These will be emailed to families once they are published and will also be available on Xuno for you to access anytime. An ILP outlines a modified educational program with long term (annual) and short-term goals (semester) are based upon the Victorian Curriculum (Prep-Year 10). These are informed from our current assessments of what your child can already do. The ILP at Jackson School forms part of your child's Individual Education Plan with other related plans. 

We aim for 100% of families to be connected with us and attend your SSG meetings. There will be another opportunity for you to meet with your child's Student Support Group in Term 2 should you wish to discuss your child's progress before Semester 1 reports are published to you.

Social Media

Following the summer holiday, we have an increasing problem with issues on Social Media. Our students are extremely vulnerable online and find it difficult to socialise appropriately online. Our eSMART expectations are taught weekly to students. Below is a reminder of some resources available to families about how to keep your child safe online. If you're concerned about your child online you should report any issues directly to the eSafety Commissioner or police. As a school we are not able to manage issues between Jackson students outside of school. Ensure you know what apps your child has and that they are age appropriate. Support your child to block unwanted people in group chats and take screen shots of messages as evidence so they can't be deleted. You can also restrict internet times and add parent controls by contacting your internet provider which will help keep your child safe online. 

The eSafety Commissioner website has many resources for families, such as:

• Screen Smart Parent Tour provides advice on social media, screen time, personal information, cyber-bullying, stranger contact and inappropriate content.
• Online Safety: A guide for parents and carers is a great guide on how to tackle the big online issues.
• Online Safety Basics - Explore websites, games, apps and social media together and set some rules.
• Parent Controls - how to use parental controls and other tools to maximise online safety in your home.
• Screen time for your child – 7 tips on how families can balance their time on and offline.

Student Collection / Parent Pick-up

Late Arrivals & Early Leavers

We are working with families to continue to support student attendance at school. 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. We understand families have a variety of commitments and some NDIS appointments cannot be avoided as we are unable to be accommodated during the school day. Between 9:00am and 9:20am and between 2:00pm and 2:50pm each day our students learn about our Independent Learning areas of the Victorian Curriculum including: our Allied Health programs (Jackson Social and Zones of Regulation), our PBIS behaviour program, RRRR our social and emotional learning program, eSMART online safety, Health and Fitness. This is vitally important to our child's learning and development.

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 neighboring 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.

Over the last few years our parent drop-off and pickup of students from school has more than tripled with now up to 142 families (44%) collecting their child from school. Like most neighbourhood schools, we do not have adequate parking facilities for all staff, visitors and parents/carers. Our pickup and drop off zone can only allow for up to 18 parked cars. We also have limited car parking for the 120 staff at Jackson School. It is a traffic offence for cars to be 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. We continue to work with Brimbank Council on this matter. 

We know some families live outside our Designated Transport Area (DTA) and are not able to access this service. For other families, we are interested to know why you are not choosing to use the Department's free disability transport buses operated by Skylight and Transit Systems. We would also like to know where families park when you collect your child so we can feed this back to Brimbank Council. Please let us know using the form below:

Thank you for your support in getting your child to attend school on time, for the whole day where possible.

This Monday is the Labour Day public holiday. Students return to school on Tuesday 12th March. Labour Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day movement advocated for eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation/play, and eight hours for rest.

I hope you have a lovely long weekend!

Anthony