Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Officeworks New Store Opening: Last week Alana, our Business Manager, and myself were invited to the opening of the new Officeworks store in Melton. We were honoured to be part of the celebration and thrilled with the offer of a donation of $2000 to our school. When each store opens, they choose 2 community organisations to support, one educational and one not-for-profit. We were the lucky school in the area to be chosen for the educational one. We left the celebration with our first purchase, some much needed office chairs. Thank you Melton Officeworks.

2024 School Council Nominations: As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, we had 3 vacancies in the Parent category for next School Council. After only receiving one nomination by the due date, we extended the period for a further 2 nominations. When this second period closed, we had only received one more nomination. This means we still have ONE vacancy, which will be treated as a casual vacancy. If you are interested in finding out more information about being on School Council, or would like to attend as a visitor to see if it is something you may be interested in, please contact me through the office. Our first meeting will be on Monday 18th March 2024. Thank you to the two parents who have chosen to join us and to Ms Moore, who has continued to choose to nominate for the vacancy in the Employee Category.

Child Safety Standards: At Melton West Primary School, we are committed to acting in the best interests of our students and keeping them safe from harm. The school regards its child protection responsibilities as being of the utmost importance. This means that in practice we are focused on providing the necessary resources to ensure compliance with all relevant child protection legislation and regulations; and to maintaining a child safe culture.

The following principles underpin our commitment to child safety at Melton West Primary School:

All students deserve, as a fundamental right, safety and protection from all forms of abuse and neglect.
Our school works in partnership with families and the community to ensure that they are engaged in decision-making processes, particularly those that have an impact on child safety and protection.
All students have the right to a thorough and systematic education in all aspects of personal safety, in partnership with their parents/guardians/caregivers.
All adults in our school, including teaching and non-teaching staff, volunteers and contractors as well as the broader school community have a responsibility to care for children and young people, to positively promote their wellbeing and to protect them from any kind of harm or abuse.
The policies, guidelines and codes of conduct for the care, wellbeing and protection of students are based on honest, respectful and trusting relationships between adults and children and young people.

Supervision at Park: As you may be aware, there is a park on the corner of Coburns Road and West Melton Drive, where a number of students wait for their parents afterschool. Please be aware that the school is not able to provide teacher supervision in this area. I therefore suggest that you consider an alternative location at which your child waits to be picked up. Can I also remind you that we have an After School care facility run by Extend that is safe and well supervised and children can attend at a minimal cost. Please contact the school if you would like further information about Extend. Enrolment Packs are available at the office. We have staff on yard duty, within the school grounds, before school from 8.30 am when gates are opened and afterschool until 3.20 pm. Please ensure your child is collected promptly at 3.05 pm when they are released from their classroom, as it can be very stressful for a child to be the only one left in the playground when all other children have gone home.

I would like to remind parents that it is your responsibility to:

ensure that your child arrives to school safely and are in the care of school staff at the beginning of the school day, and
ensure that your child is collected from the school premises at the end of the school day, or that alternative arrangements have been made for your children

Breakfast Club: Foodbank has partnered with our school and provides food for Breakfast Club on an ongoing basis. All children are welcome to attend Breakfast Club and can arrive after 8.10am, entering through the office.

Speaking to Other Children: We occasionally have situations where parents or carers of a child feel it necessary to intervene with an incident involving a different child. It may be because they see inappropriate behaviour they feel needs addressing or that the child may have had an incident with their own child that they feel needs to be followed up. It is important to let the school deal with these situations as it can be quite frightening for children to have unknown adults talk to them or reprimand them. If you have witnessed a situation in the yard that concerns you, please speak to myself or Sarah Mills about your concerns. Due to privacy reasons, we probably can’t go into much detail, however ensuring you know we are aware and are dealing with the situation hopefully will help alleviate any concerns you may have. There can be numerous factors impacting a child’s behaviour and observing a small part of a situation does not usually adequately depict how we may be managing the situation. We appreciate your understanding and trust that we are doing all we can to support the child and others who may be impacted, including utilising external supports as and when required. If your child is experiencing difficulties, including bullying, that you do not believed has been properly followed up, please call the office to make an appointment with a member of the Principal Class Team, or Ms Moore our Wellbeing Teacher.

Attendance During Hot Weather: Over the past few weeks we have had a few very hot days. The air conditioners were serviced and few needed replacing. This occurred yesterday, so now all learning spaces are fully air conditioned. We also enact a Hot Day Weather Timetable, where students remain inside at break times when the temperature reaches 35 degrees. It is important to be at school every day they are well, and we are now fully prepared for extreme hot weather.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal