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

• To read Issue 1 of our Jackson School Newsletter for essential information for families, please click here: https://newsletters.naavi.com/i/NQmErDN 
• Official Opening & Welcome BBQ
• Parent Teacher Interviews / Student Support Groups (SSGs)
• Communication & Bus/Pick-up Changes
• High Intensity OSHC Program
• 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,

Welcome Back to Term 1!

It has been an exciting and positive start to the school year. As always it was lovely to welcome our students and staff back to school. Classes are establishing clear expectations and routines to ensure a successful year ahead. We have made some minor changes to class placements to balance and meet individual student's needs. The class Teacher and/or sub-school Leading Teacher will have been in contact with you if this applies to your child.

Official Opening & Welcome BBQ

Today our new school buildings were officially opened by The Hon. Natalie Suleyman MP, Local Member for St Albans, Minister for Youth, Minister for Veterans and Minister for Small Business on behalf of the Deputy Premier / Minister for Education. This also included a Vietnamese dance for Luna New Year (Tet). Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for this special day.

This time last year, we began our school capital works upgrade, and now 12 months on, we are officially in the new buildings. We received official handover at 5pm on Tuesday just in time for our students return on Wednesday. 

This milestone celebrates over 5 years of work in investing in our new facilities. Prior to receiving the $10 million from the Victorian Government, School Council had allocated $2 million towards a school upgrade. This investment has contributed to our finished project, which has delivered state-of-the-art facilities for our students for years to come. Our students and staff have coped remarkably with the disruption onsite and reduced facilities available. I am very proud of what we have achieved together. A massive THANK YOU!

Parent Teacher Interviews / Student Support Groups (SSGs)

We look forward to welcoming all of you to our parent teacher interviews / student support groups (SSG). These will take place onsite on Tuesday 20th February between 3:30-7:30. Please return your preferred times to your class teacher asap to meet your child's teacher and discuss their learning goals. Based upon parent feedback last year, we are only offering in person SSGs at Jackson School this term. We are hoping this allows you to meet your child's teacher to establish a positive relationship for a successful ahead. If this does not suit, then you can make a phone or virtual meeting with your child's class teacher is the following weeks this term. There will also be an opportunity for IT support with Xuno (Parent Portal) and SeeSaw (Student Digital Learning Portfolio). 

The purpose of the SSGs is to establish a strong home-school relationship, complete your child's Individual Education Plan & Learner Profile and review progress against your child's “Long Term” goals. Following your Term 1 SSG your child's teacher will finalise your child's Semester 1 Individual Learning Plan (ILP). 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) and based upon the Victorian Curriculum (Prep-Year 10). These are informed from our current assessments of what your child can already do. For Year 11/12 students who are working towards achieving their ASDAN and VPC outcomes, these will be reported to you in your end of Semester 1 reports. All students at Jackson receive reasonable adjustments to meet their individual learning needs. These include: differentiated teaching and learning, adjustments (from our Allied Health and Wellbeing Teams) and other support strategies. Should you wish a hard copy of your ILP, you can request this through your child's classroom teacher. 

SSGs and ILPs are key documents which will support our transition from the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) to Disability Inclusion (DI) in 2024. Kris Parsons, one of our past Assistant Principals, is currently managing this implementation across all schools in the South West Victorian Region. This will replace the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) and the way students are funded to be at Jackson. There is currently no change to the funding our students receive to attend Jackson School. This will occur after the February census in 2024.

For more information on the Disability Inclusion Reform, please visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/disability-inclusion-extra-support-children-disability

Communication & Bus/Pick-up Changes

To develop a strong home-school partnership, Parents/Carers main point of contact for school communication should be your child's classroom teacher. This can be through SeeSaw, by phone (leave a message at the school office) or by appointment (SSGs can be booked through the school office). Whole School communication will continue to be sent out through Xuno email and SMS notifications. iNewsletter remains our official whole school communication tool with families for general information and notices in place of hardcopy letter. Please ensure you have let your child's teacher know if there are any daily bus, OSHC or parent pick-up changes through SeeSaw or by calling the school office directly on: 03 9366 4322. 

High Intensity OSHC Program

As a continuation of the OSHC Demonstration Program at Jackson School, our school was selected to take part in the High Intensity Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC) initiative, starting from 2024. 20 Victorian government specialist schools will now take part in the initiative from this year.

I am pleased to announce that the Victorian Government has re-appointed TheirCare as Jackson School's OSHC provider as part of this new initiative. There will be no change to the service provided to our students and families. 

Jenelee Aganus-Bituin will be moving to establish a new OSHC service at Western Autistic School. We thank Lee for her leadership of our OSHC Demonstration Program and wish her all the very best for the future. Congratulations Caitlin who will be TheirCare's new OSHC Coordinator at Jackson School and has been working as the 2IC for the service. School Council will now work with the Their Care team to review and agree on the terms of the service moving forward. Karen Hamilton will continue in her role as the school-based OSHC Project Manager who is based in the school office. 

Please find important information about the High Intensity OSHC initiative below.

School Council Nominations

Jackson School’s School Council is the voice of the parents on how we run our school. 

All government schools in Victoria have a School Council. School Council is the governing body of the school and plays an important role in our community. School Council has four main responsibilities:

1. Governance: establish the broad direction and vision for the school within the community. They oversee school buildings and grounds (facility hire, maintenance and improvements) as well as other contracts including: Out of School Hours Care (OSHC).
2. Strategic Planning: contributes to the finalisation of the School Strategic Plan and development of the Annual Implementation Plan and reports annually (Annual report) to the school community. 
3. Finance:  monitors school revenue and expenditure and approves school budgets including for parent voluntary contributions and camps and excursions.
4. Policy & Review: ratifies DE and school-level policy decisions (including child safe standards), participates in the school review pre-review evaluation and review panel.

Over the last 12 months, Jackson School Council have been heavily involved in our school building upgrade and school improvements. School Council have contributed school funds towards our capital works program, including our Basketball Canopy. 

For more information please see: https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/school-council-overview/overview or download the following fact sheet: 

We are looking for new members to join our school council, in the following categories:

• 2 Parent Members
• 1 Optional Community Member
• 2 School Employee Members
• 2 Elected Student Members (usually our School Captain and Vice-Captain)

Jackson School Council meet each 3rd Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm. Meetings are run very efficiently and usually take about 1 and a half hours. All members of the community are welcome to attend our Public Reporting Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 19th March at 6:30pm onsite at Jackson School. 

If you would like to join our school council as a parent/community member, please complete the attached self-nomination and hand back to the school office or email: josephine.garofalo@education.vic.gov.au.

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Anthony