School News
Harmony Day
On Friday 21st March we will be celebrating Harmony Day at PPS. This isa celebration of Australia's cultural diversity, promoting inclusiveness, respect, and a sense of belonging for all Australians.
The theme for 2025 is "Harmony - we all have a role to play!" and encourages everyone to actively participate in creating a harmonious and inclusive society.
To mark this day, we invite all students to come to school on Friday 21st March, wearing a touch of orange. Whether it's an orange accessory, a ribbon or orange socks, let's show our support for unity and diversity by adding a splash of orange to our attire. School uniform must be worn as well.
Why orange? On the official Harmony Week website, it tells us that ‘orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week’ as it ‘signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.’
During the week, our students will complete various activities with Mackenzie Sensei and Mami Sensei and on Friday 21st March we will be singing a special Harmony Day song at our 3pm Assembly, (parents are welcome to attend).
Child safety and wellbeing at PPS: information for families and the school community
Parkdale Primary is committed to providing an environment where students are safe and feel safe.
Our child safety framework explains how we support and maintain child safety and wellbeing at PPS. It includes our:
Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Child Safety Reporting and Responding Obligations Procedures, and
Child Safety Code of Conduct, which outlines acceptable and unacceptable behaviours for all staff and volunteers at our school.
Our students and families are important partners in providing a child safe environment. These regular newsletter reminders are one of the ways we ensure our school community is aware of:
our commitment to child safety, and
how to provide feedback or raise child safety concerns.
If you have any concerns about child safety at any time, please contact Tracy Richards on 9580 1451. Any child safety complaints or concerns are treated seriously. For more information about our school’s complaints process, see our Complaints Policy.
We also welcome your ideas on ways we can improve our approach to child safety and wellbeing. If you have any suggestions or comments please contact Leanne Bradney or Tracy Richards at parkdale.ps@education.vic.gov.au
Before and after school supervision
Student safety at Parkdale Primary is our highest priority and the safe and appropriate supervision of students is an important element of our duty of care to students. Part of this duty is ensuring parents and students are aware of our student supervision arrangements before and after school.
Before school: School grounds are supervised by school staff from 8.45am.
After school: School grounds are supervised until 3.45pm.
Students on school grounds outside these times will not be supervised (unless they are attending a before or after school care program or supervised extracurricular activity).
Parents/carers are requested to ensure that students do not attend school outside of these supervised times unless they are attending before or after school care, or a pre-arranged supervised activity (i.e. sports practice).
Families are encouraged to contact TheirCare on 0436 333 138 or refer to www.theircare.com.au for more information about the before and after school care facilities available to our school community or if you would like any further information about our student supervision arrangements.