From the Office
News From the Principal
Father's Day
We would like to wish all of our dads, step-dads, grand-dads and special father figures in our lives a very enjoyable Father's Day on Sunday.
A reminder that we are holding our Father's Day stall tomorrow in the afternoon. Students may bring along up to $5 if they wish to choose some small gifts.
Smile Squad six month fluoride varnish visit
The Bendigo Health Smile Squad team are heading back to our school to complete six-monthly fluoride varnish applications for those students who have provided consent. Fluoride varnish applications help make sure students have the best chance of preventing tooth decay, so we’re excited Smile Squad are coming back.
Consent for this fluoride varnish application was provided when students’ initial consent forms were returned. However, if anyone has changed their mind and do not wish to receive a fluoride varnish application, they can contact Bendigo Health directly to let them know. Please contact the Smile Squad team via:
0460 729 200dental@bendigohealth.org.au
They are visiting us tomorrow- Friday August 30th. Notification about this visit was sent home to families last week.
School Saving Bonus
In Term 4, 2024, families with a child enrolled in a government school from Prep to Year 12 in 2025 will receive the one-off $400 School Saving Bonus.
The $400 School Saving Bonus provides families with support for education-related costs, such as school activities and/or school uniforms and textbooks.
The School Saving Bonus is not available for full-fee international students, home schooled students, TAFE students and students attending kindergarten in 2025.
Actions for parents and carers
Before 18 October 2024, the Department of Education is asking parents and carers to:
- Complete enrolment: If your child, or children are changing government school for Term 1 2025, or starting Prep or Year 7 in 2025. For more information, read about Enrolling in School.
- Check your contact information: Ensure your email address and phone number is up to date with us. You can check this information by contacting us directly.
We need to ensure your contact information is up to date as the Department of Education will email you twice:
- in October, to verify your email address
- in November, with your $400 School Saving Bonus.
Please check your junk mail regularly to make sure you do not miss an important email.
To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, download the School Saving Bonus Information sheet for government school parents and carers or visit vic.gov.au/school-saving-bonus.
Cluster Athletics
Last Friday our Year 4 & 6 ladies (along with Mr Collins and Ms Roediger) travelled into Bendigo to participate in the annual Campaspe Small Schools Cluster Athletics Day. Our students had been training back at school and competed on the day with determination, strength, speed and most of all good sports-womanship! We are very proud of each of you and the way you represented our school. Thank you to Mr Collins for driving the bus (a bit of overkill when we only ended up with four students in attendance). The students were very grateful for the stop over at Maccas on the way home!
Parent, Caregiver and Guardian Opinion Survey 2024
Thank you to those families who took the time to complete this survey and show your support for our school. By completing this survey you have helped indicate to the staff at Regional Office and at the Department of Education that we have families that are invested in their child's education and want to see our school continue to grow and thrive into the future. We had eight out of our nine families respond, which is great. The survey remains open until tomorrow to allow time for all families to participate. It would be beneficial if we had all families opinions and thoughts for our future planning and it would also indicate to the department that all of our families are onboard with continuing and developing the future of our school.
Student Illness
We recently had many of our students come down with illness. Some families who tested
for Covid found out that their children had Influenza A, other families indicated that they yielded a negative test or did not test (you are not under any obligation to do so). Thank you to each of our families who ensured that their unwell children remained at home to recover. The next paragraph is not written as a result of any family in particular sending unwell students, but I just thought it serves as a reminder to all families.
Whilst we are aware students can fall ill whilst at school and if this is the case we will contact the parents/caregivers to come and pick them up ASAP and isolate the unwell student away from the other students; it is never a good idea to send an unwell child to school and just "see how they go". If a child has vomited or had any gastro symptoms in the previous 24 hours they should not be at school. Similarly if a child has a fever, headaches, a unidentified rash and/or a severe cough they should also be kept away from school in order to protect the other students and staff. Unwell students are not in a position to be learning and therefore remaining at home whilst unwell and recovering will not jeopardise their learning. On the flip side, sending an unwell child to school can result in other students and staff becoming ill and needing to miss school/work. If you are ever unsure as to whether to send your child to school, please contact Lisa or Bree and we can advise you. The department of health also have a website that has exclusion table for particular diseases and can be found at https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/school-exclusion-table
End of Term
This day will be here before we know it. Our final day of term is a Footy Colours Day. We invite all students (and staff) to wear footy colours and bring along a gold coin donation. All funds will be donated to the official footy colours day fundraising event which raises funds for children living with cancer- a very worthy cause.
Students do not have to wear football clothing and we are certainly not expecting families to go out and purchase clothing especially for this event. Students can wear any clothing that represents the colours of their choice of team. Scarves, beanies, stripy socks and ribbons could also be used to represent your team of choice.
We will also be serving a footy themed lunch (party pies, sausage rolls and savloys) for the students to enjoy. This incidentally, will be the final day of pie warmer for 2024 as it only operates in Terms 2 and 3 when the weather is cold.
A reminder that at the end of term we dismiss the students at 2:20pm which means the bus will do the afternoon drop offs, one hour ahead of its usual time.
That's all for this week- Lisa Duffy
Message from Bree in the office
Uniform Orders
A reminder to families that if you wish to make use of the $170 uniform voucher, that you return your order promptly to the office. Due to us having to submit a bulk order and wanting the uniforms available to families as soon as possible, late orders can not be accepted. The cut off date for return of your order is September 13th. Please contact Bree in the office if you have any questions.
Audrey Felini is collecting clean, empty Mini M&M tubes from now until October. If you have any, please send them to school. These will be used for our end of the year Christmas sessions that Audrey runs for our students.
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