Riverwalk Primary School is a child safe community.

We acknowledge the Wathaurong People, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we teach and learn, and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Wominjeka!

Dear Families,

We are rapidly approaching the end of Term 2.

I have enjoyed working with the dedicated and outstanding staff, talented and awesome students and our collaborative and supportive families. Thank you everyone for your ongoing support over the term.

The Department of Education and School Council will soon finalising the process to appoint a new substantive Principal to lead Riverwalk Primary School for the future. We will notify the community with an update as soon as possible.

Much of this term I have supported the community to complete their VRQA minimum standards assessment for school registration, preparation of the self-evaluation for the upcoming school review in Term 4 and the completion of stage one of our $16.1 million Asset Management Plan (AMP).

I am working with the Department of Education to address ongoing concerns from across the community about security, the open-plan neighbourhood building design, reverse cycle cooling and heating and playground upgrades.

Apologies that the Whole School Assembly had to be postponed until next Friday. The Foundation Open Day will now be held on Thursday 26th June 2:45-3:15pm. Thank you for your understanding.

Visible Wellbeing - Strengths Spotting Week

As part of our Visible Wellbeing journey, each unit will have a dedicated week to celebrate the fantastic work our teachers and students have been doing throughout the term.

This week was our first ever Strengths Spotting Week! To celebrate our strengths our Mental Health & Wellbeing Team have designed, strengths stickers for all 24 strengths. During our library sessions students have contributed to our whole school strengths tree. Each student could choose a leaf or flower, add a picture of their face, and list their strengths. We have also updated our "Achieving Excellence" Certificates to include the 24 strengths.

This term we have been focusing on our school value of "Collaboration" and the corresponding strengths of: Teamwork, Leadership, Gratitude, Judgement, Honesty and Humour.

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.

Before & After School Supervision

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 (3:00-3:10pm). 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. Students who remain at school beyond 3:10pm awaiting parent/carer collection should sign up with our OSHC partner Team Kids to enrol their child for outside of school hours care. Please note due to our students' safety who attend Team Kids and after school activities, the school gates will be closed at 3:30pm daily. For after hours access, please use the entry/exit gate next to the admin building.

Thank you for your support in getting your child to attend school on time.

For a copy of our school’s Yard Duty and Supervision Policy please contact the school office. This policy includes Riverwalk Primary School’s student supervision arrangements across the school day, including before and after school. Parents/Carers are responsible for the supervision of their children until 8:50am.

eSafety Online

By taking responsible action, we can demonstrate how we all keep kids safe online and offline. This has never been more important with our children's increased screen-time and access to the internet. We know this causes many issues for our families at home and at school. Many of the issues we face are because children have access to social media and apps which are not age-appropriate. This creates a real safety concern for our students. Many apps and games have a minimum age requirement under their terms and conditions.

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

eSafety has a guide for parents, carers and grandparents (in six languages) which covers key online safety issues for young people and includes a range of practical advice on what to do if things go wrong. These resources cover the big issues and has tips for the hard to have conversations.
Screen time for your child – 7 tips on how families can balance their time on and offline.
eSafety Parents provides advice on social media, screen time, personal information, cyber-bullying, stranger contact and inappropriate content.
Be an eSafe kid for students with limited literacy.
Join one of the Parent Webinars: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

If you have any concerns about your child or another child online, you can report this directly to the social media platform. If you do not get a response within 48 hours you can then report this to the eSafety Commission. Learn how to report cyberbullying, image-based abuse and illegal content. School wellbeing staff are always available to support you and your family where possible. Issues that happen on social media out of school hours can also be reportable to Victoria Police.

As announced by the Premier on 4th June, from Term 3 Principals will have the authority to suspend or expel students when their behaviour online puts fellow students and staff at serious risk. The changes bring Victoria into line with NSW and South Australia and will address concerns around harmful behaviour that happens outside school hours – particularly online – but affects student and staff safety.

Please click here to view our Digital Learning Policy.

A few reminders:

Last Day of Term 2 is Friday 4th July at 1:30pm
First Day of Term 3 is Monday 21st July
Curriculum Day 13th August

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Anthony Jackson

Acting Principal

Subjects News