Good afternoon everyone

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break and have enjoyed some time with family. I moved house over the break so it was a very busy time for me but we were able to have lots of family time together which I always value.

Student Birthdays

As a school, we love celebrating our students and acknowledging the special milestone of their birthday. It is always a joy to recognise each child and ensure they feel valued on their day. To support a safe and inclusive environment for all students, we ask that families do not send in food items, birthday treats, or gifts to be shared with classmates. While these gestures are generous, they can unintentionally create challenges, including managing allergies, dietary requirements, and equity across our community. We are also mindful of not creating a sense of competition or expectation between families.

At Balambalam, we aim to shift the focus of birthdays back to what truly matters – celebrating your child. Our teachers take time to acknowledge each student’s birthday in a meaningful way within the classroom, ensuring every child feels special and included.

If you would like to celebrate with friends, we kindly ask that this takes place outside of school hours. Please note that any food or gifts brought to school for distribution will be sent home with your child. Thank you for your understanding and support in helping us maintain a safe, inclusive and positive environment for all students.

E-Scooters

As outlined in my recent Compass communication, I would like to remind families of the legal requirements surrounding e-scooters in Victoria and what this means for our school.

Under current Victorian law, e-scooters can only be used by individuals aged 16 years and over. Riders must also wear an approved helmet and follow strict road safety rules, including where e-scooters can be ridden. These laws are in place to support community safety and reflect the understanding that e-scooters are not suitable for younger riders.

As a primary school, all of our students are under the legal age. Therefore, students are not permitted to ride e-scooters to or from school, nor bring them onto school grounds for storage or use.

We appreciate your support in reinforcing this message at home. We continue to encourage safe and active travel options such as walking, cycling, and non-motorised scooters, with appropriate supervision and helmet use.

Student Supervision

The safety and wellbeing of every child is our highest priority. I would like to remind families of our yard supervision arrangements to ensure all students are appropriately supervised while on school grounds.

Staff supervision begins each morning at 8:35am. Students should not arrive at school before this time, as there is no supervision in place and this presents a safety risk. We ask families to support this by ensuring children arrive at or after the supervision start time and move directly to designated supervised areas.

At the end of the school day, supervision continues until 3:10pm. Students should be collected promptly, as supervision is not available beyond this time unless they are attending our approved Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) program with TEAM KIDS.

For families requiring care outside of these hours, we strongly encourage enrolment in our OSHC service, which provides a safe and supervised environment before and after school.

Please note that if a student remains at school beyond supervision times, the school will follow up with families and implement appropriate duty of care procedures.

Further information can be found in our Yard Duty and Supervision Policy, available on the Balambalam Primary School website:

Warm regards,

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