School Saving Bonus reminder and allocation to school activities

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus (SSB) – a one-off support of $400 for eligible government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.

The SSB can be used for uniforms and textbooks until Monday 30 June 2025.

Any funds remaining after 30 June 2025, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use on school activities. However, the credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July.

To use any remaining SSB funds to cover the cost of school activities in July, please refer to the SSB online system and allocate the funds to school activities before 30 June 2025.

To learn more about the SSB online system, download the step-by-step System guide for parents and carers (DOCX, 945KB) or watch this School Saving Bonus video. System guide translations are also available in 14 languages.

The Department of Education’s SSB contact centre will remain available until 30 June 2025. The contact centre can be reached by:

completing the School Saving Bonus enquiry form
calling 1800 338 663, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm on weekdays.

After this date, please contact our administration team for any SSB related questions.

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.

If you have a valid means-tested concession card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. Means-tested concession cards must be valid on the first day of Term 1, 2025 (Tuesday 28 January 2025) or Term 2, 2025 (Tuesday 22 April 2025).

A student aged 16 years and over who is considered a mature minor and holds a valid concession card is also eligible to apply.

Eligible families will receive a payment of $256 per year for secondary school students. The funds will be paid directly to the school to be used towards camps, sports and excursion costs for the benefit of your child.

If you applied for CSEF through our school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year, unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

If you would like to apply for the first time, please contact the school office on business.manager@whsc.vic.edu.au and ask for an application form. Please return completed application forms to the school office as soon as possible. Applications close on 4 July and they must be submitted by this date.

LOWES 20% off School wear - 14th, 15th & 16th May

Lowes are holding a 20% off Everything Sale Including School wear for zero and reward card holders. Online and in-store, see flyer below for further details.

Australian Dental Health will be visiting WHSC the week of 28 July 2025. Keepan eye on your Compass newsfeed for further information including how to register for an appointment.

Student Absences

If your student will be absent from school please login to the Compass Parent Portal and add an Attendance Note. If you are having difficulties logging into Compass please contact the General Office.

2025 School Contributions

2025 School Council Approved Contributions have been published. Payments can be made via Compass, with options for full payment or instalment plans.
Contributions are open for payment for the entire school year, with flexibility for part payments.
This year Curriculum Contributions for Year 9 – 12 Electives which incur a cost are available to pay via Compass Events.
Your financial contributions make a huge difference to our College and we are grateful for them.

Camps, Excursions, and Activities Payments

Extra-Curricular Items like camps and excursions are on a ‘user pays’ basis. Please pay and give consent via Compass by the due dates to ensure your child can attend.
Cut-off dates for payment and consent on Compass are set by the school to assist us in meeting our financial and duty of care requirements for each event. In support of meeting these obligations, we are not able to extend due dates for events or take late payments.
Compass now has the functionality to 'Pay with CSEF or credit balance' for events.
If you want to use CSEF or credit balances, ensure to check and complete the payments before the closing dates.

Important Reminders:

Consent and payment must be received by the due dates for students to participate in events.
If you have insufficient credits on your family account to cover the cost of an event we will allocate the amount that is available and update the event to show the amount that is still required to be paid. Payment of the balance will need to be completed before the event cut-off date for your child to be eligible to attend.
If you select 'Pay with CSEF or credit balance' for an event on Compass, please check the event again before the closing date to make sure that any outstanding balance is paid.

For any issues accessing Compass, please contact the school office at 9561 5811.

Judith Walsh

Business Manager

Campion have introduced vouchers that can be purchased throughout the year then redeemed online or in-store for all your booklist items. Please see details on the flyer.

WHSC Newsletter

Respect | Excellence | Creativity

Issue 6 · 16 May 2025

In this issue