Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 8 of the term and the last newsletter for Term 1. This week we enjoyed a relatively quieter week compared to other weeks. Last week and this week our Grade 3 and Grade 5 students have been participating in the NAPLAN testing. Our students have been well prepared for this occasion by our teaching staff and we will be able to review the results later in the year.

This week our Grade 5 and Grade 6 students (70 interested) have begun their tryouts for Energy Breakthrough. This year we are considering entering 3 teams (22-24 students) to participate in the Energy Breakthrough competition. Our team will be selected after students have been through the try out process. Leading the teams this year will be Mr Zerafa and Mrs Jones.

Our bell times have recently had a slight adjustment. One of the adjustments we made was not playing the music in the morning at 8.55am. The feedback from our teachers was that this music was a distraction to many of our students. Our teachers still meet the grades in their line up areas at 8.50am and look to start the day at this time.

We have also reduced the music times at lunchtime to increase more playing time and less lining up time. It is only a change of 2 minutes but we know how much our students enjoy their play times.

Bell times for school

8.50am-9.00am Bell to enter and get ready for class

9.00am-11.00am First Learning Session

11.00am-11.05am Snack in room

11.05am-11.30am Recess

11.29 - Music - 1 minute to get to line

11.30am-1.30pm Second Learning Session

1.30pm-1.40pm Lunch in Rooms

1.40pm-2.20pm Lunch Break

2.19 - Music - 1 minute to get to line

2.20pm-3.20pm Third Learning Session

3.20pm Dismissal

School Update :

Next term we scheduled a number of key events to be aware of. Please take note of some of these key dates in Term 2:

Week 1

Grade 3 Swimming & Parent information session 2.30PM - 3.20PM

Week 2

Art competition will be open to the students

Wednesday 24th April is our whole school Cross Country event that will occur at school

Thursday 25th April is ANZAC Day

Friday 26th April is the whole school Curriculum day and is a student free day

Week 3

Grade 4 Camp kicks off

Friday 3rd May is our Mother’s day stall

Week

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

1

April

15 Grade 3

Swimming

16 Grade 3

Swimming

17 Grade 3

Swimming

Parent Reader Information Session 2.30-3.20pm

18 Grade 3

Swimming

19 Grade 3

Swimming

2

22 School wide Art competition opens (Utopia)

23

24 Whole school School Cross Country 11.30-3.30pm

25

ANZAC DAY

26

Curriculum Day- Ann handwriting

3

May

29

Grade 4 Camp-Cave Hill Creek

30

Grade 4 Camp-Cave Hill Creek

1

Grade 4 Camp-Cave Hill Creek

2

3

Mother’s Day Stall

Week 5

Thursday 16th May is School Photo day

Friday 17th May is Grandparents’ day that runs from 9.00 - 10.30am

Week 7

Tuesday 28th May - this is a Student Report Writing day and no students attend this day

Week 10

Monday 17th June - Reports are posted on Compass

Week 11

Tuesday 25th June - Parent teacher interviews from 2.00pm -6.00pm and students finish school at 1.30pm.

Friday 28th June - Last day of school and school finishes at 1.30pm

Uniform policy

Below on the next page is an updated picture of students wearing our correct school uniform. One aspect of the school dress code is regarding hair length for both girls and boys. The uniform policy does state “shoulder length hair is to be tied back” (an example below of an AFL player below). This applies to both girls and boys. There is also a section dedicated to jewellery and cosmetics. This can be found on our school website. You will see that our uniform policy is very similar to our main feeder school Phoenix College. One adjustment we have made is to allow nose rings that are studs that accommodate any safety concerns.

If you have any questions please come and see a member of the Leadership team.

https://www.delacombeps.vic.edu.au/uniform Uniform - Phoenix P-12 Community College

School Murals unveiled

The school has been working on two murals over a period of two years and will finally have these murals installed during the holidays. One of the murals that will be displayed in one of our corridors is our Early Settler History wall.

The second mural is our First Peoples mural and history on this land. This will be displayed in our student kitchen area. We plan to unveil the murals in the first week back of Term 2 which is exciting for our school and acknowledge the people that contributed to it.

Annual General meeting attached the AGM

On Monday 25th March we will be holding our Annual General meeting and be tabling the Annual Report for 2023 in the School Staffroom at 6.45pm. The AGM will detail the achievements for 2023 and include department data to support this document. If you wish to attend the AGM and you are not on the School Council could you let us know, you are most welcome to attend.

Student portfolios for Term 1 will be sent home in the first week back of Term 2 and the return date will be in Week 3 of Term 2. On behalf of the school enjoy your Easter break and we look forward to seeing you back in Term 2.

Have a great week – Scott, Marnie, Stephanie and Michael

Community News

Check out what is going on in the Ballarat community outside of school.....