Newport Lakes Primary School

Principal Report

Hello to all our families on this fog-filled week! 

 

As winter stays firmly wrapped around us here in bayside Melbourne, our classrooms are heating up, with all our students delving deeply into this term’s learning, as well as getting ready for our special, school wide events like Science Week this week and the production, ‘A Day at the Museum’ in Week 9. 

 

During the week I’ve been particularly impressed with the students’ interest and dedication to saving the bees and cannot wait to see what unfolds on Friday, as part of our Science Week activities, and even in the coming weeks, as many students wish to continue to raise awareness and funds for this important cause.  

 

Term 3 Acting Principal Update

A reminder that I am on long service leave and heading off to the warmer climate of Italy next week for the remainder of Term 3. Unfortunately, David Moss is unwell and will not be able to come back to be Acting Principal in my absence. Judy Maguire, the Hobsons Bay Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL) is currently looking for a suitable replacement to come in and support Mat and our staff. I am very confident that Mat and the team will continue to ensure the school stays in ‘business as usual’ mode and that the person yet to be selected to fill in as Acting Principal will ably assist in this as well. The school will update you as things come to pass. In the meantime, we wish David a speedy recovery and smooth rehabilitation period.

 

Parent Opinion Survey

Each year, we select a random sample of parents and ask them to complete the Department of Education’s (DE) Parent Opinion Survey. The results are very important to us as a school,  helping to gauge parent satisfaction with various aspects of the school such as communication, ethos & environment and student cognitive engagement. If you have been randomly selected, you would have received an email last week with your own link. Please take a moment to let us know what you think as this informs our next strategic plan and helps define if we have been successful in implementing key implementation strategies this year.

 

Bullying No Way

A big focus for our wellbeing work across the school for term 3 is around reducing the risk of bullying here at NLPS. We are prioritising this important message through a number of approaches. Firstly, our school council’s policy subcommittee has recently updated our school’s Bullying Prevention Policy. This is in line with DE requirements and, although based on a departmental template, also contains the specific things we do here at NLPS to reduce the instances of bullying in the first place and how we respond if it does occur.  If you look at the policy, you will note that the Department of Education states that bullying has three main features:

  • It involves a misuse of power in a relationship
  • It is ongoing and repeated, and
  • It involves behaviours that can cause harm.

There are four main types of bullying behaviour:

 

Physical – examples include hitting, pushing, shoving or intimidating or otherwise physically hurting another person, damaging or stealing their belongings. It includes threats of violence.

 

Verbal/written – examples include name-calling or insulting someone about an attribute, quality or personal characteristic.

 

Social (sometimes called relational or emotional bullying) – examples include deliberately excluding someone, spreading rumours, sharing information that will have a harmful effect on the other person and/or damaging a person’s social reputation or social acceptance.

 

Cyberbullying - any form of bullying behaviour that occurs online or via a mobile device. It can be verbal or written, and can include threats of violence as well as images, videos and/or audio

 

Taking into account the above, you will realise that this ongoing, one-sided harmful behaviour is not prevalent at our school. Of course, any form of disrespect or teasing is not acceptable and we work hard to ensure that our students are demonstrating our school values - showing compassion and respect to each other and our staff - and would hope that this is also reflected in our parent community as well.

 

Secondly, our PLT Wellbeing Leaders are looking through the ‘Bully Stoppers’ program and applying those strategies and lessons to their particular cohort and our context. The program is also available to students and parents - https://www.vic.gov.au/bully-stoppers and the website contains information and advice.

 

Thirdly, we will again acknowledge the upcoming national week of action, ‘Bullying No Way’ - August 12th -16th. Further details around this can be found in this newsletter, and I encourage us all to wear a touch of purple as a show of solidarity against bullying behaviours. 

 

You can support our work at home by ensuring that you use the term ‘bullying’ correctly, and not for one-off instances of frustration and/or disrespect, and by letting your child’s teacher know if your child is feeling targeted by a student/group of students. 

 

School Council

The NLPS School Council met again this past Monday evening via WebEx. Even though all our positions are filled for the year, please note that all our school community members are still very welcome to attend or be part of our subcommittees. This year, we have subcommittees relating to Facilities, Policies, Finance, Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) and Community & Fundraising. Note that our OSHC is preparing a survey around current parent opinions of the service provided by Quantin Binnah as we are nearing the end of the current service contract.

 

I hope you all stay warm and well and enjoy the wonderful whole school activities occurring over the upcoming seven weeks.

 

Carly Bannon

Proud NLPS Principal

 

Student Enrolment Information

Families will have received an email during the week asking them to review the student enrolment information the school has on file for them. Parents and carers are asked to check that all details are still current and correct and if there are any changes to please return the form as soon as possible. 

 

 

 

Smile Squad - Victorian Government free school dental program

The Smile Squad team from Cohealth are coming to our school soon.

 

Smile Squad is the Victorian Government free school dental program. Any student enrolled in a Victorian Government PS are eligible.  No need for a healthcare card, Medicare card or the CDBS. This means all students can get a free dental check-up, preventive services, and treatment at school. 

 

What to do if you would like to access free dental care for your child

  • We need your consent before we can provide services. Consent is usually provided by a parent or guardian. 
  • Sign up to Smile Squad at: https://bit.ly/smilesquadvic  OR use the QR code below: 
  • Please complete and submit the consent form by 18/08/2024.

 Paper copies of the consent form are available. Please contact the school office if you would like to request one. The electronic consent form can be translated into more than 100 languages, and the paper form is available in 13 languages.

 

Smile Squad dental packs

All children deserve a healthy smile, and the Smile Squad free school dental program is working hard to help make sure this happens. 

 

Your child(ren) would have bought home a free dental pack this week. The dental pack contains a toothbrush, full sized toothpaste, and an oral health brochure. Please take the time to read the brochure. It’s full of helpful hints and tips to help your whole family eat well, drink well and clean well – for life. 

 

Smile Squad provides standard strength fluoride toothpaste that is generally used by ages six and over, unless recommended by a dental or trained health professional.

 

If your child is under six, please talk to a dental or trained health professional to find out if your child might benefit from using this toothpaste. You can also choose to put the toothpaste away until they turn six or give it to someone else in your family to use. 

 

FAQ's

Do I need to attend my child’s appointment?

No, you do not need to attend your child’s appointment.

 

If my child needs any follow up procedures, is it done at school?

No, initial consultations only will be held at Newport Lakes PS. If your child requires any follow up procedures, they will be required to attend an appointment at CoHealth in Footscray. Smile Squad will provide you with your appointment details. 

 

The Cohealth Smile Squad look forward to seeing you soon. 

 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact 03 9448 6171. You can also find more information about Smile Squad at: www.smilesquad.vic.gov.au.