Principal

 HOT OFF THE PRESS: SOLWAY WINS GLEN IRIS DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY!

For the first time in over 14 years, Solway has come first at the District Cross Country! What an amazing achievement.  Congratulations to all the Year 3-6 students who ran at the District Cross Country today, we are extremely proud of you all.

We had 10 students make it through to the Division event which is being held on Monday 27 May.  Further information will be written for the next newsletter, as the students are only just returning to school.  Congratulations to all our students for participating and to the 10 students who made it through to the next stage!  A very big thank you to all who assisted at the event today.

Mother’s Day 

I hope all our families had a wonderful Mother’s Day, whatever you were doing.  I hope you managed to get outside and enjoy the lovely weather with your family.

A big thank you to Michaela Hatters for coordinating the Mother’s Day stall and to all who helped, either baking, wrapping, setting up or running the stall for the students on the day. The hall was a buzz of activity with many parents assisting to ensure the stall was smooth for our students!  The students had a wonderful time purchasing gifts for this special occasion.  The stall raised $1485 for the school. Thank you to all who contributed!

Education Week and Book Fair

Parents are invited to join us for our open numeracy session tomorrow, Wednesday 15 May, between 2:30-3:15pm to celebrate education week.  We also have our bi-annual book fair in on Friday 17-Tuesday 21 May, which will be open before and after school for families to make any book purchases. The funds raised at the bookfair allows us to purchase books for our school library, and we thank everyone for their support.

The Hon. Ben Carroll MP, Deputy Premier, Minister for Education

This short message from the Hon. Ben Carroll MP was sent to schools to share with families:

Term 2 message from The Hon. Ben Carroll MP (vimeo.com)

Working Bee – Sunday 5 May

What an amazing community we have!  With 24 families and four staff members helping out the school is looking much tidier. During this working bee we had leaf clean up, weeding, gardening, tidying, planting, moving of mulch and removal of locker doors! Thank you to all those who attended and helped out! 

Each term we hold a working-bee and hope that all families will be able to help out at one of the four planned sessions.  Working-bees go for 3-hours and give the school the ability to use school funds on the education of the students. Working bees save the school thousands of dollars in gardening and maintenance. 

The following families gave up some time and helped out on Sunday 5 May: 

Responsibility 

It is wonderful to see the Responsibility raffle tickets building up as our focus for Term 2 continues. It is great to hear about the way our students are displaying this school value. Bendigo Bank will be at the assembly on Friday 21 June to draw three winners!

ES Appreciation Day

Thursday 16 May is Education Support Staff Appreciation Day.  We have a wonderful group of Support Staff who work tirelessly to support the students and staff.  Thank you to our ES staff in the office, library, classrooms and supporting our iPad program: Georgia Banks, Fiona Barron-Toop, Tonia Clifton-Mills, Anastasia Kotsonis, Sarah McDonell, Ella Mills, Karen O’Neill, Louise Pearson and Steven Williamson.

Maintenance

If you have been into the Year 2 classrooms this term you may have noticed the new colours. We are working our way through the school to update the paintwork and modernise the colour scheme.  The Year 2 classrooms look so much brighter and fresher, as the five different paint colours on the wall and doors, became two! We went from orange, green, cream, purple, and blue to white walls and grey doors.  This completes the main building, with the next stage of the planned work for the year one and year three classrooms, later this year or in 2025. 

School Council approved the installation of air conditioners in the final two classrooms in the Year 5/6 building and first aid room.  All classrooms now have air conditioning and heating! 

Pupil Free Day and Long Weekend

Friday 7 June is a Curriculum Day when our staff will take part in School Wide Positive Behaviour and Numeracy professional learning.  Monday 10 June is a Public Holiday, and the school will be closed.  We hope our families enjoy the extra day over the long weekend and have a chance to enjoy the short break.

Late last year, School Council approved five pupil free days.  This information was published in the newsletter on the 28 November 2023, however, only four days were communicated this year.  We apologise for this oversight.  The fifth day will take place on Monday 15 July – the first day of term three.  TeamKids will operate a service for those families who require student supervision.

School Saving Bonus

On Tuesday the State Government announced the introduction of the School Saving Bonus as part of the state budget announcements.  Details provided from the Department about the initiative:

Dear parents and carers,

You may have seen the recent announcement of the School Saving Bonus, as part of the Victorian Budget 2024/25. We are sharing more information about how families will be able to access and use this support. This one-off support will include $400 for each eligible student to help families cover the costs of school uniforms and activities in 2025.

It will be available to parents and carers of every child enrolled in a Victorian government school in 2025.  Cash will not be paid directly to individuals or families.  Instead, families will receive the bonus as credits on their school accounts that will help meet the costs of your children’s activities and uniforms.

Existing supports

The School Saving Bonus support will be in addition to existing and continuing means-tested supports for camps, sports, excursions and uniforms. The application-based Affordable School Uniform program, through State Schools’ Relief, will continue to be available to families experiencing financial hardship or other forms of vulnerability and short-term crisis. This program allows schools to make multiple applications for support on parents' behalf throughout the year if needed.  There will be more information and guidance about the School Saving Bonus in Term 3, 2024, ahead of its implementation in 2025.

Lyn Rodda

Principal