Notices/Reminders

School Saving Bonus

Important Reminder – Please Action if you wish to use any portion of the $400 School Saving Bonus (SSB) on any school related activities.

If you wish to use any portion of the $400 SSB on any school related activities (including excursions or camps) please note that you must go into the SSB Portal and allocate the money to “Activities”.  You are not selecting a specific activity at this stage, rather an amount you wish to have available to use at the school.  We cannot allocate SSB monies to any school activities unless you have reallocated the funds in the SSB Portal beforehand. This is a critical step in the process and must be done by each individual family using their secure SSB Portal login details.

The SSB Portal is integrated with the school's administration system (CASES21) and this allocation is required to allow the school to use the funds on your behalf.

The SSB Portal works in $50 increments.

Steps:

1. Decide what portion of the original SSB ($400) you wish to use on Textbooks/Uniforms – if any.

2. In the SSB Portal, reallocate the remainder of the $400 to Activities.

3. This will then enable you to use the funds on any school activities, excursions or camps in the future.

Please note: Any unspent SSB funds on 1 July 2025 will sit in your Family account indefinitely, the funds rollover for use in future years.

If you choose to allocate the SSB or some of the SSB towards school activities, you must advise the school that you would like to use the SSB for the events you wish to use it for. Families are not able to indicate as such in Compass when giving permission for events which is why you must advise the school.

A guide for parents and carers is attached which outlines how to use the SSB for ordering uniform or allocating to school activities on the SSB parent and carer online system.

Camps, Sports & Excursions Fund (CSEF)

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments for eligible students to attend activities like:

• school camps or trips

• swimming extension activities and other school-organised sport programs

• outdoor education programs

• excursions and incursions

• graduations/valedictories.

Families can list more than one student in the one application form if they are attending the same school.

Parents/carers wishing to apply for CSEF payments for 2025 must submit their application form to the relevant school by 4 July 2025.

However, a parent/carer will only be required to submit an application form to the school in the following circumstances:

• the parent/carer is applying for the CSEF payment for the first time – i.e. an application form was not lodged with the school in the previous year; or

• circumstances have changed – e.g. there has been a change in the care arrangement of the student, a change of name or CRN, or a new sibling has commenced at the school and the parent/carer wishes to apply for the CSEF payment for the new sibling.

Those that are eligible to apply for the CSEF are:

• families holding a valid means-tested concession card

• a student over 16 years who is considered a mature minor and holds a valid concession card (such as a Youth Allowance Health Care Card or Disability Support Pension Card).

A special consideration category also exists for refugee and asylum seeker families and students placed in temporary care.

Means-tested concession cards must now be valid on either:

• the first day of Term 1 – 28 January

• the first day of Term 2 – 22 April

Conveyance Allowance

Conveyance allowance is a contribution towards transport costs and is not intended to cover the full cost of transporting children to and from school.

The conveyance allowance may be available to students attending government or non-government schools and:

• travelling by public transport or by private car, motorbike, bicycle or bus, and

• whose nearest school is not serviced by a free school bus provided under the School Bus Program

To be eligible for the conveyance allowance a student must reside 4.8km or more from the school/campus they attend. This distance is measured as the shortest practicable route from the student’s residence to the school/campus using all-weather public roads drivable by car.

The Student Conveyance Allowance System (SCAS) assesses this eligibility criteria by:

• determining the shortest route between the student’s address and the school/campus attended (whereas other public mapping tools commonly measure the shortest travel time)

• producing a table showing distances to nearby like schools, for comparison, which assists schools to determine whether the student is attending their nearest school/campus.

The distance measured does not include private driveways.

Applications can be completed using the form below and submitted to the school by the following dates: