Principal's Message

Remote Learning, and the opportunities for our community to shine.

As we post our newsletter today, we once again find ourselves entering a period of Remote Learning. 

At this stage, schools will be in a Remote Learning scenario effective from Monday 31st May- Thursday 3rd June 2021 (inclusive). What occurs beyond this date will be advised by the Victorian Government as events unfold. 

Unfortunately, there will once again be an impact upon planned school events. At the time of publishing we can confirm the following events are postponed, and will not occur as scheduled: 

• Division Cross Country
• District Winter Sports
• Year Level Assemblies
• School Tours
• Breakfast Club
• Running Club

For those families who have already paid for Division Cross Country or District Winter Sports, your account will remain in credit with the payment being applied to a future scheduled date. Should you wish to gain a refund to your payment, and therefore pay again in the future, please make contact with the school office. 

The importance of staying connected with our staff

If we could ask you to be aware of one thing only during Remote Learning, that one thing is:

Reach out to us if you need support. 

We have done this before, successfully... and we can do it again. 

All of our staff have undergone extensive trauma training through the Berry Street Education Model, and are well-versed in what is required to assist your family through Remote Learning. 

At 3:00pm today, all families of our school community should have received a Compass post from their child's classroom teacher which details the Learning Schedule for next week. We encourage you to make the time to read this post in detail. 

Whilst we are mindful that another round of Remote Learning can bring a range of emotions, we are proud to say that as a school staff we are feeling confident and prepared for this round of Remote Learning.  

Today we have met as a teaching team, and have utilised our time to revise and fine-tune next week’s Remote Learning schedule. Remote Learning is not normal schooling, and as such we are acting upon what we know has worked well for our students in the past.  

The start to our school year has been so productive and harmonious, with the students across our classes forming many positive relationships as we have taken the time to get to truly know each other better. 

Hence, as a team of committed educational professionals we want to continue building these positive relationships over the coming four days of Remote Learning. 

We remind families that the intended school closure period is currently only in place until Thursday 3rd June 2021. 

Therefore, we encourage your family to make learning decisions that are aligned with promoting harmony and emotional welfare across your household.

2022 Foundation Enrolments

Whilst in-person school tours are currently on hold, you can still seek information from our School Principal. 

Since the commencement of Term Two, we have been inundated with requests for families from the surrounding area to attend school tours. As a school with an extremely strong reputation across the community we want to hear from any of our existing families who have younger siblings due to start Foundation in 2022. 

By securing 2022 enrolments for existing families, we will then be in a strong position to determine how many positions exist for students who live within our designated school zone, and then determine how many vacancies may remain for students who live beyond our school zone. 

For information regarding enrolments, please contact the school office. 

Smile Squad School Dental Program

The below is a copy of the information contained within our last newsletter, and remains here as a reminder for parents/carers to action. 

You may have recently heard that the Victorian Government has announced that the Smile Squad- School Dental Program- will continue to be rolled out across more schools and Local Government Areas (LGAs) from mid-Term Two, 2021. 

As a school within the Yarra Ranges Council, we are pleased to say that we have secured the Smile Squad School Dental Program for our student community, with dental health sessions for students commencing on-site from Week One, Term Three, 2021. 

This week each student brought home a dental health information pack, provided by the Victorian Government. Inside this pack will be a consent form which parents/carers are required to complete in order to access this free dental service. 

More details regarding the program, arrangements for our school, and timelines will be published via Compass when dental health information packs are distributed in approximately a fortnight from now. 

What is Smile Squad? 

Smile Squad is a Victorian Government dental program offered for students. Smile Squad will provide free oral health examinations and follow up treatment to all Victorian government primary, secondary and specialist school students.

Smile Squad is committed to the same high standards of safety and quality required of all public dental services, and must be accredited to all relevant National Safety and Quality Health Service standards. These standards provide a nationally consistent statement of the level of care consumers can expect from health service organisations.

For more information about Smile Squad, please refer to the attached .pdf below:

Yarra Valley Psychology is partnering with our school!

We are pleased to share with you that our school has secured a partnership with Yarra Valley Psychology (YVP) Services (https://yvp.com.au/), with the aim of providing in-school counselling services to students. 

Throughout schools across Victoria, student counselling is a much needed (and under resourced) service. Many of our families are currently experiencing first-hand the difficulties associated with trying to gain access to support services for their children. Therefore, we must be grateful that we have been presented with the opportunity to enter a partnership with YVP, as the resources do not exist for this partnership to occur across schools within our region. 

Please be aware of the information below:

Is there a cost involved to access the service, and does my child require a Mental Health Plan?

There is no cost involved for the family. 

Your child does not require a Mental Health Plan to access the service. This is due to the fact that the counselling sessions will be delivered by a Masters of Counselling practitioner, who is under the direct supervision of Yarra Valley Psychology (YVP) Services. 

There is also no limit on the number of sessions a child may access. Access to sessions, and duration (in weeks) will be determined between YVP, the school, and the parent/carer. 

When do sessions commence, and how will they be structured?

Sessions will commence from the beginning of Term Two, with student-needs being prioritized in partnership with the school and YVP. Prior to any child commencing, a confidential discussion will take place between the YVP counsellor and the parent/carer. 

Our school has been allocated a male counsellor (name TBC) who will conduct sessions each Wednesday for the entire duration of Term Two and Term Three. 

The counsellor will have the time allocation to see up to five students per day, with each session being allocated 50 minutes. At this stage sessions will be occurring each Wednesday. 

Will each child who is referred be able to access the service?

Unfortunately, this is not achievable within the current mental health environment. Referrals will be prioritized on a needs basis from within our own school cohort. 

If I wish for my child to access the service, what do I need to do?

Please complete the referral form below and return it via the instructions on the form. 

Keeping Aware of Information Relating to School

As a school we work hard to keep our families informed of happenings across the school. We acknowledge that receiving information in a timely and consistent manner can help to alleviate the pressures which come from managing a busy family calendar. 

Communicating via Compass

All of our school notifications are sent via the Newsfeed within the Compass app. There is also a calendar of events within the app, which sends push notifications to users to remind them of school events. 

In 2021, we will continue to utilise Compass for families to consent and pay in order for their children to take part in school events. 

In order to filter notifications which are received, you will notice that we send out notifications which are year level specific. This means that sometimes not all notifications are sent to all year levels. 

Administration Reminder

Please be reminded that if you need to collect your child/ren early, please contact the office  when you are 5/10 minutes away so we can have them at the office for collection.

We thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Communicating with the School Administration Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2021, and welcome your input: 

Damien Kitch (Principal)  damien.kitch@education.vic.gov.au 

Paula Lee (Business Manager) upwey.south.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Janette Clarke (Office Manager) upwey.south.ps@education.vic.gov.au