Important Notices
Walkathon
Thanks to everyone involved in our annual SKiPPS walkathon last term. It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic students walking, running, cycling, scootering and some even brave enough to be in their rollerskates for the event. Whole school events such as the walkathon are important school community events that showcase the school values of resilience, respect , creativity and kindness and these values were proudly displayed throughout the afternoon.
We are now in the process of finalising the donations from the sponsors and thank the community for their generosity. The money raised can be paid to the school via Compass. Simply log in and click on 'Course Confirmation/School payments', and the 'Walk-a-thon' (optional item) to make payment.
Benvenuto Marco
We are excited this week to welcome a new member of staff to our teaching team. Mark Fittolani has taken on our Italian role for the remainder of the school year. Mark is familiar to our students having spent time this year as a replacement teacher across all year levels.
Mark brings a wealth of experience to our school and a friendly and warm personality. We are sure that students will love taking part in Italian lessons with him for the rest of 2023.
I am sure the whole SKiPPS community will make him feel very welcome at our school.
Let us know if you are leaving
As we are now into term 4, we have started the process of employing teachers and setting budgets for 2023.
It is really important that we have an accurate idea of student numbers so we can plan ahead with confidence.
If you know that your child will not be attending SKiPPS in 2023 we would really appreciate you letting us know as soon as possible.
Please email the school on st.kilda.park.ps@education.vic.gov.au to let us know.
Student Well Being
The final 'Healthy Parents' webinar for 2022 will be held on 17th November at 7.30 - 8.30pm. SKiPPS parents have reported that these webinars have been very informative and helpful. All of the three webinars are recorded and you are welcome to watch them again or at a later date in you are unable to join in on the night.
School holidays building works
School holidays allow us to attend to major school maintenance works and on the very first day of the holidays, the school grounds were very busy with lots of tradesmen attending to :
- painting the upper level of the red brick building
- removing some of the overhanging branches from the gum trees over the playground
- carpet cleaning of all classrooms
- installation on new lights in the Performing Arts room
A huge thanks to one our parents Steven Kelm and his company Kelm Hire for generously loaning the school an Elevated Work Platform to complete the lights installation.
Completing maintenance on our beautiful heritage listed school is never ending and the challenges of reaching the extremely high ceilings and roof lines makes for additional complications.
Classes for 2023
As we plan ahead for 2023, class teachers are also starting the process of creating class groupings for next year.
In doing this, our staff work very hard to create a perfect balance of gender, personalities and strengths within each class to allow for the best possible learning to take place.
Later in the term students will be asked to select friends who they would like to be in a class with next year and our teachers always do their best to ensure at least one of these choices are placed with them.
Occasionally parents have requests for class placements for the following year. Whilst we are unable to accept requests for a particular teacher, we are happy to try and accommodate reasonable requests.
If you have a request, please email me at neil.scott@education.vic.gov.au
Snow Sports Champions
Last term the Henry family (Poppy 3/4P and Olive 5/6S) enrolled at Dinner Plain Primary School to allow them to spend time skiing.
The girls attended school for 4 mornings a week and spent the rest of the time on the slopes. With the addition of their involvement in the Team Hotham racing squad they had no spare weekends or sleep-ins for the past 4 months.
Olive raced for a week in Thredbo for the Children's Nationals, placing 30th in the country for Under 14 for GS & Slalom racing.
Now that winter is over, we are happy to have the family back at SKiPPS and look forward to hearing about their future ski exploits.