Message from the Principal 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

This week’s photo highlights our Year 5 team. Both of our Year 5 classes are working together as a learning community and as such enjoy the flexibility of opening the doors between the rooms for some times each day and at other times using the space as individual and separate classrooms. 

In this picture the students are using our dedicated Student Agency 15 minutes at the end of every day to look back to the student advice comments from last year’s Year 5 students. An example of this was “If you don’t know, put your hand up. No one will judge you if you get something wrong and mostly have fun!”

They then used these as motivation to set an intention for themselves for this term. An example of this was “My intention is to challenge myself and never back down and never give up. A different intention I have is to do stuff I don’t usually do. I also want to be kind and cherish my last two years of primary school”.

It is clear to see the impact our focus on Student Agency is having and I am looking forward to our parents and carers continuing to join us in this partnership at our Student Agency Conferences on Tuesday 28th March. Put this date in your diary as students only attend on this day for the time of their conference. Bookings will open on Friday of this week via Compass.  

PRINICPAL’S MATHS CHALLENGE

You have heard of the Premier’s Reading Challenge….well now we have our very own Principal’s Maths Challenge!

The first challenge is to design a logo that will become the official Principal’s Challenge logo.

Your logo can include anything Maths based. Can you include shapes, maths symbols, symmetry? 

Your logo needs to be smaller than an A4 page and it can be done by hand or digitally. You can present your design in a way that works for you and if you can it might be a clever idea to include an explanation or story behind the design. You will find the launch video and more information about our Principal’s Maths Challenge on each students individual Seesaw page.

You will have 4 weeks to complete the challenge – as it closes on 20th March.

PARENT HELPERS INDUCTION PROGRAM & CHILDSAFE POLICIES

I continue to host regular Parent Helper Induction sessions. These are approximately 15 minutes in duration and enable us to cover off all the OH & S and Child Safe standards that we have in place.

The next sessions are:

• 3pm Friday 3rd March
• 3pm Monday 6th March
• 9am Tuesday 7th March
• 7pm Wednesday 8th March - Webex
• 3pm Thursday 9th March

As part of our Parent Helpers Induction process, we ask that all helpers read the following policies:

• Child Safety Policy
• Child Safe Code of Conduct
• Child safety Responding & reporting Obligations
• Volunteers Policy

These are available on our school website and we welcome feedback at anytime in relation to these policies. All our school policies are tabled at School Council for approval and individual policies can be reviewed throughout the year.

If you have any questions or feedback round any of our school policies, please contact me:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

SCHOOL COUNCIL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Next Tuesday 7th March at 6.45pm, we will hold our first school council meeting for 2023. This is where office bearers such as School Council president will be elected. School Council meetings are held in the staffroom.

At this meeting we will also establish our sub-committee structure and schedule for this year.

These committees are open to all members of our school community to join and where the work of School Council is actually done. It is great to have a mix of parents and carers from across the school on each of these. All of our school council members also serve on at least one of these sub-committees. I will outline the role of each sub-committee in the newsletter next week along with the time and dates for the meetings which are twice per term.

STUDENT INSURANCE

This is a reminder to all parents and carers that the Department does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents and guardians are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs. These costs may be recoverable where an injury is caused by the negligence (carelessness) of the Department, a school council or their employees or volunteers.

Student accident insurance policies at reasonably low cost are available from commercial insurers.

These cover a range of medical expenses not covered by Medicare or private health insurance. I encourage all families to investigate these options and make a decision that suits your needs and requirements. I also encourage everyone to ensure that their ambulance membership is up to date.

James Penson

Principal