Camelot Rise Primary School Newsletter

From the Principal

Principal's Report

Dear CRPS Community,

 

We have had a fantastic couple of weeks at school. The weather has been lovely, our students are happily learning in their classrooms and the playground has been a hive of excitement. Our students have all settled back in very well and there is not one person in our community that is not ecstatic to be back.  It has been wonderful catching up with all the students, even though many of them are hard to recognise due to some serious growth spurts over the last six months. Likewise, we have all enjoyed our daily chats with parents at drop off and pick up times. 

 

Last weekend all Victorians received excellent news with the easing of restrictions across metropolitan Melbourne.  This is a great moment for all Melburnians who have worked so hard and made so many sacrifices to reduce the spread of COVID-19.  The easing of restrictions will allow us to make some minor changes and to our plans for Year 6 Graduation and Prep 2021 Transition.  Unfortunately, both of these events will not able to return to normal.  However, we can make some positive changes to our plans and this will be communicated to students and families shortly. 

 

On October, 14th we celebrated Book Week and it was a wonderful day!  Our students and teachers looked magnificent in their costumes. It was great to see the students so happy and enjoying themselves back at school.

 

Unfortunately, many of the big end of year events are unable to go ahead due to restrictions, but we look forward to finding some alternative solutions to create some fun for our students. Thankfully, the Year 6 Graduation will continue (in a modified format), but the swimming program, Christmas Concert, Camps and excursions cannot take place. As we draw closer towards the end of the school year, we will continue to communicate any changes via Compass with any up to the minute updates included.

 

Year 6 Graduation 

Our Year 6 Graduation will occur on Wednesday, 16th December, 2020. Our Year 6 students and teachers have been discussing the various aspects of the graduation to determine what we can do within the guidelines to make this night as memorable as possible for our wonderful Year 6 students.

 

Parents will not be able to attend any sort of assembly or ceremony as per the current directions from the Department of Education but we will continue to utilise video platforms that served us so well during remote learning to share in these experiences. Parents will be able to watch a ‘live stream’ of the Graduation ceremony on the night.

 

We will continue to update the Year 6 families as to our plans in regard to our Year 6 Graduation.

Our Year 6 students were incredibly fortunate that we were able to attend our camp at the start of the year before all the rules regarding COVID – 19 were firmly in place.

 

World Teachers’ Day

This year Victoria celebrated World Teachers' Day on Friday 30 October 2020. World Teachers' Day 2020 celebrated teachers with the theme 'Teachers: leading in crisis, reimagining the future'. This theme reflects the commitment teachers have made as leaders particularly teaching throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in a range of environments. World Teachers' Day is a chance to recognise and celebrate the incredible contributions teachers have made in Victorian communities, as they help to teach the future.

 

Thank you to the amazing and inspirational teachers (and all staff) we have at Camelot Rise Primary School who have this year demonstrated more than ever how committed they are to providing the best educational experiences they can for all students at our school.

 

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS)

A terrific effort by our Years 3-6 students who completed one or numerous ICAS assessments over the last two weeks. A big thank you to Mrs Wendy Yoong for her organisation and communication of ICAS and to the teachers for your flexibility and supervision. Results and any other information regarding ICAS will be communicated to through Compass.

 

We look forward to hearing the results of these assessments.

 

Parent Opinion Survey 

Each year the school conducts an opinion survey amongst a sample of the school community. 

 

This year, all families are invited to participate. 

 

Results from this survey will be used to inform and direct our future school planning and improvement. All survey results are tabled, shared, discussed and analysed at School Council Meetings. I ask you to please take the time to complete the survey as your opinions are important to us and will contribute to the future management and organisation of our school.Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential. The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to us that you complete the survey as honestly as possible. A unique code and letter was emailed to one parent in each family with further information on Wednesday 14th October 2020.

  • The survey will be conducted online and should take 20 minutes to complete.
  • The survey can be completed on any internet enabled device (iPad, Desktop or Laptop, Smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.
  • The survey will be open from Wednesday 14 October to Friday 13 November 2020.
  • The survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, Somali and Punjabi.

To date we have had 45 responses out of 268 invitations distributed. This is a response rate of 17%. It would be great to have this response rate above 70%. 

We look forward to getting as many responses as possible as this data is very valuable to us as we continually seek to improve Camelot Rise Primary School.

 

Parent Contributions 2021

In the coming weeks, we will inform the school community of the Parent Payments for 2021. This year, the Department has asked schools to itemise the payments. The cost for Parent Payments are discussed and approved at our Finance and School Council meetings prior to being announced to the school community.

 

Are you leaving CRPS in 2021?

We ask that you let us know if you are moving or have enrolled to another school in 2021. We require this information as soon as possible in order to establish grade structures for the start of the new school year. If your child is currently in Grades Foundation – 5 and will not be at Camelot Rise in 2021 please notify the school office in writing as soon as possible. 

 

Term 4 is a Sun Smart term

Parents and children are reminded that this term, children must wear the CRPS Broad Brimmed or Legionaries hat every day during recess and lunch breaks.  

 

Matthew Coney