Principal Team's Report

Another big fortnight at The Springs!

It's always "go, go, go" at The Springs, but the previous fortnight, and the fortnight ahead, are particularly jam-packed! Since our last newsletter, we have seen our Aerobics team compete in the National Championships, we've had our Year 4 Phillip Island Camp, our Magical Getaway free dress fundraiser, our Father's and Special Persons Day Stall, we've been visited by author Michael Wagner AND we've held our Book Week dress up parade! How lucky are we here that our students get to participate in such a wide variety of fun and engaging experiences! We are extremely fortunate to have such dedicated staff organising and running these events, frequently at the expense of time with their own families.  Make sure you give them a huge 'thank you' when you see them around! 

The next fortnight is also a massive one, as we approach the next school holiday break. We have our Health Education sessions continuing for our Year 6 students, our Open Afternoon, a special teamwork incursion for our Year 4 students, Year 5 camp, Koorie Celebration day and our annual footy fun day!  I think we'll all need the school holidays to recover from all the excitement! 

Term 3 Open Afternoon

We look forward to celebrating our learning with all families for our Term 3 Open Afternoon on Wednesday September 7th from 3:15pm-4:15pm. Our classrooms will be open, our display boards updated and sausages will be sizzling on the BBQ (cash only please)!  See you all there! 

Uniform

We are proud to be members of the Pakenham Springs community, and we want all students to share this pride.  Our uniform is a direct reflection of the perceptions others have about our school.  All families are reminded that we have a compulsory school uniform which must be worn by every student, every day.  On the rare occasion that an item may be in the wash and unable to be worn, a signed and dated note for that single day, will be accepted.  Students have been reminded about this, and may be offered a 'spare' jumper or jacket to borrow for the day should this become an ongoing issue. 

We need your feedback!

2022 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey

The annual survey is now live.  We would appreciate input from as many parents, caregivers and guardians as possible. 

• 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 Monday 15 August to Friday 16th September. 
• The survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, Somali and Punjabi.

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. 

Please follow the instructions below to complete the survey.  NOTE: Only one parent/caregiver/guardian from your family is invited to complete the survey.

To complete the survey, simply:

1. Click on the link below, or copy and paste the text into your browser. 
   This link will take you directly to the survey. 
   https://www.orima.com.au/parent
    
2. Select the School and Campus name below.
   School Name: Pakenham Springs Primary School
   Campus Name: Pakenham Springs Primary School
    
3. Enter the School PIN below.
   PIN: 644230

When complete, please click on the tick button at the end of the survey to submit your answers.  Please note that the survey will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity.

2023 Planning

It's that time of year again when we need numbers for 2023.  Please let us know as soon as possible if you have a child starting in 2023.  Step into Prep is already underway.  Also please let us know if you will be leaving. 

Accurate student numbers allow us to budget and employ the correct number of staff. 

We are beginning recruiting earlier this year due to the teacher shortage to ensure we lock in the best staff we can. 

Step into Prep

Our first group of 2023 Prep students enjoyed transition session one last week.  2023 Prep students met with current Prep teachers and enjoyed a reading activity.   A 'show bag' of items was also gifted to each student who attended.  Students were also presented with their 'Step into Prep' t-shirts.  We are looking forward to welcoming our second group of 2023 Prep students on Tuesday next week.

The following Step into Prep Sessions are:

Tuesday 6th September, 9:00-10:00am - Group 2 

Tuesday 18th October, 9:00 -10:00am - Group 1

Tuesday 25th October, 9:00 -10:00am - Group 2

Tuesday 15th November, 9:00 -10:00am - Groups 1 and 2

Tuesday 13th December, 9:15 -11:30am - Groups 1 and 2

Father's Day

Father's Day has a long history dating to the early 1900's.  The celebration has expanded to honouring people's fathers, grandfathers and other positive male influences in our lives. Father's Day celebrates the influence of these very special people in our community. Students enjoyed shopping at the Fathers/special persons stall this week.  We were very fortunate to have two wonderful community helpers, staff, and Year 6 students helping with the organisation and gift purchases.  We wish all the fathers and special persons out there a wonderful day of celebration this weekend.

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program

This program was born after the Royal Commission into the tragic death of Luke Batty in 2014. It was a recommendation from the Royal Commission that all schools teach Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) through a Whole School Approach, to support students to recognise and regulate emotions, develop empathy for others and establish and build a framework for positive relationships. 

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials have been developed to support schools to deliver the curriculum and are mandated to be taught in all Victorian government schools.  At PSPS, we have been covering many topics through The Resilience Project.  We will now be completing professional learning to better implement RRE education into our teaching and learning programs to ensure our students have an education that gives them the best start to a happy, healthy and prosperous life. This approach leads to positive change in students’ academic outcomes, their well-being, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. RRE's goal is to see changes in attitudes and behaviour that can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours, and gender equality are lived across the school community. Together, we can lead the way in creating genuine and lasting change so every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

The classroom program will focus on 8 key areas:

• Emotional Literacy: This helps students develop the ability to be aware of, understand and use vocabulary about the emotional state of themselves and others with competence.
• Personal Strengths: Students develop a vocabulary to help them recognise and understand various strengths and positive qualities in themselves and others. They identify the strengths they admire in others and those they need to draw on to engage with the challenges and opportunities that life presents.
• Positive Coping: Students develop language around coping, critically reflect on their coping strategies and extend their repertoire of positive coping strategies.
• Problem-solving: Students learn a range of problem-solving techniques that can be applied when confronting personal, social and ethical dilemmas. They engage in applied learning tasks in which they apply their problem-solving skills to be realistic.
• Stress management: This teaches students to learn a range of problem-solving skills through applied learning tasks, so that they are able to cope with challenges as they arise.
• Help-seeking: Help-seeking is a coping strategy that involves seeking technical, instrumental, social or emotional support from other people.
• Gender and identity: These are age-appropriate learning activities that assist students to understand and critique the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviours (see the clip linked below for an example of a discussion prompt).
• Positive gender relationships: This teaches students to build positive relationships between and within genders, and the importance of accepting difference and diversity.

Respectful Relationships takes a whole-school approach, recognising that schools are a place of learning, a workplace and a key part of local communities. It embeds a culture of respect and equality across our entire school community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields, fetes and social events.

COVID Safety Measures

Another supply of Rapid Antigen Tests arrived this week and have been given to students. If you require more please pop in and ask at the office. 

Take care and enjoy the last two weeks of this term.

The PSPS Leadership Team