Out and about with Mrs Giggins 

Busy Days at school!

Congratulations to staff, parents and students! We have made it past the half way point of Term 4, with four weeks of school remaining for 2020 and Surfside continues to a busy and vibrant hub. 

In the classrooms teachers are currently assessing students to identify areas of growth and learning gaps and are working hard to make sure their lessons are engaging and interesting. As a team we continue to invest in student's social and emotional wellbeing and respond to the needs of students, all who have in some way, been affected by disruption and periods of absence from school this year. Generally, we have observed an increase in the need to help students to problem solve and get along, and are offering more brain breaks, mindfulness and outdoor time to rebuild stamina for learning.

Our year 6 students, their teachers, Mr Walsh and Gill have been enjoying their time at Roses' Gap this week and are due back today. How fortunate for our year 6 students to be able to participate in such a rich and fun experience as they reach the end of their time at primary school. 

Our students had fun dressing up for Book Week last Friday, with many Hogwarts students, favourite story characters and colourful costumes. Parades were held in smaller groups this year, but the playground was filled with colour and imaginative play. Thank you to all the parents and teachers who made such an outstanding effort! 

Curriculum Day Friday November 27th

A reminder that Friday November 27th is a student free day. The staff will be spending the morning preparing your child's end of year report and the afternoon will be devoted to class placement of students for 2021. Developing new classes is always a time consuming and carefully considered process as we aim to create well balanced classes and to provide the best opportunities for students to learn. Staff will also be planning the transition processes so that all students have the opportunity to meet their new class and teacher prior to the end of the year.

At this stage we will be running with 23 classes in 2021 with Foundation x 4 classes, Year 1 x 4 classes, Year 2 x 3 classes, Year 3 x 3 classes, Year 4 x 3 classes, Year 5 x 3 classes and Year 6 x 3 classes. 

Foundation 2021

We have been so excited to welcome our Kinder children and their parents into our school. Our new Foundation students have all completed their first visit, having a small group session with their teachers, while we were able to say hello to the grown ups and welcome them to our school. These children will have a second visit in the next few weeks and fingers crossed we can invite them in on Orientation day, December 8th. If you do know of any students attending next year who are not yet enrolled please let us know.

BYOD Information session.

Our sincere apologies for the confusion around the BYOD iPad information night advertised for year 2 parents. Unfortunately this clashed with camp and will be rescheduled.

Staffing Updates

We have been very busy interviewing in order to complete our staffing profile for 2021. We are excited to welcome Ms Laura Repusic, Ms Tilli Hopkins and Mrs Diana Wright, who will be joining our amazing team of staff in 2021.  We still have a few positions to settle and once this is done we will inform the parent community about which year levels and duties staff will be taking on for 2021. 

Breakfast club next year!

Keep watching this space for more information about the Surfside Primary School breakfast club starting soon.

Year 6 camp

Our year 6 group departed on a windy Monday morning for the 3 hour trip to Roses Gap. There were many activities for the students in the beautiful surrounds of the Grampians. The excitement of cabin allocation and an abundance of great camp food had the students well rested and well fed for the daily activities. The activities consisted of crate stacking, vertical playpen, raft building, canoeing, damper cooking, hut building, low ropes course, archery, flying fox and the much anticipated giant swing. With added night activities including a night walk and scavenger hunt the week was action packed. A big thank you to all of the students for stepping out of their comfort zone and embracing all of the activities and fun of camp. A big thank you to Mr Chapman, Ms Hudgell and Mr Wilkie for their organisation and giving up their time to coordinate the camp and activities. A bi thank you to Gill and Kate for assisting throughout the week. After a tough year for our year 6 cohort it was great to see them bonding as a group.

School Program Updates

Year 6 Graduation - The year 6 Graduation is booked in for Thursday 10th December. We look forward to celebrating this with our students but unfortunately due to Department of Education advice we will be unable to have parent involvement as a result this event will involve a live stream for families.

Year 6-7 Transition Program - It has been advised that year 6 students will be able to visit secondary schools as part of the transition program in preparation for 2021. This is great news for our year 6 students and secondary schools will coordinate and communicate with families how their transition program will work.

Week 7 Virtual Assembly - Cancelled

There will be no assembly this week due to school camp. We will hand out both junior and senior awards next week

Health & Safety at Surfside Primary School

The Victorian Government, Department of Health and Human Services and The Department of Education have introduced new restrictions and measures for all schools in the state of Victoria in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The move to remote and flexible learning is in place to support these measures and we continue to run an on-site program for applicable families. We can all do our part in the following ways:

• Please inform the school immediately if you or your family are notified as a confirmed positive case of COVID-19 or are identified as a close contact of a confirmed case, so we can take the necessary precautions.
• Continue good health and hygiene practice by washing hands regularly, coughing or sneezing into our elbow, using hand sanitiser regularly and limiting the sharing of equipment.
• When unwell it essential that you remain home, seek medical advice and not return to school until well again. Please contact the office at any stage if you are unsure.
• Students need to bring their own drink bottle clearly labelled.
• Parents and carers are not to attend school on-site at any stage and if you need to contact the office please call and make a time for an appointment. If you arrive late or need to collect your child early please call and we will collect or bring your child out.
• Adults are to wear face coverings and continue to practice social distancing at all times when dropping off, collecting students or visiting the administration office.

We are aware that situations and information changes very quickly so we will update our school community via Compass and email with important updates if required. Please make sure that your contact details are up to date.

Surfside Primary School Virtual Tour

Due to current restrictions we are unable to run our school tours for prospective families. To enable our prospective families to gain a valuable experience of the school we have put together a Virtual Tour. Please feel free to pass this on to families and share via Facebook and we look forward to welcoming our new families in 2021. We are planning to have small Q&A sessions with new families in the coming weeks. In the meantime sit back and enjoy the show. A big thank you to our Surfside parent, Eamon Urtone who has done a great job in putting this together and Layla, Ava and staff for providing some special guest appearances.