Dhumbadjirri "Talk Together"

A Message from David

Dear parents and carers,

 

It was great to be able to open the new playground this week and it certainly has been well used by very excited students across the school. Some claimed that this was ‘the best day ever!’ and were very grateful.

 

As we approach the end of term I would like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of all our staff at TPS for ensuring our students are well settled and engaged in their learning. Next week we will be saying farewell to Alex Paz who is taking time to pursue other ventures. We are currently in the process of appointing a replacement for Alex so as to ensure a smooth transition for students and families of 2/3S.

 

In response to community feedback, we will be publishing the Dhumbadjirri newsletter every second week, rather than monthly as a part of a better approach to communicating with our community. These will come out on the Friday of each second week.

 

Community forums

Thank you to everyone able to attend the recent forums and for all the feedback provided. While the current position of the school was confronting, there is a great sense of hope in the directions of the school and confidence in our improvement journey. I feel confident that we will achieve this as a community working together. In education there is a large body of research that indicates that collective teacher efficacy has the greatest influence on student achievement. This is the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students by working together. I think the same applies to working collectively as a community to ensure sustained improvement and a strong sense of pride in the school.

 

For those people unable to attend the forums but would still like to have the opportunity, we will be holding another session on Tuesday 4th April 9am.

 

In term 2 the community forums will have a focus on the school’s vision and values. The school’s vision should be co-created with, shared and owned by the school community, is appropriate to school needs and expectations, and is easily understood by everyone. The values provide a basis for decision making and action, shape the way people work together by creating shared expectations and norms, and help the community to remain focussed on what is important. These forums will involve reviewing the current vision and values and whether they reflect the school and where we want to be. These forums will be held on the following dates:

  • Wednesday 24th May – 7.30pm
  • Friday 26th May – 9am

School Council

On Tuesday we had our first school council meeting of the new school council and elected office bearers for the year. These office bearers are:

  • President – Bianca Dakin-Davies
  • Vice President – James Crafti
  • Treasurer – Michael Finger.

At this meeting we also reviewed the sub-committees of school council and how effectively they represent the needs and interests of the school. There is no doubt a strong desire for the community to be more engaged in the school; this was clearly evident in the feedback from the community forums. With a range of expertise, knowledge and skills in our community, as a school we will benefit from harnessing the good will and support so readily offered by our community, however not fully realised. Joining a sub-committee is a great way to become involved in the school and these sub-committees rely on the support of our school community volunteers in order to function effectively. Please consider joining a sub-committee or working party and if interested please contact me David.Wells@education.vic.gov.au

 

The sub-committees and their purpose are:

  • Finance – responsible for ensuring that the school has a functioning and effective system of internal controls and that all financial activity within the school is sound, accurate and legal.
  • Education Policy – responsible for developing and reviewing a number of policies to reflect the school’s values and to support the school’s broad direction as outlined in the strategic plan.
  • Masterplan and Grounds – responsible for the long-term development of the school physical structure and grounds. This sub-committee will be busy in the next couple of years due to the redevelopment of the school with the $17.6 million promised in the election campaign.
  • Environment – responsible for organising working bees, planning works for school gardens and grounds and promoting sustainable practices within the school.
  • Social committee – responsible for fundraising and social activities for the whole school community
  • Koorie Education/ Community – responsible for our indigenous activities, advocacy and community representation
  • Communication – this is not a committee but rather a working group tasked with improving the communication to our community, including the redevelopment of the school website.

 

Camps 2023

Next term there are two camps – the Year 5/6 camp to Phillip Island (29 – 31 May) and the Year 3/4  camp to Alexandra Adventure Resort (19- 21 June). Both camps are fully subsidised through the government’s Positive Start initiative which is designed to boost students’ physical and emotional health and wellbeing. All staff attending camps will accrue time in-lieu for the time outside of their normal working day while on camp This time in-lieu will be provided to each staff member at a later date in the year. This time-in-lieu provision was a significant feature of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement (VGSA) 2022 recognising the many extra unpaid hours that are undertaken by staff. While class teachers and support staff will attend camps, we will require some additional volunteers. An expression of interest will be sent out with camp documents.

 

School attendance

Going to school every day is the single most important part of a child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day – missing school puts them behind. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes. Each missed day is associated with progressively lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading. In 2022, the percentage of students with 20 or more absent days at TPS was 63%. This compares to the state average of 44%. In addition, 35% of our students had 30 or more days absent from school. This equates to at least 6 weeks of the school year. If a child has an attendance record around the state average for their entire school life by the time they reach year 12 they would have missed one year of school.

School attendance is an area of concern and there is some work the school needs to do to improve. This involves ensuring students and the parent/carer community are equally engaged with the school. There are a number of initiatives that we are exploring that have worked at other schools. We will share more at a later date.

 

End of term reminder

The last day of term is next Thursday (6th April) with school finishing at 2.30pm. Term 2 commences on Monday 24th April. Tuesday 25th is the ANZAC Day public holiday.

 

Ngoongodgin for your support this term