Assistant Principal Report

Children’s WEEK and 2020 Attitudes to School Survey– Years 4-6 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Children's Week is a national celebration that recognises the talents, skills, achievements and rights of children. It will run from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2020, with thousands of Victorian children taking part in the festivities.

The theme for Children's Week 2020 celebrates the right of all children to choose their own friends and safely connect with others. This is based on Article 15 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Check out this website for more information: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/Pages/childrensweek.aspx

We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. 

The AtoSS is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. 

This year, the survey also includes some questions about student health and wellbeing and student perceptions of COVID-19. Understanding health and wellbeing needs has always been important, but especially so this year, and the Department is providing this survey to allow schools to capture this information to support students. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, family, friends, health (including mental health) and wellbeing, and bullying.

The health and wellbeing questions are taken from another Department survey called the Victorian Student Health and Wellbeing Survey (VSHAWS) that has been conducted with a sample of schools in Victoria since 2014. The questions about COVID-19 have been developed by or recommended by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. 

This year, the AtoSS will be conducted at our school over the period Thursday 29th October to Friday November 6th.

We have placed information regarding the survey on ClassDojo in both School Stories and on all Class Story Walls for Years 4-6 students. If your child is in Years 4, 5 or 6 please take some time to read the information and have a conversation with your child in the coming days and weeks about the questions and your child’s thoughts. 

Warmest Regards,

Kathy Cvitkovic – Assistant Principal