Principal's News
Our School Vision
“Cheltenham East students are empowered learners who are flexible thinkers with the skills and knowledge to respond critically and creatively to their world.”
Acknowledgement
Some of our Year 3/4 students will be doing an acknowledgement to Country each Monday morning at 9am over the loud speaker.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which we are gathered and pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging of the Bunurong people and extend that respect to other indigenous Australians in the community.
Moorabbin Bunnings BBQ
Thankyou in advance to the parent committee for organising another day for the Bunnings BBQ. It is the Moorabbin Bunnings on Warrigal Road. Thankyou also to the parents who have volunteered to man the Bunnings BBQ on Saturday, it is much appreciated. This will raise much needed funds for the school to spend on the children.
Please use the link below to register:
Classroom Visits
I continue to see some fantastic work going on in classrooms as I tour prospective families through the school. This week I visited the Years 1 and 2 areas, the 3/4 areas and the music room. Their work has been of a very high standard and the children are consistently engaged by our fabulous teachers. The writing program in particular is bringing out the children’s terrific writing skills, while Mrs Digby is doing some amazing drumming beats with the children.
School Banners
Our School banners have finally arrived and will be shown off at this week‘s assembly. They look fantastic and will certainly add some colour to our sport days and special events. Thankyou once again to our school Captains for searching up the cheapest quotes and ordering them.
New Shade Sail
The sail will take about a week for the company to make and it should be up next week to provide shade for the coming Summer months.
Library Books Wanted
Thankyou for the donations of books already received. The library monitors are learning how to process the books so they can include them into our library. There have been some great non-fiction and fiction books already donated so that children have more of a variety. We are after some more books by popular authors to put into our library. Some families may have books gathering dust at home and they are no longer being read. If that is the case why not send them along to a new home as we only have so many copies of popular books the children can access. The books need to be in reasonable to good condition (No tears, missing pages etc) so they last.
We are after any of the following books by some of these popular authors: Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton, JK Rowlings, Jeff Kinney, Emily Rodda, Horrible Histories series, CS Lewis. Judy Blume, Alison Lester, Mem Fox, Roald Dahl, Percy Jackson series, Lewis Carroll, Eric Carle, Bill Martin, EB White, Margaret Wild just to name a few.
The library monitors are looking forward to processing some more books for our school library. You can leave the books in boxes labelled Library Books near the office area.
Year 5 Sovereign Hill Excursion
The Year 5 students and teachers journeyed to Sovereign Hill last Friday as part of their Australian History/Gold unit. They had a great time and were lucky with the weather. They gold panned and they learned about what life was like when gold was first discovered. They also learned about Chinese immigration and mining. The children were very well behaved on the day. The bus trip home was broken up by dinner with buses arriving back at school at around 7pm. Thank you to Ms Doutch, Ms Judge, Mr Hughes and accompanying parents for their supervision during the excursion.
Keeping Your Child Active
Main points
Physical activity is important for developing coordination and motor skills. Exercise can come from team sports, playing games at local playgrounds, dancing, household chores and walking the dog.
Benefits of being active
Physical activity is important. Research has shown that exercise is beneficial for helping your child think, concentrate and solve problems, all of which are essential skills when it comes to learning.
At 6 years old, children have a wide range of physical skills. Some may show natural athleticism while others will work on accomplishing simple skills. As your child’s coordination and motor skills become more refined they will be able to engage in games like skipping, kicking a ball and playing chasey. Natural athleticism and the amount of physical activity your child does play a role in developing their physical abilities.
Your child’s fine motor coordination will also continue to develop. Your child will become more adept at drawing and writing letters, and their pictures and stories will look much more recognisable and legible. They will become more skilled at using tools such as scissors, and will be able to perform tasks such as tying shoelaces or buttoning buttons much better.
Things you can do at home
Do things together with your child; this will get everyone moving and kids love to play with their parents. Try to make family fitness outings part of your regular routine. Let your child and each family member take turns choosing an activity for these outings, for example: hiking, ice skating, or a trip down the local bike path – anything goes, as long as everyone can participate.
Pick Up/ Drop Off Reminder
A reminder to parents that the children are not to be called across the road from your cars. This is an extremely dangerous practice which could see a fatal accident occur. Please hop out of cars and walk your children across the road using the school crossings so your children are safe and you are modelling the behaviour we want to see for your children.
New Child Safe Standards
The Department have recently released 11 new Child Safe Standards for all schools to implement from July onwards. We originally operated with 7 child safe standards which we as a school adhered to based on a royal commission around child abuse in the period of 2013-2017. The differences between the old and new standards are listed below:
New requirements to keep children and students safe are:
- the involvement of families and students in child safety efforts
- schools’ focus on safety for Aboriginal students
- better management of the risk of child abuse in online environments
- governance, systems and processes to keep students safe
Schools must update their child safety strategies, policies, and practices to comply with the new standards. All members of the school community should be aware of the need to protect our young and vulnerable children from all forms of abuse. These standards set policies and procedures into place to prevent child abuse and support victims of child abuse in all school communities. There will be more information to come in the following weeks around the Child safe Standards for the community to learn from.
Enrol Now for 2023
We are open for 2023 enrolments and forms can be collected at the Office. If you have a child turning 5 by April 30, 2022, please complete an enrolment form and bring in a copy of your child’s birth certificate and immunisation record and we will process the enrolment. It helps us enormously with planning, if we have a clear indication of enrolments as early as possible. Please note that only enrolled students will be invited to our next Transition day 'It's Story Time'.
Update on Mask Wearing
It is strongly recommended by the Victorian Department of Health that face masks are worn in indoor settings, with face masks mandatory for those aged 8 and over who are household contacts and attending school. This is because the wearing of masks is effective in reducing the transmission of COVID-19.
What does this mean in practice for schools?
It is the Department’s expectation that, through to the end of winter, students aged 8 and over and staff will wear masks when in class, except where removing a mask is necessary for clear communication or when a particular activity requires the removal of a mask.
Masks are not required to be worn outdoors but can be worn when physical distancing is not possible. This expectation should not constrain student participation in the full range of school activities, including music, sport and performances.
Schools are not required or expected to sanction students or staff who do not meet this expectation, but are asked to communicate this expectation to the whole school community and seek their support for this collective effort.
Wearing masks is a simple step we can all take this winter to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and ensure our schools are as safe as possible.
Exemptions for Testing and Isolation
The period of time when someone is considered a recently confirmed case and therefore exempt from testing and isolation requirements has been reduced from the previous 12 weeks to 4 weeks.
This means that staff and children who are household contacts of people with COVID-19 are now required to undertake the testing and isolation requirements from 4 weeks after completing isolation with COVID-19. Previously, this exemption period was 12 weeks.
After the 4-week exemption period, students and staff members who are a household contact of a new COVID-19 case, must follow the rules for household contacts, including reporting this to their school. As part of this they must take 5 rapid antigen tests (RATs) over 7 days and receive negative test results and wear a face mask (if over 8 years old) in indoor spaces.
Families and staff will also have to report being a household contact to their school after this 4-week period.
School Uniform Reminder
We appreciate that there are times when students are out of uniform for legitimate reasons and these will be accepted via a note from home. However, a prompt response to this reason should see students return to full school uniform as soon as possible. As we end Term 2, there is ample opportunity for students and parents to refocus on the school’s uniform guidelines and as such, it expected that all students are in full school uniform to start Term 3.
Cut down on Litter
We actively encourage our students to avoid bringing packets and plastic wrappers (Nude Food) to school. It cuts down on litter and is much better for the environment. A named container is perfect.
School Values
The children will continue working closely together through the coming winter months. This is a great time to reinforce our school values of RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, COURTESY and CO-OPERATION with all children. Filling someone’s bucket of kindness should be a priority for all children and adults. Helping others is to be encouraged by everyone and can be done in a variety of ways. It is great to see our Year 6 children looking after the younger children out in the yard.
Thought For the Week
Principal
Wayne Bach