Principal's Page 

Well, winter certainly has arrived this week! With very chilly mornings, and a few rainy days it very much feels like Autumn has left us behind for another year. With only 3 weeks left of this term, it's probably a good idea to add a beanie and scarf to the schoolbags to rug up nice and warm for those cold recess and lunch times! 

Education Week

What a spectacular week we had last week with so many special events and celebrations happening including our Book Fair, Book Character Dress up Day and Year 4-6 Film Festival. The turn out for our Grandparents Day and Open Afternoon was wonderful with so many people coming through the school to see the great things happening and hear some spectacular performances from students. There were many families coming through to look at the school for the first time, and all of them doing tours commented on how settled and engaged the students were, and how warm and inviting the classrooms looked. 

Thank you to everyone who came along, or promoted our fabulous school to others in the community. 

Courtyard works

As you will no doubt have noticed, the courtyard is looking like a big old mess at the moment. This is very much a case of short term pain, for some long term gain! The area needs to be completely cleared, the retaining walls repaired and steps concreted in place in preparation for the resurfacing that is scheduled to happen in the upcoming holidays. This will be an amazing improvement to the school grounds, and something that the school community have worked very hard to achieve through past fundraising efforts. 

Keep a look out for progress pictures on the school socials!

State Principals Conference

On Monday and Tuesday this week I was lucky enough to attend the State Principal Conference. Although I don't like being away from school, it was a great opportunity for Principals to gather together and hear about important initiatives and best practices. There was very much a focus on student, staff and community wellbeing, something that is close to my heart and a priority for us. 

One topic that was discussed quite widely was the challenges schools are facing in terms of managing staff absences. We have not been hit too hard at Launching Place PS, and have been able to manage most staff absences, but it has become increasingly difficult to employ casual relief teachers when staff are dealing with their own illnesses, or needing to care for their own children and families. Schools have been hit very hard with teachers and support staff away with colds, flu's and viruses, as well as Covid. All staff employed at a regional/corporate level who hold current teacher registrations have been redeployed to work in regional Victoria or other area that are difficult to staff. Where possible, we replace teachers with casual staff, but it has been necessary from time to time to use specialist and leadership staff, as well as regional personnel  to cover gaps. 

To help slow the spread of the nasty virus' and flu that is doing the rounds, I urge you to please keep your children home if they are unwell. I understand that it can be difficult to organise work and other commitments, but there are large numbers of students at school who are unwell and needing to go home throughout the day. We want to do the best we can to keep everyone well, so it is critical for students and teachers to stay away from school if they are sick. 

Excursion notices and processes

With several excursions and events happening over the last few weeks, and more  coming up, it is worthwhile reminding everyone of the processes and procedures around excursions. Teachers and support staff spend a great deal of time organising excursions, and there is a lot of work that goes on in the background, especially in the current climate. While it is great that we are back to being able to experience excursions, there is a lot of administrative work that needs to happen in terms of covid-safety planning, and organisation of venue entry and transportation. While we do our best to give as much notice as possible for events, we understand that for some people, the timelines may present challenges in terms of payment for events. If you are experiencing difficulty in paying for upcoming excursions, please contact the office to make arrangements. We don't want any students missing out on things because of financial pressures on families. 

One point that is important to note is that the timeframe given to provide consent and payment must remain firm. Usually, the event will close on Compass 3 school days prior to the event happening. The school needs this time to finalise arrangements which includes transportation, grouping of students, managing supervision ratios, parent helpers, communication with the venue, covid-safe and risk-management plans and for these reasons, receiving payment and consent on the day of the event is not possible. Teachers will always provide reminders to those families who have not provided consent for an event by the cut-off day, either via a Compass notification or a phone call. Compass is the way in which events and payments are processed, so if you are having difficulty using this platform, please speak with someone in the office as soon as possible. 

For activities where parents are responsible for transporting their own child to and from an event (this is usually only for selected events with a small number of students participating, for example, Cross Country etc), there will be an additional paper form that comes home that confirms a students travel arrangements. 

Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Kind regards,

Jess

Acting Principal