Camps

I had the great pleasure of attending the 3/4 camp to Camp Manyung last week. We also had the 5/6 camp to Sovereign Hill. Our camping program is a great opportunity for students to step out of their comfort zone and be away from home for a few nights.

I would like to thank all of the staff who attended the camps last week. We have an enthusiastic group of teacher and education support staff who are willing to step away from their own families and commitments to provide these experiences for students - camps wouldn't happen otherwise. I would encourage all families of students in years 3-6 to take a moment to thank the staff who cared for your child on camp, even a short email or thank-you at drop off or pick up shows the value in our program to our staff.

Toilets

As always when you start a project such as a facelift in the toilets other unknown issues arise. The work in the boys' toilets is going well, however, some additional work has slowed the progress. Brian, our handyman who is carrying out the work, and I had a look at the work and planned out what needs to be done in the girls' toilets. The ceiling and walls have been patched and painted, with an automatic flush installed in the urinal. Brian is currently patching the doors and floors before painting both. The boys' toilets should be completed this term (slow and steady wins the race) and work will commence on the girls' next term.

I have been continuing my conversation around major funding from the Department of Education and Jackson Taylor, our state representative, with hope of working together to secure more substantial funding for a more major renovation and plumbing works.

Principal Selection

I have a number of parents ask me about where we are at as a school in regards to securing a substantive Principal. This process is run through the Department of Education and has been running for a number of weeks, with applications closing late last week. The principal selection process still has a number of weeks until completion and as soon as an announcement is able to be made the school community will be informed.

Cold Weather

I sent a Compass notice to all families last week but wanted to echo the message about cold and wet weather. During the colder months, we ask that all students are coming to school appropriately dressed. On days where it is deemed inappropriate enough for students to be outside, we keep them inside and supervised. This is when there is either sustained rain or sufficient enough rain that it would be impractical to ask students to play outside. If it is light rainfall students will still be outside as we have enough covered areas for students to remain dry during short showers. We do not keep students inside due to it being cold. It is expected that students will bring to school a warm jacket to be put over their jumper when outside.

I have noticed a number of students who are still coming to school in shorts and t-shirts and when asked about a jumper they don't have one with them at school. I would ask all families to ensure they students have at least a jumper in their bag to be able to put on.

Playground Master Plan

Our PA has been working hard planning great events across the year to raise funds to upgrade our outdoor spaces and playgrounds. We are now putting a call out to the community to join a working party/sub-committee of school council to create our playground master plan and begin mapping out our plan to achieve this work.

This is a large piece of development for our school and will take some time before we see any changes around the grounds. We have three members of school council who are already on this committee and we are seeking families or community members (some of whom may have connections beyond our school gates) to join the planning stage of our master plan. If you are keen to part of this development of our school or know of someone who may either be interested or able to support our work please email me (butler.neil.j@edumail.vic.gov.au) as we are hoping to hold our first meeting this term and begin a community consultation period in Term 3.

Maroondah City Council Youth & Children’s Services

Over the next few months, Maroondah Council will be consulting widely to find out how they can help raise the wellbeing of children, young people and families in Maroondah. They invite you to be involved and have your say!

There will be multiple opportunities for the community to be involved up until 31 July 2019, including surveys, focus groups, a children’s storytelling competition, and co-design forums.

There are two key opportunities open now -

Parent/Carer Wellbeing Survey - open to all parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 years in Maroondah (survey closes June 21)
Quick feedback form - open to anyone who wants to share their thoughts and ideas

To take part, please visit our Maroondah Your Say page - https://yoursay.maroondah.vic.gov.au/childrenandyouth

The consultation findings will be used to inform Council’s new Children & Families Strategy and Action Plan, and the new Action Plan for Council’s existing Youth Strategy.

This is a great opportunity to help make a difference for our children and young people, so please get involved and have your say!

Dates to remember