Mr Irwin's Message

Hello families and welcome to this week’s newsletter.

Revised End of Term Date

Recently the new Victorian Government School’s Agreement settled, which confirmed the need for teaching staff to be provided with Professional Practice days for Term 3 and 4. Rather than cause disruption across the school in the remaining weeks of term and incur an increasing relief teacher expense, which is already stretching, we have elected to take these combined as a Pupil Free Day on the last Friday of term. The last day for students for term 3 will therefore be Thursday September 15th. School will still finish at 3:15 on this day.

For Friday the 16th, Outside School Hours Care will be available to any families that require it from 7:00am - 5:00pm and bookings are now open for this. We understand the short notice of this change, however it will provide much greater continuity in the final weeks of term for students.

Upcoming Dates

The final few weeks of term have some exciting dates with Fathers Day stalls, Pie and Footy Colours Day, our PFA Pie Drive amongst a range of exciting things happening. Please take the time to make sure you are familiar with upcoming dates to avoid missing out on any of the fun!

Camps for Term 4

Tonight, School Council will endorse Term 4 camps for Years 3/4 to Wyuna in Queenscliff and Kangaroobie in Princetown for the 4/5/6 senior classes. Once approved Parents will be notified and able to provide permission for these via Sentral.

School Review

A fortnight ago, we had our first day of School Review. I was joined by our assembled Review Panel for this which consisted of our School Reviewer, Dr John Hunter, our Senior Education Improvement Leader Karen Bigelaar, the Principals of Mount Duneed and Lethbridge Primary School and Brad Andrews our School Council President.

The day involved sharing our achievement over the past 4 years and spending time in classrooms observing learning at Teesdale in action. The panel was highly impressed with the achievement results of the school from the past 4 years and blown away with what they saw in the classrooms. Our second Review Day is this Friday where we will dive deeper into the themes of our use of assessment data, empowering students in their learning and providing extension to high achieving students. I look forward to sharing the results of the review with you in due course.

Change of Personal Information

Please contact the office to update your address, contact information, place of work or emergency contacts should these change during the year. It is important to keep this information up to date should the school need to contact you at any point.

Spare Clothing

A number of students have needed a change of clothing lately due to a few muddy areas around the school grounds. It might be a good idea to include a spare change of clothing, in particular track suit pants in your child's school bag. When possible the school has provided a change of clothing but our supplies are very low and we can't always provide the right size. If your child has come home with a change of clothing, we'd really appreciate it being washed and returned too.

Notifying the School of Absences

Students should stay home if they are unwell and have any symptoms of illness, even if they test negative on a RAT.

Families are asked to notify the school of absences via the Sentral App. This can be completed by logging in through the Parent Portal on a browser, or via the Sentral app on your mobile device. Alternatively, please phone the school office.

The Annual Toucan Emergency Food Relief Appeal

The Geelong Food Relief Centre has been providing Emergency Food to those in need for 30 years. Working in conjunction with welfare agencies, this year 37,000 individuals will be referred to Geelong Food Relief Centre for Emergency Food Relief. Teesdale Primary School is proud to support the annual Toucan Emergency Food Relief Appeal which runs from Monday 22nd August to Friday 2nd September.

Please see a list below of items you may choose to donate. All donations can be placed in the designated boxes at the school office. Only non-perishable items please.

Cereal (All Sizes)
Cake Mix
Spreads
Dry Pasta
Canned Soups
Canned Tuna
Packet Pasta
Canned Fruit
Noodles
Rice
Tea/Coffee
Cling Wrap / Foil
Shampoo Conditioner
Of course, all donations whether cans, boxes or packets are always gratefully appreciated.

Healthy Lunch Box Choices and Nude Food

Please help reduce waste in our school by packing 'Nude Food' (food without excess packaging) in your child's lunch box. The Healthy Lunch Box Pick & Mix posters below provide some good Nude Food options.