A Message from David & Cam...

Colour Explosion

ONE MORE SLEEP!!

The excitement has been building and we cannot wait to participate in the Colour Explosion tomorrow. The course is planned and we have made a couple of exciting changes which will be a hit with the kids. A reminder that students come to school in clothes that they will run in and they will definitely get wet, dirty and colourful!! A towel and a change of clothes for the trip home is also a good idea.

Here is the information about the day that was sent on Compass last week: 

We have seen a steady increase in the fundraising total which is currently $17,463 at the time of writing. This is an amazing achievement by our community and we cannot thank you all enough for your continued support of these events. We are seeing the great things that our fundraising can do for our school (see the pics of the sports field below) and are excited to use the funds raised from this event to further develop and enhance our STEM program.

Online donations close at 3pm on Friday. Donate here:

GRIP Student Leadership Conference

As part of our goal to develop student leadership our school captains attending the GRIP Student Leadership Conference on Tuesday at the Convention Centre. The students were joined by many other student leaders across the state and explored leadership topics that are applicable and actionable for them back at school. The topics covered included:

• How to Be an ‘Others First’ Leader
• The People a Leader Can Impact the Most
• Ideas that Impact Everybody
• How to Get Everybody on Board With a New Idea

The feedback from the students was very positive and we will hear from them in a future newsletter.

School Council

The new school council for 2023 met for the first time last week. We welcomed Melissa McVay and Tom Brockbank as first-time members of the Altona Green council as well as welcoming back Victoria Reynolds and Haley Ballingall. We also appointed office bearers for 2023. The full school council for 2023 is as follows:

Parent Category

• Victoria Reynolds - President
• Matt Stewart - Vice-President
• Fiona Holmesby - Secretary
• Haley Ballingall 
• Tom Brockbank
• Melissa McVay
• Trevor Berens
• Jess Holliday

School Employee

• Cameron Andrews
• Jemma Robson
• Nancy Di Tello 
• Eugene Korbut 
• David King

Grounds Projects

It has been a big fortnight for our 2 grounds projects. The sports field is really taking shape with the laying of the artificial grass. There have been some hold ups with the weather but hopefully the crew will get the whole job completed before the holidays and the students will get to enjoy the new space on day one of next term.

And a very dedicated and hard-working group of parents have been spending many, many, many hours working on the cubby houses and they look simply amazing. The level of detail on these is incredible (we LOVE the wanted poster!) and the kids are really excited to be able to use them when they are open. Mark is currently working on the area around the cubbies and we will continue to improve this space over the year.

Maths Olympiad

The Maths Olympiad is up and running for another year! The Olympiad has proved to be an effective way of increasing our students' strategic thinking and reasoning skills in a supportive and collegiate environment. Sessions will run weekly and there are four tests that the students will sit throughout the year. Further updates on the Olympiad will be communicated in future newsletters.

Harmony Week

Last week the whole school celebrated our diversity through a range of activities for Harmony Week. We started the week with a highly successful bake sale. Students, parents and other community members were spoilt for choice at the bake sale with a vast array of baked goods that were on offer. It was really lovely to see the support for this event and a reminder of how great our community is.

We also finished the week with a whole school dress up. Students and staff came in either orange (the colour of Harmony Day) or items of clothing to represent their cultural heritage. This prompted many discussions about our diversity as well as promoting inclusion and helping us celebrate the individuals that make up our great community.

Attendance

We want all kids to come to school every day. Attending all day, every day helps students build their learning and maintain strong social connections with their friends and teachers. Each lesson provides a foundation for the next one, making it easier to learn the next concept. Every day counts – each day a student misses puts them behind and has flow-on effects:

We understand that there are circumstances where your child cannot attend school but we encourage all parents and carers to prioritise and promote attendance - school is better when your child is here! Please see this article for further information.

Jen Armstead is our school's attendance officer. Her role is to monitor attendance and support families that may be having difficulty getting their child to school. Please contact Jen if you have any questions or concerns about attendance.

Early Arrivals/Pick up time reminders

We are seeing a number of students arriving at school early without parental supervision. The school gates are opened at 8:30am each morning and supervision in the yard begins at 8:45am. Please ensure your child is not arriving at school too early as it is unsafe. TeamKids offers before school care for families that need the additional supervision in the mornings.

A further reminder that we ask all parents and carers to try to collect their child at break times to minimise disruptions to classes. These times are:

• 11:00am
• 11:30am
• 1:30pm
• 2:15pm

Pupil Free Days for 2023

The following dates have been approved by School Council as Pupil Free Days:

• Monday 24th April
• Friday 2nd June
• Friday 28th July
• Monday 6th November

Please record these dates in your diary. Team Kids will offer their services on these days if there are enough students enrolled. Please book early to confirm your child's position in the program.

Go Blues! 

Take care,

David & Cam