PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

TERM 3

Welcome back to Term 3, hope you and your family had a great holiday together!

Term 3 will see some exciting additions to our school! Our canteen has begun operation, which I'm sure all families are excited about! Construction of our playgrounds will begin, which we anticipate will be ready for early Spring!  Basketball rings will also be installed on the outside basketball courts.

We welcome Trent and Chloe to our Ulysses Community! It's great to add their expertise to our staff profile and we look forward to our work together. We thank Aaron and Emily for supporting the students in Ulysses with Bec this year and are grateful for their support. 

As a new school, we will continue to employ new staff as our student population grows. 

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT

As a school, we have a key focus on School Wide Positive Behaviour Support, which is an initiative by the Department of Education. This approach is heavily backed by research and the Department is committed to training all schools. Our training with the Department has started and will continue for the next 3 years.

SWPBS assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.

When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Students and staff benefit from:

• increased respectful and positive behaviour
• increased time focused on instruction
• improved social-emotional wellbeing
• positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
• increased adoption of evidence-based instructional practices
• a predictable learning environment with improved perceptions of safety and increased attendance

A school wide expectation and reward system are essential elements of the approach. As such, we have a behaviour matrix for students to follow (attached). Our reward system will use the behaviour matrix as an opportunity to reward students for their positive behaviour. This will include students being given tokens (image below) that they can trade-in for experiences in our school. For example, the teachers in the community may run a lunch time movie that students can trade in their tokens for. 

We will also introduce whole school trade-in days this year, where students will have the opportunity to be involved in whole school events and activities. These will usually operate at lunch time.

Sam and myself will give out gold tokens to students for exceptional positive behaviour in consultation with teachers. This will result in opportunities and experiences that reflect the excellence the students are showing at our school.

Teachers will begin giving out tokens this week. Please talk with your children about this approach and if you have any queries please talk with the teachers in your child’s community.

LANGUAGE SURVEY

In 2020, our students will begin learning a Language, we would like your input into which Language we choose as a school. All year levels will be involved in learning the Language and we see it as a great opportunity for our students. 

A survey link will go out to parents this term. Once we finalise the survey results, we will advertise a position so that our Language classes start in Term 1 2020.

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT UPDATE

Thank you for your support and understanding with the traffic management for our school.

Below is an update based on information received from our local council:

• 40 zone now in place between 8 - 9:30am and 2:30pm - 4pm
• morning & afternoon parking zones have been installed
• provision for school crossing is now in place
• crossing supervisors has started
• please follow the parking signs and do not park on or near the crossing area
• local council has advised that no part of a car's tyres can be on the nature strip. 2 wheels can be on the concrete gutter but not the nature strip. Some families have already been fined for this. 
• future school traffic is expected to use the Council’s sporting precinct car park to the south, construction is due to start later this year.

In the interests of pedestrian safety, please use the footpath to enter the school rather than walking through the car park. Please refrain from parking on the grass as this is illegal and may result in a council penalty notice. Can we also remind families not to park in or drive into the drive way or staff car parks.

We thank you for your understanding and for ensuring our students are safe. 

SOFTBALL CENTRE

Below is the concept plan for the Softball Centre behind our school. The centre will include a playground and barbecue area, sports field, dog park, seating and walking paths. The Centre is being developed by Stockland and Hume Council. There is also a car park which will have paths to enter our school from. 

The project should be completed by Summer 2020, possibly sooner. Stockland will be conducting earthworks  to prepare the site over the next 3 months. During this time, machinery will not be used during pick up and drop off school times.

I have attached a copy of the plan as well as the Highlands master plan which outlines future work for this area.

This area will be a fantastic inclusion for our community and will become a well utilised area for our students and families.