Principal's Message

Curriculum Day- Friday 6th August is now DEFERRED

At Upwey South Primary School we work hard to promote a balance between the social-emotional and academic needs of our students. The current Covid-environment, during which we have been swinging between lockdowns, has presented all schools with a challenge when trying to find a balance between 'school improvement agendas' and 'social-emotional wellbeing'. 

In trying to find just the right balance, we have made the decision to defer our scheduled Friday 6th August Curriculum Day. This decision has been made with the support of our Regional Network, and is focussed upon maximising opportunities for our students to build social connections with staff and their peers. 

Therefore, all students are expected to be at school on Friday 6th August 2021. 

The original intent of the above Curriculum Day was to provide staff with an opportunity to work with consultants from Essential Assessments, with a focus upon improving the use and application of student achievement data in Mathematics. Obviously, this remains an important piece of work for our staff, therefore we will be seeking to reschedule this day for early-mid Term Four. Stay tuned as we work with our providers and School Council to determine a suitable date. 

Covid-Safe Actions Across DET Schools

When we hear of the community challenges being faced by many schools across our network, we thank our lucky stars that we have such a supportive school community to partner with. 

It is through this partnership that we are able to operate within DET Covid-Safe Guidelines, and yet still maintain some sense of normality across the school day. An example of this is that we are able to continue with our current drop-off and pick-up practices.

However, the promotion of 'Covid-normal' for our school relies on EVERYONE doing their bit to keep our community safe. Therefore, we ask parents/carers to continue to observe the directives which are communicated (such as mask wearing and QR coding). 

As you would be aware, some school events have been impacted by current restrictions.; which are in place across DET schools until Wednesday 11th August. Following this date, we will just need to wait and see what the next set of restrictions entails. 

The main impacts for our community to be aware of are outlined in the extracts below (sourced from Current DET Operations Guide):

"Schools are requested to exercise flexibility to enable staff to access vaccination appointments."

• To accommodate and promote all of our staff being able to access vaccination appointments, we may require the short-term splitting of some classes. Whilst this is not a practice in which we normally choose to engage, we must take every step we can to promote vaccination rates amongst staff.

"School camps and overnight stays can take place across Victoria with no travel restrictions. Bookings must be limited to single schools. Multiple schools can attend camps providing school groups remain separated and do not share common facilities at the same time. Mixing of staff and students between different schools is not permitted. "

• Therefore, we are pleased to say that our Year Five/Six camp will proceed as planned.In place of a face-to-face Information Session for parents/carers, we will be holding an Information WEBEX on Tuesday 3rd August at 6:30pm. A link and invitation will be sent out via Compass closer to the date. Please be aware that the details for this camp are available via the Compass Parent Portal.

"Non-essential visitors should be excluded from school sites for this period.

Essential visitors include for example: Preservice teacher placements; Staff involved in School Breakfast Clubs; Health and wellbeing staff."

• Therefore, Groove Foundations Instrumental Music Sessions will not be held in-person during this time.
• Yarra Valley Psychology Services will continue during this period of time.

"Incursions are not permitted at this time."

• Please refer to year level notices regarding rescheduling dates.

"Non-essential meetings, and all school events, gatherings and assemblies should be deferred or held remotely."

"The School Breakfast Clubs program (SBCP) is an essential service that can be delivered on-site."

PRODUCTION UPDATE

For details regarding new dates for our School Production please refer to the "Performing Arts" section of this newsletter. 

BEESWAX WRAPS- SWPBL UPDATE

For details regarding the SWPBL Leaders Beeswax Wrap Initiative, check out the "Curriculum- Teaching and Learning" section of this newsletter. 

Promoting Safe Road Use (Morris and Riley Roads)

If you access the school via Morris Road or Riley Road you will notice that Yarra Ranges Council have commenced works to improve road safety around the school. Whilst these works may impact upon access for some drivers/residents, we ask parents/carers to observe local laws and signage. 

Please be aware that the current works impact both our school community and local residents. Therefore, we ask for all parents/carers to act in a 'Responsbile' manner. 

We have received notification that police and parking officers will shortly begin patrolling the area during pick-up/drop-off times to enforce local laws. 

2021 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey 

WE WANT OUR PARENTS/CAREGIVERS/GUARDIANS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK! 

All government schools are currently conducting a survey to find out what parents/caregivers/guardians think of our school. The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training (DET) that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents/caregivers/guardians (previously known as the Parent Opinion Survey). 

It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. 

DET provides schools with the option of selecting a random group of parents/carers (~30% of total enrolment base) or opening the survey to the entire cohort of parents/carers. 

At our school we want everyone to have the opportunity to share their experiences. 

This year, the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 19th July to Sunday 22nd August 2021.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. 

The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

Please follow the instructions below to complete the survey. 

NOTE: Although both parents/carers are invited to have input, your family may only complete one survey.

To complete the survey, simply:

• Click on the link below, or copy and paste the text into your browser. This link will take you directly to the survey.

https://www.orima.com.au/parent

• Select the School and Campus name below.

School Name: Upwey South Primary School

Enter the School PIN below.

PIN: 580715

• When complete, please click on the tick button at the end of the survey to submit your answers. Please note that the survey will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity.

Please only undertake one survey per family. Completing more than one survey may skew data sets. 

2022 Foundation Enrolments

Unfortunately, in-person school tours for government schools are currently on hold for the next fortnight. If you are aware of a friend or family member who may have a child commencing Foundation in 2022, please ask them to make contact with our School Office so that we may add their details to our growing list of families who are waiting for in-person tours to commence again. At this stage, we are unsure when these restrictions will be lifted. 

Since the commencement of Term Two, we have been inundated with requests for families from the surrounding area to attend school tours. As a school with an extremely strong reputation across the community we want to hear from any of our existing families who have younger siblings due to start Foundation in 2022. 

By securing 2022 enrolments for existing families, we will then be in a strong position to determine how many positions exist for students who live within our designated school zone, and then determine how many vacancies may remain for students who live beyond our school zone. 

For information regarding enrolments, please contact the school office. 

Smile Squad School Dental Program

The below is a copy of the information contained within our last newsletter, and remains here as a reminder for parents/carers to action. 

You may have recently heard that the Victorian Government has announced that the Smile Squad- School Dental Program- will continue to be rolled out across more schools and Local Government Areas (LGAs) from mid-Term Two, 2021. 

As a school within the Yarra Ranges Council, we are pleased to say that we have secured the Smile Squad School Dental Program for our student community, with dental health sessions for students commencing on-site from Week One, Term Three, 2021. 

This week each student brought home a dental health information pack, provided by the Victorian Government. Inside this pack will be a consent form which parents/carers are required to complete in order to access this free dental service. 

More details regarding the program, arrangements for our school, and timelines will be published via Compass when dental health information packs are distributed in approximately a fortnight from now. 

What is Smile Squad? 

Smile Squad is a Victorian Government dental program offered for students. Smile Squad will provide free oral health examinations and follow up treatment to all Victorian government primary, secondary and specialist school students.

Smile Squad is committed to the same high standards of safety and quality required of all public dental services, and must be accredited to all relevant National Safety and Quality Health Service standards. These standards provide a nationally consistent statement of the level of care consumers can expect from health service organisations.

For more information about Smile Squad, please refer to the attached .pdf below:

Yarra Valley Psychology is partnering with our school!

We are pleased to share with you that our school has secured a partnership with Yarra Valley Psychology (YVP) Services (https://yvp.com.au/), with the aim of providing in-school counselling services to students. 

Throughout schools across Victoria, student counselling is a much needed (and under resourced) service. Many of our families are currently experiencing first-hand the difficulties associated with trying to gain access to support services for their children. Therefore, we must be grateful that we have been presented with the opportunity to enter a partnership with YVP, as the resources do not exist for this partnership to occur across schools within our region. 

Please be aware of the information below:

Is there a cost involved to access the service, and does my child require a Mental Health Plan?

There is no cost involved for the family. 

Your child does not require a Mental Health Plan to access the service. This is due to the fact that the counselling sessions will be delivered by a Masters of Counselling practitioner, who is under the direct supervision of Yarra Valley Psychology (YVP) Services. 

There is also no limit on the number of sessions a child may access. Access to sessions, and duration (in weeks) will be determined between YVP, the school, and the parent/carer. 

When do sessions commence, and how will they be structured?

Sessions will commence from the beginning of Term Two, with student-needs being prioritized in partnership with the school and YVP. Prior to any child commencing, a confidential discussion will take place between the YVP counsellor and the parent/carer. 

Our school has been allocated a male counsellor (name TBC) who will conduct sessions each Wednesday for the entire duration of Term Two and Term Three. 

The counsellor will have the time allocation to see up to five students per day, with each session being allocated 50 minutes. At this stage sessions will be occurring each Wednesday. 

Will each child who is referred be able to access the service?

Unfortunately, this is not achievable within the current mental health environment. Referrals will be prioritized on a needs basis from within our own school cohort. 

If I wish for my child to access the service, what do I need to do?

Please complete the referral form below and return it via the instructions on the form. 

Keeping Aware of Information Relating to School

As a school we work hard to keep our families informed of happenings across the school. We acknowledge that receiving information in a timely and consistent manner can help to alleviate the pressures which come from managing a busy family calendar. 

Communicating via Compass

All of our school notifications are sent via the Newsfeed within the Compass app. There is also a calendar of events within the app, which sends push notifications to users to remind them of school events. 

In 2021, we will continue to utilise Compass for families to consent and pay in order for their children to take part in school events. 

In order to filter notifications which are received, you will notice that we send out notifications which are year level specific. This means that sometimes not all notifications are sent to all year levels. 

Administration Reminder

Please be reminded that if you need to collect your child/ren early, please contact the office when you are five to ten minutes away so we can have them at the office for collection.

Communicating with the School Administration Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2021, and welcome your input: 

Damien Kitch (Principal)  damien.kitch@education.vic.gov.au 

Paula Lee (Business Manager) upwey.south.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Janette Clarke (Office Manager) upwey.south.ps@education.vic.gov.au