Assistant Principal's Page

Another jam-packed term of learning and fun at Croydon Hills Primary draws to a close! 

Student Reports and Conferences

A reminder that your child’s Report will be available on Compass on Friday June 23 (last day of Term).  Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences will be held in Week 2 next term, on Wednesday July 19.  Bookings will be open on Compass the first Monday back.  In preparation for the conference, in which you, your child and their teacher can share achievements, celebrate successes and discuss next steps for learning, please ensure you take the time to read the report. 

Responsible Pet Incursion 

This Tuesday, the Preps had a lovely visit from ‘Responsible Pet Ownership’.  This involved meeting a beautiful dog called Jackie, role plays, song and story time.  The program focuses on teaching students about dog safety:

• when dogs should be left alone
• things we should not do to dogs
• how can you tell if a dog is happy, frightened or angry
• a safe way to approach and greet a dog
• what to do if approached by an unknown or aggressive dog

Grandparent Visit in Year 2

Thank you to all the grandparents and friends who visited the year 2s on Wednesday morning. The students loved hearing about life ‘back in the day’, and exploring a range of artefacts, like telephones (that were not mobile or connected to the internet!), money, stamp collections and typewriters. This was a lovely way to round out the term’s inquiry learning. 

Reconciliation Week Scar Tree Mural

Thank you to our Visual Arts teacher, Claudia Michielin, for coordinating our students’ contribution to the Scar Tree mural as part of our Reconciliation Week activities. The tree will be staying up until NAIDOC week, so if you are visiting Eastland, the Library or Town Square please pop in to see the tree up close and read some of the beautiful, heartening, uplifting and uncomfortably truthful responses from children and young people about what Reconciliation means to them. 

Downball

This week, we had a visit from Downball Australia and I think it has started a craze at CHPS! Thanks to Laura York and Rob Lewis for providing yet another fantastic experience that promotes health and wellbeing through physical activity. It has been wonderful seeing so many students playing downball at recess and lunch!

Social Media & Keeping Safe Online

Just a reminder to be vigilant on your child’s access to social media over the holidays. Students under thirteen should not have access to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook. While playing online games and chatting to friends via messenger may seem harmless, it is important to realise how quickly interactions can become toxic and how easily kids can find themselves in situations they are not mature enough to handle. If they are online, here are some tips from keeping them safe: 

• Keep screens and devices where you can see them. 
• Know your parental controls - 

Innocent searches online can lead to not-so-innocent results, so it’s wise to know how to use the parental controls/search restrictions offered by web browsers, internet service providers and devices. For example, the SafeSearch Filters feature on Google will block sites with inappropriate material. To turn it on, go to Settings/SafeSearch Filters. Although not 100 percent accurate, parental controls can help prevent your child from seeing and accessing most violent or sexual material. See https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/. Paid for security tools and features will offer extra protection and control.

• Bookmark your child’s favourite web pages for easy access
• Keep track of online time. 

The Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines recommend children between the age of five and 17 should have no more than two hours of screen time a day. So, it’s important to monitor your child’s online time, particularly younger children, to ensure they do not develop bad habits. Get your children to agree on a period of time, say 30 minutes per session, and set a timer to go off – don’t forget to make this a non-negotiable finish time. You should also switch off the home Wi-Fi at a set time each night (ideally before bedtime) so everyone has some ‘time-out’ from the internet. You can also try making some days ‘screen-free’ in your home to encourage everyone to pursue other more active and/or less technology-driven ways to entertain themselves.

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone back next term!

Bree Jennings  -  Acting Assistant Principal