Hoping you all enjoyed a lovely holiday and some time with family. Probably the biggest hit with the kids at our place over the break was some low-key time at home, baking and trying out some new board games. The return of Hungry Hippos – adored by all. Funny how it is quite often the simple things which are appreciated by our children.

It has been straight into Term Four at school and our students have jumped right back into learning. Our Year Four to Six students enjoyed some Soccer clinics run by Football Australia and the whole school benefited from an information session around ‘Understanding Bullying’. Together with the parent webinar run last night, this will ensure a consistency around our shared understandings of what bullying is and how we must be united in our approach to tackling it.

School Council met this week and celebrated some of the recent achievements of our school. Our Chicken Care Team were big winners at the Melbourne Show, a very impressive student-led effort. We also discussed the initiatives put in place to improve communication with families around student behaviour and wellbeing, recognising some pleasing positive results in our recent survey and noting areas for future development. Chess club began this week, with a very keen level of interest from students and the remainder of our equity funding for this year will be used to support students in attending incursions and excursions, with the Move-Lead-Succeed Program taking place this coming Friday for our Year 5 students in preparation for their application for leadership roles for 2023. Thanks to Upper Yarra SC for very kindly providing free transport for our students to the event.

Class Compositions 2023

With our Consultative Committee having confirmed class structures for next year we are now beginning to consider student combinations and construct class lists. At this stage, we intend to hold 7 classes next year. It is vital that we are made aware of any circumstances that may impact on our enrolment numbers. Please let us know if you intend to enrol a child at our school, if you are aware of people in our community who will be enrolling, or if you intend to transfer to another school. If you will not be at Launch in 2023, please notify the school office in writing as soon as possible.

What are the criteria that we use to make up class lists?

Factors which are considered in the placement of students include:

• academic performance – judgments over time;

• work habits eg. ability to work independently;

• Behaviour;

• Gender;

• social network /friendships;

• social maturity;

• special needs eg. twins, siblings.

What is the process for placing students into classes?

Based on the criteria listed above, teaching staff and administration meet mid Term 4 to establish classes for the following school year. Teachers ensure each new class has:

• a balance of academic ability;

• gender balance;

• socially balanced groups.

During this process, changes and adjustments are made over several weeks. Each change may trigger a chain reaction of other changes. Proposed class lists are submitted to our Leadership team for final ratification. At this stage, the new classes will be announced on our proposed ‘Meet the Teacher Day’, December 6.

Parents are now invited to write to me about any concerns they may have for their child’s educational needs for 2023. Please note, requests for particular teachers will not be considered as the best interests of all of the children and the effective management of the school must be taken into account. Letters will be considered up until 4pm, Thursday October 27, 2022. Letters received after this date will not be accepted unless in exceptional circumstances. These letters are to be addressed directly to myself with all details and information provided kept in confidence. Remembering that I am new to the school this year, if you have information from previous years that you feel I need to know that is relevant in regard to your child’s placement, please include this in your letter. Please don’t assume I know! As you may understand, the allocating of children to classrooms is a very complex task and one that requires patience and a great deal of thought and manipulation. Please assist us to make this process as smooth as possible by taking note of the requests as outlined. Please also be aware that requests are indeed requests and does not mean it will automatically happen. Every decision will be made for the betterment of all children. Should you wish to discuss any concerns with 2023 grade placements, please contact the school office to arrange a time for a chat.

Bushfire Awareness and Preparation

Our school is one of many schools across Victoria that is a Bushfire at Risk school. Like all Bushfire at Risk Schools, we are closed on any declared Catastrophic Day. Information about the current and expected Fire Danger Ratings can be found in weather forecasts on daily news programs, published on websites and in newspapers, broadcast on radio and on the CFA website. With fire season fast approaching it is a good time to remind our families to ensure that all your details are up to date at the school. We know that a number of families circumstances have changed recently and we require the most up to date records to ensure we can contact you. If you have changed address, got a new phone number or have a new alternative contact, please contact the office to give us the details so that we are able to contact you if required.

Screen Time

There is a lot of information available these days around suggested amounts of screen time for children. It is part of life that access to screens is becoming more and more part of our everyday functioning, particularly on the back of lockdown and remote learning. But how does this effect our children? Below are some ideas and articles to help guide you on how you can manage healthy screen time use with your children. https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/play-media-technology/screen-time-healthyscreen-use/managing-screen-time-3-11-years

Change to COVID Isolation Requirements

The Victorian Government has announced the end of the Pandemic Declaration and associated Pandemic Orders.

The following settings, based on advice from the Department of Health, will apply from 11.59pm Wednesday 12 October 2022.

It is strongly recommended that students:

who test positive to COVID-19 stay home and isolate for 5 days
should not attend school after 5 days if still symptomatic
who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school
advise the school of the COVID-19 positive test result

Where students become symptomatic at school they should:

be collected by their parents/carers
undergo testing for COVID-19

Thanks everyone and see you around our place!

School Council Update