General News
Earn & Learn
The school has entered the Woolworths Earn and Learn Offer again this year. If you, your friends or family shop at Woolworths, please collect the vouchers for our school and either send them to school or pop them into the Merbein P-10 box at both stores.
We Want Our Parents To Tell Us What They Think!
Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst a sample of randomly selected parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
Approximately 30 per cent of parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. Invited parents will receive a link to the survey via email or in the post if we do not have an email address for you. All responses to the survey are completely anonymous. This year the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 22nd July to Sunday 11th August.
The survey will be conducted online, only takes 10-15 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.
The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of September.
Please contact the office if you would like more information.
Shingles
A case of shingles was reported at Merbein P-10 College late last term.
Shingles is a form of chickenpox (also known as varicella). In about 15-20% of persons who get chickenpox, the virus will remain in their body in a part of a nerve near the spinal cord. As a person becomes older, the virus may become active again and cause a local, painful rash along the path of that nerve. This rash is known as shingles. Because shingles results from an earlier chickenpox infection becoming active again within the person, shingles is not spread from one person to another. However, because the same virus causes shingles and chickenpox, persons with shingles can spread the chickenpox virus. In persons with shingles, the virus is usually transmitted by contact with fluid from the rash. Those persons who have had chickenpox or have received the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine are protected against infection from exposure to shingles. Those persons who have not had chickenpox or have not received the chickenpox (varicella) vaccine are susceptible to infection from exposure to shingles. Susceptible persons develop chickenpox rather than shingles. Though chickenpox is usually a mild disease, it can be more severe in older persons.
Prevention/Control
· The only way to reduce the risk of developing shingles is to get vaccinated.
If you have shingles:
· Keep the rash covered.
· Avoid touching or scratching the rash.
· Wash your hands often to prevent the spread of varicella zoster virus.
· Until your rash has developed crusts, avoid contact with
- pregnant women who have never had chickenpox or the chickenpox vaccine;
- premature or low birth weight infants; and
- people with weakened immune systems, such as people receiving immunosuppressive medications or undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant recipients, and people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Bus Pass Replacement
Buslink have informed the school that if a student requires a replacement bus pass, they will be required to pay $10.00 either to the school or to the Buslink office. The new pass will not be printed out and issued to the student until the payment has been received. Please remind students to take care of their bus passes to avoid this additional cost.
Uniform Shop
School uniforms can be purchased from the school’s main office between the hours of 8.45am and 4pm during the school week. If these hours are inconvenient for you, please ring the school to make an alternate arrangement.
School Bank Account
BSB - 063 714
Bank Acc Number – 10060535
Account Name - Merbein P-10 College Official Account
Weekly Newsletter Emailed
The school distributes a weekly school newsletter every Thursday to families via email. With our new inewsletter you can now receive the weekly newsletter on your mobile phone if you have the school COMPASS App installed on your phone. Please give us feedback on our new Newsletter system and let us know what you think. If you have not received the newsletter by email, please notify the school to either of the following email addresses: Giddings.beth.l@edumail.vic.gov.au or
merbein.p10@edumail.vic.gov.au, with the subject Newsletter Email, so this can be rectified.
Students in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 who would like to take home a printed copy of the newsletter each week, can collect one from the main office every Thursday at 3.15pm.
Breakfast Club
The Merbein & District Community Bank & Merbein Development Association are financially supporting the Breakfast Program. Foodbank Victoria also supports the breakfast program with donations of food. The following organisations provide volunteers to assist with the program; Merbein P10 College parents, the Board & Staff of the Merbein & District Community Bank, Merbein Development Association, Merbein Lions Club, and Merbein Uniting Church. The Breakfast Program is held in the school cafeteria. All students are welcome to come along between 8.00am and 8.45am each morning if they would like a FREE tasty breakfast to kick-start their days learning.
If you have time to volunteer for this community service from 8-8.45am on school days, please contact the school, we would love to hear from you. Please note that volunteers will need a Working with Children’s Check.
Student Absences
If your child is away from school, please notify the school before 10am in the morning. A text message will be automatically sent to your phone after this time if your child is not at school and the school has not been notified. The school can be notified of absences by phone or by sending an email to the following email address: Collihole.heather.h@edumail.vic.gov.au