Acting Principal's Report

Return to School Update

Thank you for supporting your children and our school staff this past fortnight. From 11.59pm Thursday 10 June, consistent with advice for the broader community, school staff, visitors and parents must wear a face mask at school and Outside School Hours Care, unless an exception applies. 

Children under 12 years of age and students at primary school are not required to wear face masks when at school, or when attending an OHSC program.

For communication purposes, teachers and education support staff are not required to wear face masks while teaching, but those who wish to do so, can.

The wellbeing of all our students is our priority and our school staff and teachers are here to support you and your family. Information that might be of assistance to you in talking to your child about COVID-19 is available. If you are concerned about your wellbeing or that of your child, please contact the school so we can talk with you about how we can best assist. Other sources of support include: Parent Line 13 22 89 and Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800.

A reminder that if you, your child, or a family member develops symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested at a COVID-19 testing facility and stay home. Each family should regularly check the list of public exposure sites in Victoria (where a person with COVID-19 has attended), and if anyone in the family has attended a site at the times listed, follow the instructions given.  Like getting tested if you have symptoms, getting vaccinated goes a long way to keeping our communities safe and schools open.

Building Update

In the past few weeks our builders have begun preparing the ground works for our new Administration building and Gymnasium. Due to the building works, we temporarily have no staff car park. Therefore staff are having to park on Oroya Grove, limiting available car parking for parents. This is temporary, as a new staff car park is being built, and is expected to be finished in the next week (weather permitting). We were hoping that this would be finished, but due to the significant rain we have had, this has been delayed. We apologise for the further difficulties this will cause our parents, and we hope this will be rectified as soon as possible.

Tutoring and Intervention Program

This semester a number of students have been selected to participate in tutoring and intervention sessions with the aim to address the negative impact on student attainment last year due to COVID-19.

Our first round of intervention and tutoring has already made a positive impact on student growth with many students selected for the first round of the program making between 6 months and 1 year of growth in the first semester. 

Our programs are currently into the second round and we have tried to continue our tutoring program during the latest lockdown. This has taken the form of small group WebEx sessions with our Teacher/ Tutors and follow up activities on Seesaw. 

Finally, we aim to have 3 more rounds of Intervention and tutoring this year and look forward to seeing the increased student outcomes that the programs will bring.

Staffing Update

I would like to inform you of some recent staffing updates for 2A. As you are aware, Ms Ray is taking Family Leave. We are welcoming back Mrs Naomi Maia who will be returning in Term 3. Mrs Maia is very familiar to our Year 2 students, as she was one of our Year 1 teachers last year.

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Clyde Primary School is excited to be participating. The Premiers’ Reading Challenge encourages children and students to read a set number of books over the year and record their efforts online.

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 17 September 2021. 

Children from Foundation to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books. All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

To record reading entries students can either; keep a list to give to their teacher or login to the Premier’s Reading Challenge portal. Passwords and logins are available from your classroom teacher. If you would like to use the portal prior to returning to Onsite Learning, please contact your child’s classroom teacher via the Compass Portal.

Public Holiday

Monday 14th June is the Queen's Birthday Public Holiday. This means students do not attend school and return on Tuesday 15th June. I wish everyone a lovely long weekend!