Excursion Levy and School Fees

The due date for all fees was the 31st January, we would appreciate parents paying these as soon as possible.

Excursions and Incursions are being charged each term in 2020. The Term 1 Fee will be sent home either at the end of this week or early next week and will cover only the activities that students are attending in Term 1.

Reporting to Parents in 2020

In order to provide parents more regular updates on their child’s progress, there will be a change to the way we report to parents this year. There will be four opportunities for parents to receive a progress update for their child.

Parents will:

- be invited for an interview with teachers at the end of Term 1 (Thursday 26th March)

- be provided a written report at the end of Term Two

- be invited for an interview with teachers at the end of Term 3

- be provided a written report at the end of Term 4.

Parents are encouraged to contact their child’s teacher at the beginning of the year if they would like to share information about their child. Parents are asked to contact their child’s teacher if they would like to discuss the Term Two report. As usual, parents are encouraged to contact their child’s teacher at any time during the year to discuss their child’s progress and needs.

Information Evenings

Our 2020 information evenings for parents will be held next week. These meetings provide an opportunity for parents to meet the teachers and have the broad curriculum direction outlined. Areas covered include expectations, curriculum, homework, important dates (such as camps if applicable) excursions, sporting activities and specialist programs.

Wednesday 12th February

Prep: 6.00pm

Years 3 and 4: 7.00pm

Thursday 13th February

Years 1 and 2: 6.00pm

Years 5 and 6: 7.00pm

COMPASS Permissions

There are a number of permissions we need to collect at the beginning of the year. Four of these permissions are already on COMPASS (Head Lice Inspection, Consent to Use Student Images, Use of Student Images on Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day and Sharing of Parent Emails with Class Coordinators). If parents have not completed these permissions, can we please ask for these to be completed as soon as possible?

Curriculum Day

The next Curriculum Day is Tuesday 10th March. On this day staff will be continuing their work on Literacy. Students do not attend school on the 10th March.

Traffic Safety

Parking around the School

As parents are aware the parking situation around the school is always difficult. Can I please remind parents that even if parking is difficult, basic road rules and etiquette still apply and our neighbours still need to access their properties.

Both the police and council patrol local schools, particularly at drop off and pick up times, and parents will be fined if they do not follow parking signs or road rules.

It may be a good idea if you live close enough to the school that you leave your car at home and walk to school in the morning and afternoon. Not only is this great exercise but will assist to reduce the congestion around the school.

School Council has a Traffic Working Party that is working with the council to look at road safety around the school. If you would like to join the working party, we would love your input. Our first meeting for 2020 is this Wednesday at 6.30pm (in the Staff Room).

Students Riding Bikes and Scooters to School

It is great to see so many of our students either riding a bike or scooter to school. With the focus on healthy lifestyles and the poor access to parking around the school it is a win-win for everyone.

All bike and scooter riders are required to wear a bike helmet in Victoria when riding on roads, on bike and shared paths, in bike lanes, in recreational parks and in car parks

Police can stop bike and scooter riders and issue a fine or a warning for not wearing an approved bicycle helmet.

Why Wear a Helmet?

The foam in a helmet is designed to spread the force and absorb the energy of an impact. This reduces the risk of head injury, when your head hits an object or the road. Research shows that wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of head injury by 60 to 90 per cent.

Of children aged 0-9 years who were fatally or seriously injured, only 42 per cent were wearing helmets.

A bicycle helmet will only protect your child’s head if it is the right size and fitted correctly.

Choosing a bicycle helmet

When choosing a bike helmet make sure:

it fits firmly and comfortably on your head and cannot be tilted in any direction
the straps can be adjusted so there is no slack when fastened
it has a sticker showing it is safety approved and meets the Australian/New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 2063
it is marked with the symbol of a body accredited by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ), certifying compliance with AS/NZS2063. (For helmets manufactured or imported from 1 July 2012.)

Whilst I realise that it may be difficult to convince your child to wear a helmet, particularly as they get older, can I please encourage parents to regularly talk to their children if they ride bikes or scooters and to have expectations that your children wear the helmets (correctly)?

Further to this, we ask that the students do not ride their bikes and scooters in the school ground, as it can be quite dangerous as the grounds are congested before and after school.

Students store their bikes and scooters in the bike shed between the Year 1 portable and Art Room.

Dogs in the School Ground

The school has the sole use of the Penpraze Park area between 8.30am and 4.30pm on school days.

This is a reminder to parents that dogs must be on a lead and under the control of an adult, during drop off and pick up times.

I am sure you will appreciate that classes are still using the facilities until the end of the school day and students may be walking around the grounds running errands, etc. Dogs are not to come on the grounds off lead during class time; that is after 9am and before 3.30pm.

As much as each of us believes our dog is safe around others, particularly children, we request that all dogs stay on a lead whenever they are here at school times.

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