From The Principals

Hello Vermont families,

What a busy few weeks it has been! We have had so many special events happening throught the school and kindergarten, with lots more planned in the coming weeks. 

We remind everyone that Monday 13th of March is a public holiday, and no students will be at school on this day. 

House Athletics 

What a colourful array of happy athletes we had at the Bill Sewart Athletics Track. We were so proud of all our students, as they participated in all events and had a lot of fun trying their best. A HUGE thank you to the parents who were able to volunteer their time to assist on the day. Special thanks to Mr Clinton Walsh for his organisation of approximately 500 students on the day.  For further details about the House Athletics and the Division Swimming, please read the Specialists page. 

School Photos

As you are aware, we had our school photos today. The children (and the staff) looked amazing. We would like to say thank you to Mr Hsien Tran who coordinated this special opportunity for our school.

Foundation BBQ

A huge thankyou to our wonderful Foundation team for hosting our Foundation BBQ this evening! This is a terrific opportunity for families to meet each other, and for students to show off their school to their parents and friends! We hope that all the parents and students who attend have a great evening. 

NAPLAN

NAPLAN 2023 begins Wednesday the 15th of March and goes through to the 27th March. This is an assessment for all Year 3 and Year 5 students. Details have been sent home to their parents via email. For your convenience will include the dates for you again. 

Our scheduled test dates are:

15th March – Year 3 and Year 5 Writing

16th March – Year 3 and Year 5 Reading

17th March – Year 5 Conventions of Language

20th March – Year 3 Conventions of Language

21st March – Year 5 Numeracy

22nd March – Year 3 Numeracy

The children also have the opportunity to access a NAPLAN public demonstration site, as this is accessible to students at home. If you would like to take up this opportunity, the site to access is: https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site

Thank you to Lauren Strachan and Lisa Shoebridge for their coordination with the planning of NAPLAN 2023.

Parents and Literacy Sessions

It has been a very busy time for the Literacy Team at VPS over the last couple of weeks. We have held three information sessions:

• Parents and Literacy - Reading Session
• Parents and Literacy - English as an Additional Language
• Parents and Literacy - Writing Session

A huge thank you to all the parents and carers that were able to attend these sessions. They all went home with knowledge of how we deliver our Literacy curriculum at school and with some ideas that they could use to help their children at home.  We now look forward to seeing lots of parents assist in the classroom. 

A special thank you to John Hoskin (Acting Literacy Learning Specialist) , Dianna Fuller (EAL Teacher) and the Literacy team for all of their efforts. 

Y-Safe  

Another very informative session was held last week for the Year 5 and Year 6 Students. They were presented with information to continue our promotion at school of smart, safe and responsible use of digital technologies. There was also a Parent Cybers Safety Workshop where Y-Safe came along to work with our families to give them the skills and confidence to guide their children safely in the digital world. Thank you to Julie Hall for her organisation of this workshop for our community.

School Council 

We were thrilled to hold our first meeting this week, with our newly formed council in attendance. Thankyou to all the people who nominated for a position on council, and for all the parents who took part in the election process. As mentioned in an earlier Sentral post, our 2023 school councillors are;

• Lisa Portell (President)
• Nick Beckett (Vice President)
• Joe Reilly
• Jason Retchford
• Andrew Duck
• Yew-Chin Koay
• Kendall Smith
• Joy Cook (Treasurer)
• Andrew Wastie (Minutes Secretary)
• Jacci Strachan
• Jess Mann (Executive Officer)

Community Network

Our Community Network have been buisly working on the upcoming Colour Run, as well as several other exciting ventures including a Hot Cross Bun day for students, and planning a Mother's & Special Persons Day in Term 2. 

The Community Network are coordinating an Easter Raffle for the end of Term 2. Tickets will be sold at the Colour Run, and will be available at other times (more information to follow). If you would like to donate some Easter treats (unopened, new and in-date items) please drop them in to the office. These will go towards making up some special hampers that will be prizes for the raffle. 

Parent Teacher Interviews

This week the details for the upcoming 'Getting to Know You/Academic Meetings’ were sent home. There are two nights available. They are: Tuesday 21st March and Monday the 27th March. The teachers will be setting their own availability within the window of 8am through to 8pm on these two allocated nights. There will be additional days and times provided by your child’s teacher to book an alternative time up to Wednesday the 29th of March. You will have a choice of meeting face to face with your child’s teacher or online over Zoom.  For your convenience we have attached the PDF with the details that were sent, as bookings are open now. We know the teachers are looking forward to meeting you all. 

Have a great long weekend, and we look forward to seeing you around the school in the next few weeks! 

Jess, Joy & Jacci