Principal's Report
Acting Principal - Rob Hogan
Assistant Principal -Anthea Mathers
Dear Families,
Thank you to everyone in the Echuca Twin Rivers Primary School community for making me feel so welcome in my first week at your great school. As you are most likely aware, I have come from Tongala Primary School, where I was Principal for the past 3 and a half years.
COVID restrictions are making things difficult to meet and get know the families at Echuca Twin Rivers School, but hopefully over time restrictions will ease and those connections can be made and re-established. If you do see me on duty at the front or back gate, please come up and introduce yourself to me.
Bus Zone
The front of the school has become very busy now especially at morning and afternoon drop off times. The Specialist School buses and cars that transport students with disabilities should be the only vehicles using the bus zone. We remind parents and carers, the bus parking area is not to be used for drop offs or pick ups of our students. Please park at the front of the school on the street. Your help with this is greatly appreciated.
Book Week
Book Week is scheduled for next week however we will be holding our Book Week the following week as Friday will be a public holiday.
Our Book Week dress up day will be Friday the 30th of October. We will be holding a virtual Book Week Parade and this will be held via Webex. Parents and friends will be able to join in on the event. Webex meeting details will be published in next week's newsletter and on Class Dojo.
Parent Opinion Survey
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 all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, student engagement and experiences of remote and flexible learning. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 12th October to Friday 13th November.
The survey will be conducted
online only takes 20 minutes to complete. An email along with a secure pin code will be distributed via email and we encourage all our families to participate.
COVID Operating Guidelines
We continue to maintain our adherence to the current COVID Operating Guidelines, as set out by the Department of Education. Many of these restrictions have been in place for a while now, and it is very impressive to see how the students, families and teachers have been able to adjust their practices to align with these guidelines.
We have been able to take advantage of some of the Regional Victoria's easing of restrictions, in being able to start to offer Transition visits shortly, and compete in some Interschool Sport with Rochester Primary School for our Grade 5/6 students next Wednesday.
These opportunities are fantastic and require careful planning to ensure they run according to the protocols in place, but we are certainly hoping more restrictions ease over the rest of the term.
Transition
It was great to see a number of 2021 Prep student families join us for a Q&A on Thursday. This provided the opportunity for questions to be asked around preparing your child for school next year, and that a transition program will be up and running very shortly. Mrs Irving and Mrs Engstrom have put together a thorough transition program, which will provide our future Prep students the opportunity to familiarise themselves with 'school life' across Term 4. This plan will be shared with families of 2021 Prep students very shortly.
To ensure communication is up to date and we can reach all families, the school is developing a Private Facebook Page for these families. More information will be sent out in regards to this.
This week, our Grade 6 students had a visit from Echuca College transition co-ordinator, Mitch Bright. This started the process of familiarising our Grade 6 students and hopefully alleviate some concerns, around transitioning to Secondary School. Our other local schools are also making arrangements to meet with their prospective students.
Uniform
Thank you to our students and the support of our families in ensuring our students are in full school uniform everyday. There has been a marked improvement this week. Our students look great in our uniform and it helps develop pride and a sense of belonging.
Students are required to wear wide brimmed school hats this term. Hats can be purchased at the Office for $10. Any students who have hats that are covered in writing will be required to purchase another hat. Due to Covid Safe advice, we will not be lending hats out to students this term.
Black pants and shorts are not part of our school uniform. As part of our uniform policy, all shorts and pants must be navy blue. Students arriving at school, who are not in uniform will be asked to change.
As of 2021, students will be required to wear black shoes. These shoes can be black runners or black school shoes but they must be black.
Intervention Funding
This week, the Andrews government made announcements in regards to all schools across Victoria receiving funding to support those students who need intervention support, in response to the interrupted nature of schooling in 2020.
At this stage, the school has not received any additional information in regards to how much money we will receive or what this will look like, but it is a great announcement which will directly support our students in 2021.
School Wide Positive Behaviour
Next week's focus is area specific addressing Classroom Expected Behaviours.
Wishing you all a very happy and enjoyable weekend.
Kind regards,
Rob and Anthea