Wear it Yellow Day

As part of our National Reconciliation Week celebrations this week, this Friday (2nd June) we are encouraging all students and teachers to take part in a yellow-themed dress day to raise funds for a First Nations organisation, Children’s Ground. That is why our school has chosen to participate in Children’s Ground’s ‘Wear It Yellow’ day. As part of ‘Wear It Yellow Day’.

We invite members of the school community to donate what you can to Children’s Ground via this link https://wearityellow.org.au/s-kilda-park-ps and we ask students to wear yellow and bring a gold coin donation on the day.

For more information on Children’s Ground, head to https://childrensground.org.au/

Nina Taylor MP at School Assembly

As well as 'wearing it yellow', we will be joined at our school assembly on Friday morning of this week by Nina Taylor, our local State Member of Parliament.

This will be Nina's first visit to SKiPPS since her successful election as MP for Albert Park, (replacing Martin Foley) last November.

We look forward to welcoming her to SKiPPS and discussing issues that are important to our school, including the work to replace our leaking school roof and the community safety issues linked to the planned public toilets outside the school.

Working Bee

We will be holding our second working bee of the year this Saturday 3rd June from 8am - 12pm.

On the day we will have a lot of jobs to complete around the school to keep our buildings and grounds looking good and working well.

Jobs that we are looking to complete include;

Building compost bays
clearing out and topping up sand pit
Playground Pressure wash
Storm drain clear
Playground graffiti removal
Remove grass from around pavers at edge of playground
Lay 6 pavers
Move tree back to area near side gate
Prune tree near flagpoles
Paint over graffiti sports shed
Prune olive trees and other trees at side of Mike’s cottage
Repair fly screen panels on BER building
Gutter cleaning
Weeding and tidying garden
Move materials from Maths storeroom around school
Kitchen Dining Room clean and tidy
Cleaning quadrangle shade sail
Fenceline clear up and weeding
Weed behind portable classroom
Clean and scrub metal troughs/bubblers
Clear up near school parking spaces

We were blown away by the turn-out for the first working bee last term and would love to see as many parents, carers and children here on the morning.

Running working bees allows us to complete jobs that are simply not possible to do through our government funding alone. We appreciate the support of our parents to help us go above and beyond for our students and to provide them with a school that they can feel proud of.

Winter Wellness event reminder

Later in the newsletter, you will read more about our upcoming 'Winter Wellness' event - taking place in the new pavilion next to school on Thursday 15th June.

This is a brand new event for our school and we are really excited and thankful that so many members of our school community are getting involved and donating their time and expertise to provide a relaxing and mindful day.

As we move into winter, many of us are feeling tired and run-down and this event is a great chance to look after your wellness and engage with other members of our community.

During the day (and evening) there are a wide range of sessions that parents and carers can choose to come along to (or you can really treat yourself and attend the whole day).

Further details and tickets are at https://compasstix.com/event/30a67630-779d-4288-bf22-89610ce5362e

We hope to see lots of you there to help make this event a huge success.

School Photos going home tomorrow

We have been informed that MSP will be delivering the student and class photos tomorrow.

For families who have placed online orders, these will be distributed to classrooms and sent home with your child by the end of the week.

Year 1/2 - Boxes or plastic punnets wanted

The Year 1/2 Inquiry Topic this term is, "How are Toys Made?" and towards the end of the unit the 1/2s will be designing and making their own toys. We are asking you to send along any boxes (not too large) or plastic punnets, that are easy to cut and glue with your child to school so we can start collecting them. We will start making these toys early next term.

End of Tax Year - reminder of our tax deductible funds

With the end of the tax year approaching, we know that some families will be looking at options to make gifts and donations to provide them with tax deductions.

The school operates two DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) funds and we would welcome any donations that families may be willing and able to make. Doing so provides huge benefits to the school and can also give tax benefits to the person making the donation.

We operate a DGR Building Fund which allows us to collect funds that are used to maintain and upgrade our school buildings - something that is constantly required in our 141-year old buildings and which existing government funding never fully covers.

We also operate a DGR fund for our Library. Donations to this fund allow us to purchase books and resources for our wonderful school library - something which represents a lasting investment in the learning and engagement of our students.

Any parents considering making a donation prior to tax-time are encouraged to consider the school, chat to their accountant and reach out to Nova Whitehead, our lovely Business Manager at nova.whitehead@education.vic.gov.au to make arrangements.

Nova will be able to provide you with the appropriate receipts and documents to provide to your accountant to allow a tax-deduction to take place.

Sub-Committee Meetings

Our school has a number of permanent working groups called sub-committees. These groups are made up of staff members and dedicated parents who meet ten times a year with a focus to make our school a better place.

Sub-committees are open for anyone to join and rely on the energy, ideas and hard work of parents to improve the school experience for all of our students.

The groups are open for all parents to join and contribute to so feel free to come along to any of the following meetings.

Group Name and focus	Next meeting date and time	Location	Contact
Buildings, grounds and sustainability - To oversee the condition of our school buildings and grounds and plan improvements.	Wed 7th June 6pm	School Staffroom	Neil Scott
Fundraising - To coordinate fundraising and community events for the school community	Thu 1st June 6pm	School Staffroom	Neil Scott
Education and Policy - To monitor the Annual Implementation Plan and develop school policies	Wed 7th June 8:15am	School Meeting Room (Office)	Matt Cook
Finance - To monitor the school's financial statements and develop our annual school budget.	Thu 8th June 8:15am	School Meeting Room (Office)	Neil Scott

Foundation Update