Principal's Report

School Leaders Badge Presentation

At a recent school assembly it was wonderful to see our School Leaders receive their badges from Mr Neil Angus. We have no doubt that these students will display their leadership qualities this year and in future years.

As part of our weekly school tours we have our student leaders take prospective parents and families on a tour of our school (after a meeting with either Mr Heys or myself). The feedback from parents on these tours is always overwhelming in the manner the children speak so well, are so passionate about our school and confident talking in front of a group of adults. It is wonderful to hear this about our students at Camelot Rise PS.

We would like to thank Mr Neil Angus for making time to present these badges to our student leaders.

School Council

Thank you to our departing School Councillors

We would like to acknowledge and thank all our departing School Councillors: Martin Grieve, David Chin, Dianna Alcorn and Glen Northway

We thank these departing members of School Council for their service to our school. They have been a great support and we greatly appreciate their efforts over the past 2+ years. We thank all our departing school councillors for their contributions to our school. They have all made their mark and left the school in a very good place.

We would like to welcome our new school council member for 2021 & 2022: Nadia Liu.

There are still vacancies for parent representatives to join our school council. Please either send me an email or call me to discuss how you can become part of our school council.

Our first School Council meeting for our 2021 committee will be held on Thursday, 25th March at 7pm. The AGM will start at 6:30pm on the same day.

Every day counts!

Regular school attendance is vital and missing school days can have a big impact on your child’s future – missing one day a fortnight will miss four full weeks by the end of the year. We understand that this year has been a particularly disjointed start to the school year for many families and students with our daily absence rate being much higher than normal due to coronavirus. This has been the same in many schools.

Going to school every day is the one of the most important parts of your child’s education. Students learn new things every day and missing school puts them behind.

Why regular attendance is so important

Teachers often present new concepts in a sequential way, so missing out a day of school can mean missing out on the fundamentals. It’s hard to make up this learning so keeping student absences to a minimum is essential.
Friendships and socialising can also be interrupted when children are frequently absent, which can be distressing for children.
Every day that a student misses is associated with lower achievement in numeracy, writing and reading.

What we do know is that attendance patterns are established early in life and will often continue unless non-attendance is addressed.

What you can do to support regular attendance.

First, there are always times when a student becomes ill, and in this instance they should stay home to recover. It’s vital however that they are only away when genuinely sick.
To assist with good health and minimise illness children need to have a good sleeping pattern, eat well and exercise regularly.
Families are encouraged to think twice before giving children a ‘day off’ unless they are genuinely sick.
If your child is experiencing any issues such as not wanting to come to school then please alert your classroom teacher. Working together on such matters is most helpful.

What to do if your child has been absent

Talk to your child’s teacher and find out what work needs to be done to keep up with learning.

Remember that every day counts. If your child must miss school, speak with your classroom teacher especially if the absence is longer than a couple of days.

Parent Information Nights

Thanks to the staff and parents that attended Parent Information Nights. These were very successful as always. The PowerPoints that were used during these sessions have been posted on Compass for families to access.

Each term all teaching teams post their ‘We are Learning’ statements onto Compass so that families know exactly what their children are being taught in the classroom. This is another example of creating the effective home / school learning partnership to help all students.

District Swimming

Congratulations to the 42 students that participated in the District Swimming last Thursday.

Thanks to Mr Cam Stillman for organising this event to enable our students to participate in these regional events and compete against students from neighbouring schools.

We had 14 students qualify to compete in the Divisional Swimming Carnival which will be held next Tuesday. We wish them all the best!

Mathletics

This year all students at Camelot Rise PS will be registered to access Mathletics, which is an online Maths Program that the children can use both at school and at home. In the next few weeks all students will receive a password and login from their class teacher.

Some of the many benefits of Mathletics are:

Used by millions of students each month
Used by more than 250,000 students each day
Students are motivated and engaged
Students are able to work through the curriculum at their own pace
Students are assisted by an online support centre
Live Mathletics fosters a stimulating and exciting online learning community
Students are engaged and motivated to learn
Easy to use
Students have access to Mathletics 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Provides the perfect link between home and school, where results flow seamlessly
Hall of Fame and certificates recognise and reward participation and achievement.

Please have a look at the website link below to find out more information about Mathletics

http://www.mathletics.com.au/

Teachers may use Mathletics to set learning activities and set specific homework for the students to complete as part of their Mathematics program.

Home school communication

As a school we are dedicated to effective and productive communications with our families – a reason why all class teachers are available and can be found in their classroom between 8:50am – 9:00am each morning before commencing instruction.

Camelot Rise Primary School teachers are available in a variety of ways, using Compass email as one form of communication (particularly as we understand that working parents are not able to visit the school and meet with us on a regular basis).

If emailing, I ask parents to respectfully give staff sufficient time to respond or to take action as requested, as during school hours we concentrate our efforts on the students. It is very important that we devote our attentions and ‘duty of care’ to our school’s students throughout each school day (also noting that some staff are not full time, therefore may need a longer response timeframe depending on working hours and days). I’m sure you appreciate that staff responses to emails cannot be expected after school hours, during holidays or on weekends. Of course, the expectation is that students, parents and other members of the school will observe common courtesy when addressing staff and other members of the community.

Welcome to Liam Sommers – Principal Intern at Camelot Rise Primary School

From Monday, 15th February to Thursday, 25th March Camelot Rise Primary School will be hosting Mr Liam Sommers. Liam is a Leading Teacher at Croydon Hills Primary School. Liam will shadow myself throughout this time. He will be working on a ‘project’ that will help our school and develop his leadership skills.

Liam is a participant in the professional learning course through the Bastow Institute called ‘UP - Unlocking Principal Potential Program’

This is a real credit to our school that we have been selected as a ‘host school’ to share our practices with emerging leaders from other schools.

The following information is from the Bastow website that provides information about the program.

https://www.bastow.vic.edu.au/professional-learning/unlocking-potential-principal-preparation

Through participation in this program participants will develop the confidence, skills and professional knowledge to be thoroughly prepared for your first principal appointment.

Through the Education State reform agenda, the Victorian Government has invested $12.1 million over 4 years to develop current and future principals and school leaders. Unlocking Potential (UP): Principal Preparation is the flagship principal preparation program for high potential leaders.

The aim of this rigorous and highly innovative program is to thoroughly prepare leaders for their first principal appointment. UP provides them with the confidence, skills and professional knowledge necessary to create school cultures that provide high quality educational opportunities for all students.

UP graduates receive a Graduate Certificate of Principal Preparation (Victoria). This formal qualification is given by Monash University and is a mark of excellence in school leadership, with graduates considered as highly capable candidates for principal positions

We are thrilled to be able to host Liam and we look forward to helping him develop his skills and also hearing his thoughts and ideas about how we can improve Camelot Rise PS.

If you see Mr Somers around the school please say hello!

Matthew Coney

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