Mr Irwin's Message
Mr. Irwin's Message
Hi Families and welcome to this week’s newsletter.
Managing Disruption In Term 2
Hello families, and welcome to this week's newsletter. We’re already 4 weeks into term and the pace at school has been frenetic! We have started to experience greater interruptions in the form of staff and student absences this term. This has certainly made for some busy mornings and evenings ensuring we have the staff required for the school to operate. I thought I’d share our approach to this at present so when you hear from your children they’ve had a different teacher you have an understanding of why this is happening.
Firstly, I have a bucket of money, approved by our School Council to use on the spending of Local Payroll staff, being Casual Relief Teachers or CRTs. Expenditure this year from this budget has been far higher than normal however, still tracking to be on budget by the end of the year. I have explained to School Council that in a year with challenges such as this, there is no point looking to ‘save’ this money. If we need CRTs to support student learning, we will hire and pay for them!
So far as accessing CRT’s our school has adopted the approach of sourcing and building relationships with a core group of local CRTs. Firstly, this is cheaper than hiring CRTs via an agency and it secondly allows us to have CRTs that understand our routines and processes as a school as well as an understanding of the needs of students in each class. This allows us to pick CRTs that suit particular classes and year levels.
In the event that we’ve had a teacher out for an extended absence my preference is to always organise a CRT who can fill all or as many of the days of absence as possible. This provides as minimal disruption to students as possible.
If you are a parent of a child in Year 1/2 you may have seen or heard that on some days these children have been ‘split’. This year these1/2 classes are small, averaging at around 18 students. So at times we’ve decided their learning is better supported by joining another 1/2 class for the day, rather than having a CRT. This is more likely to occur when a teacher has a single day off, rather than an extended absence.
On some days, your child may have come home and shared that they had Mr. Irwin, Mr. Lindsay or Ms Barnett as their teacher for the day. At times, where we have been unable to source one of our local CRTs it is appropriate (and highly enjoyable!) for a member of the school’s leadership team to step in and work with a class for a day. The pile of work waiting at the end of the day isn’t any smaller, however this is less important than a day of learning in class for students!
Our approach to managing interruptions is to provide as much continuity and as less disruption for students as allowable. I am pleased to say that the settled nature of students across the school indicates this is happening.
Due to the collaborative nature of planning across the school, when a teacher needs to be replaced they have access to the same Literacy and Numeracy slide decks used by all other classes in that year level. This means regardless of who the adult is in the room on a given day students ill still be exposed to the same work as if their teacher was present.
We understand across term 2 there’s been an increase in staff and student absences but want you to be aware we are managing this as our number one priority at present to ensure no learning time of students is wasted.
Playspace Design
Because of the amazing fundraising efforts by all from our colour explosion, we now have a significant bucket of money to use to develop areas of play at the front of the school. So now, we want to hear from you!
This playspace is for our students and so we want their ideas! I’ve attached a birds eye view of the area for students to draw their ideas on. Across the term we’ll work through a process in Discoveries classes for students to further generate ideas. We’d also like to hear from parents who may have skills they can ‘donate’ to any work that's done.
Do you have a bobcat or excavator, or a set of skills that might be able to be utilised. In kind support through donated manpower can stretch a bucket of money in a school a long way and so if you believe you can help, I’d also love to hear from you.
Students can drop designs to me, and families who believe they might be able to help can email me at samuel.irwin@education.vic.gov.au
School Photos 2022 - How to Register and Order
Annual school photos have been taken by Arthur Reed Photos.
To view the images of your child and order photos, you will need to first register online.
1. Go to Arthur Reed Photos here and enter the 2022 image code for your child (from their personalised flyer - please contact the office if you did not receive a flyer or each child)
2. Tap on ‘Add another child’ to enter the image codes of any siblings
3. Fill in your email and mobile details and then review all details before confirming your registration.
That’s it! When 2022 photos are ready, you will be notified by email and SMS.
Even if you registered last year, it’s important that you do it again each year using your child’s new image code to link their photos for the current year with your contact details.
To ensure you are ordering school photos for the current year, please wait for notifications that 2022 images are online before placing orders.
In the webshop you can view photos and customize your photo package; Choose ANY layout, ANY image and purchase multiple digital image downloads.
All photo orders will be sent directly to the address you provide when ordering.
REGISTER ONLINE NOW to be notified when 2022 school photos can be viewed and ordered.
If you have any issues with the registration or ordering process, please contact Arthur Reed Photos Customer Service Team directly for assistance, 03 5243 4390.
Healthy Lunch Box Choices and Nude Food
To help reduce waste in our school, all students are encouraged to bring 'Nude Food' to school in their lunch boxes which in simple terms means food without excess packaging. Students will be asked to take home soft plastic packaging from their lunch boxes and encouraged to discuss soft plastics recycling with their families. The local Woolworths in Bannockburn does receive soft plastics rubbish which is a close option to recycle soft plastics waste. The Healthy Lunch Box Pick & Mix posters below provide some good Nude Food options.
