End of Year Student Reports

For the last few weeks, our teachers have been very busy writing your child’s end of year student report—an update on their academic, personal and social achievements and a record of the growth they have made during this most disrupted of years.

Whilst we should all be proud of the ways we have navigated this year's challenges and students should be congratulated for the resilience they have shown to keep learning and engaging throughout remote learning, it is entirely understandable that, for some, their learning this year has not been quite as strong as we could otherwise have predicted.

When you read your child's report, you may notice that they have not made the expected 12 months growth measured against the Victorian Curriculum since December 2019.

We ask that you don't worry too much if this is the case - we are already planning the ways that we will ensure these children 'catch-up' in 2021.

This extra support may come in many different forms - working in small groups with tutors at school, spending additional time with their teachers or the provision of targeted learning to complete at home. Each of these children will be provided with Individual Education Plans to set out their specific goals and we will be seeking your support to work hard with them at home to make sure they are not left disadvantaged by this year's disruptions.

Your child's report will be made available to view on Compass School Manager. Paper versions of these reports will not be sent home with students and instead parents are asked to login to Compass to view and download them.

On Wednesday afternoon, parents will receive an email notification that semester reports are now available to view on Compass. Please access https://skipps-vic.compass.education/ and use your personalised login details to access reports.

Further details will be sent home with your child on Wednesday.

Transition and class lists

On Thursday of next week students will go to their new Learning Area for 2021 and meet their teacher(s) for next year.

They will also be given a contact class list with their teacher’s name and photo. A great deal of time and consideration has gone in the selection of classes next year and, whilst there are always some children disappointed to be away from particular friends, we have aimed for well-balanced groupings and ensured that each child has at least one friend they have chosen.

If your child is slightly disappointed with their class grouping, we seek your support to help them look on the bright side and see 2021 as a chance to build new friendships and demonstrate resilience.

End of year arrangements

As next Friday (18th December) is the final day of the school year, the school day will be finishing at 1:30pm.

Parents will need to arrange for pick-ups or alternative arrangements from this time.

In terms of our Year 6 graduation ceremony this Thursday and other end of year assemblies and gatherings, if we invite parents to attend then the overall attendee limit (inclusive of guests, staff and students) must be based on available floor space of the venue; with the density limit of one person per two square metres applied.

Sadly this means that parents are unable to attend in the ways we would like. Instead we will try to be creative with the ways we run these events to provide the maximum community engagement.

Staffing Update

One of the great things about our school is the low turnover of our staffing which leads to a great foundation of stability and strong relationships as students become familiar with teachers who then stay involved and provide support and encouragement as they spend their seven years at the school. I firmly believe this basis of strong, positive relationships lies at the core of what make SKiPPS such a great school.

This means that, once again, we have very few changes to report on the staffing front for 2021. This can only be a positive as we aim to push forwards into next year, focusing on making up any lost learning ground from this year and pursuing our strategic goals.

We are temporarily saying goodbye to Sharayah Lansdown, who is taking 12 months leave for personal reasons and who we look forward to welcoming back in 2022.

Hayley Dicker has resigned from her position at the school after being on leave in 2020 to teach in a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory. She has decided that she would like to stay longer term in Alpurrurulam and we wish her well in this challenging but fascinating work.

Due to these relatively last minute developments, we have advertised a 12 month graduate teacher position for 2021 and will make an appointment in the final week of term to allow the new staff member to meet their class before we finish for the year on the 18th December.

We are expecting 364 students at the start of 2021, very slightly down on our current 368.

Walkathon

We thank those students and families who have already done such a great job in collecting sponsorship money from our recent Walkathons and paying this to the school via Compass. If you have not yet got around to doing this, we would really appreciate your support for this great fundraising event.

All of the money raised will be used next year to buy rich, engaging books for us to setup classroom libraries across the school to help develop our students' love of literature.

Year 7 Transition

Alongside all of our students (including our new Foundations) getting a taste of their 2021 classes and teachers this week, yesterday our Year 6 students had their secondary school 'Statewide Orientation Day'.

This saw them all travel to their new schools and get a taste of Year 7 life. We know that they will have represented SKiPPS well and we wish them all the best with this big step!

Birthdays!

December/January Birthdays!