Principal's Page
Our 2023 School Priorities
We are change agents – we believe all students can improve.
We are evaluators of our impact on student learning.
We strive for challenge and not merely ‘doing your best’.
Learning Support Program (LSP)
At the beginning of this week Candice Nyman, our Inclusion Leader, completed the organisation of our LSP timetable, sharing these times and focus areas with our teaching and education support staff.
With every class being afforded multiple hours of additional time for support staff to strategically work with groups of students with similar points of need; we are so excited to get our programs up and running over the next couple of weeks.
Parents of our students who are participating in formal one on one or small group intervention programs will receive a letter informing them that their child has been selected and detailing ways they can assist in ensuring the maximum benefit is achieved in terms of their child’s learning during this period of intensive instruction.
Our Tutor Learning Initiative Program is also continuing this year, but is organised slightly differently. This tutoring will occur within the classroom with more children being involved for shorter periods of time. Our focus for Term One and Two will be our Year 3/4 cohort of students and the learning areas of Reading and Mathematics.
Attendance
Launching Place PS is a place of learning. Our staff are pushing forward to ensure we are providing the very best learning experience for every child in our care. With our learning programs now in full swing it has never been so important for parents to ensure their child attends school.
If your child is away, they are missing out. Missing out on learning opportunities and social relationships which can not be replaced. Too often we can perhaps think, a day here or there, it won’t matter – but let me assure you – it matters.
Primary school is where the foundations of a great learner are built. Without this foundational knowledge further storeys can not be added and expanded upon. If your family now, or at another point in time is experiencing barriers to school attendance get in touch. We want to help.
We all know how challenging the last couple of years of the pandemic and lockdowns was, and the affect it had on our children and their development, however the time has now come to move past all that shenanigans and for us to knuckle down and get on with the job. It’s not ok to be away!
Twilight Tour Evening
Just a reminder about our upcoming Twilight Tour on Thursday 2nd March, beginning at 6:00pm. Current families are welcome to attend to hear about our current programs. If you know any locals looking at schools for 2024 and 2025, please share with them the following details.
Change of Date for March School Council Meeting and Annual General Meeting
Due to my attendance at the upcoming Year 5/6 camp, we have had to postpone our March School Council Meeting and AGM. The new date is: Monday 20th March @ 7:00pm. The meeting will be held face to face, in our Learning Centre at school. This is an open meeting and all members of our school community are welcome to attend.
Parents - Thanks for your attendance at parent teacher interviews. Our staff look forward to working in partnership with you to ensure the best learning occurs for your child in 2023.
At School assembly last week we:
- Awarded our Year 6 leaders with their leader’s badges
- Handed out Star awards and School Captain’s Awards
- Shared details of our Big Write (held 22/02)
This excerpt below is from a book ‘10 Steps to develop great learners: Visible learning for parents’ by John Hattie and Kyle Hattie. Each newsletter I would like to share a little bit with you about how you can support your children to be great learners.
Mindframe Four: I develop my child’s skill, will and sense of thrill.
Children develop three major dimensions of learning that they bring to each encounter with you, and to their learning opportunities. The first is their skills, such as prior achievements, intellectual capabilities, working memory, culture and ethnic background and values, and ‘executive functioning’ (how we think and process information). The second is their will, or disposition, such as confidence to take on challenges, resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness, and relating. The third is their sense of thrill, or their motivation to engage, persist, and complete learning tasks. Parents’ role is to develop each of these dimensions of learning, and it is a bonus if there is overlap across them. Thus, high achievement at school may not be sufficient, or may even be negative, if the child does not also have the thrill to master and dive deeply into learning or the resilience to cope with failure and unknown situations and problems. Similarly, having a high passion for a topic without enhancing the skill and a willingness to take on new challenges can lead to disappointment. Parents need to develop all three attributes in children – the skill, the will, and the thrill.
Accident Insurance
The Department of Education and Training (DET) does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs. Ambulance cover could be one consideration as the school will not hesitate to call an ambulance if we are concerned for a child’s wellbeing.
Personal goods brought to school
DET does not hold insurance for personal property brought to schools. Principals have been requested to remind students and parents/guardians of this at the beginning of each academic year and to discourage parents/students from bringing any unnecessary or particularly valuable items to school. Please, try and avoid bringing these items as it can be most upsetting for all concerned if items go missing or are damaged.
Child Safety Standards
Victorian schools are required under the Child Safety and Wellbeing Act to ensure that they implement compulsory Child Safety Standards to protect children from harm. Launching Place Primary School is committed to child safety, and articles and information about this may appear from time to time in the newsletter.
The Child Safety Standards are in place to create safe places for children to feel safe and supported. We ensure that students in our care are protected to the best of our ability, in line with our duty of care and the compulsory Child Safe standards.
As a community, we want students to feel safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all students, staff and volunteers, and expect all people in the school to demonstrate equal respect to others. There is a zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns are treated seriously and consistently with the robust policies and procedures.
Launching Place PS is committed to preventing child abuse, identifying risks and removing or reducing those risks early on. We regularly train and educate staff on child abuse risks, and follow robust practices for the recruitment of staff and volunteers working with students. We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and the cultural safety of students and staff from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds. We are also proud of the way we provide a safe environment for vulnerable students, and students with learning differences or disabilities.
At Launching Place Primary School, everyone can play a part in helping students feel safe. This is in the way we speak and behave around students, and the ways in which we respond to the actions of others. Below is the LPPS Child Safety Policy, as well as some associated policies and information.
- Protect
- Protecting children from abuse
See you around our place!
Laura Caddy
