Principal's Report

Welcome back everyone and hope you had a good break.  It has been great having everyone back on deck and we’ve had a couple of nice days to kick start the term.

As you would be aware, the Victorian Government has introduced new measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire. Thankfully these measures do not apply to schools in regional and rural Victoria, including ours.

Our school will therefore continue to operate as normal for the time being. The health advice is that schools can continue to operate while observing health measures recommended by the Victorian Chief Health Officer.  In the ‘Wellbeing’ section of this newsletter, Scott outlines the measures we have in place to keep everyone safe.

These continue to be challenging times and we will keep you updated on further information as soon as it is available. 

As mentioned last term, we understand that a number of families face financial hardship at this time due to lost employment and/or a general down-turn in business.  We would like to support families doing it tough by helping with costs associated with sending your child to Buninyong PS in 2020.  This has been made possible by local organisations that are wanting to help in these difficult times.  If your income has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and you are struggling to make ends meet, please give me a call. All related discussions will be highly confidential.

Facilities Update

Having trades on site is always easier when there are no kids around and over the break we managed to get quite a few jobs done.  These include: 

• Home Eco Room – This is now close to being completed.  The cabinets are in, the vinyl has been laid, a stainless steel bench and appliances will go in over the coming fortnight and then there will be a plumbing and electrical fit off to complete the project.  Unfortunately we won’t be able to cook with the kids in there for a while due to the risk of spreading infection, but at least we know the facility is ready to go when the conditions are right.

• Gym windows - The old galvanised louvres have been removed and replaced with windows.  This has made a big difference in terms of light, but will also make a big difference for some stage in the future when we look at climate control for the gym.

• Painting – We always get some painting done during term breaks to help us keep on top of things.  This time round a lick of paint was applied to the grade 6 end of BER, the art room external doors (nth side), the internal side of the new gym windows, parts of the general office, the exterior of the Scotsburn mod 5 portable, the new gym entry and the new office door in the prep corridor.  Each of these jobs helps keep our facilities well maintained and looking good.
• Terraced Area East of the Basketball Court - Simon (our maintenance person) has been working on this area over the break to make it more usable for the kids and to sort some aspects of this area that were in disrepair.
• Scotsburn Cubby Area – Timber slabs were moved into place and gaps filled with bark chips to create another interesting space for kids to play.
• Tree Maintenance – Following a recent arborist report, we had a handful of trees requiring some attention.  After some work during the break, all but one of these has now received the attention recommended.