Dear Parents and Families,

Well, here we are at our last newsletter for Term Two! Quite amazing to believe really. I always find the middle of the year is a great time for students to take stock, rest and reset for a big second half of the year. Mid-year reports provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate all that has been achieved thus far, and set some goals for the next two terms. As we did last year, reports will be released via COMPASS on Thursday 22nd June at around 4PM. This is designed to be more sustainable and save thousands of sheets of paper, however parents who wish to print reports can download these directly from COMPASS as a pdf. There will then be an opportunity to discuss these at parent-teacher-student conferences on Wednesday 26th July. More information about these will be released in due course.

Term 3 Acting Principal

Next term I will be taking some long service leave to re-charge the batteries before a busy Term Four. The Department of Education has appointed Tegan Aquilina as Acting Principal to replace me and work alongside Kim, Carly and the staff. Tegan is an experienced Assistant Principal in Melton currently and resides in Mt Helen. She comes very highly regarded and experienced as a principal class officer. I am currently in the process of a detailed handover with Tegan before the school holidays hit. This will be a great opportunity for her to gain experience in the role, while maintaining our current foci and implementation plan before I return in Term 4. I have no doubt she will love our school community as much as I do!

OSHC (Outside School Hours Care)

You will have seen our Compass message last week, and our current users of OSHC have received the following letter, regarding a new OSHC provider being appointed. Department of Education procurement guidelines required a tender process to be carried out as the current contract was due to expire. A panel was formed with members of the School Council to evaluate all applications. A stringent selection criteria was followed and all applications were assessed on the following:

Quality of the Program – Demonstrated ability to plan, deliver and monitor an education program that reflects the needs and the values of the school community

Value for Money – A fee structure that offers value for money for families and a transparent process for revising fees and cancellations

Policies and Processes – Demonstrated commitment to enacting policies and processes that reflect the needs and values of our school community

We also took into consideration the qualifications, experience and capacity to provide an outstanding OSHC service as well as the level of community involvement offered.

With all this in mind, School Council has approved and ratified that Village OSHC will be Ballarat North Primary Schools new OSHC provider for the next two years commencing 10th July 2023. We are very confident that Village OSHC will provide an excellent service to our families and we will work closely together to ensure a smooth transition.

Lastly, I just wanted to highlight our Pupil Free Days for Term 3 to ensure families have ample opportunity to forward plan; the first day of term, Monday July 10th is a Curriculum Day for staff to undergo Professional Development. Term 3 will officially begin on Tuesday 11th July. Then, as mentioned above, Wednesday 26th July is a Pupil Free Day to allow parent-teacher-student conferences to run between 10am and 6pm. We do ask that students attend these with parents/carers, however.

I hope you all have a wonderfully restful Winter break. As I said in my opening statement – rest, reflect and reset and enjoy some quality family time together.

I look forward to seeing you all when I return in Term Four!

David Garner

Principal

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