From the Principal 

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been wonderful to begin to have our students back over the last 2 weeks. All staff are extremely excited to have our wonderful students back to face to face learning. From next week we will only be staffing the front gates before and after school. Students will continue to use the back gates as per the previous COVID staggered start/finish time notices. Students will sanitise their hands upon entering the classroom, rather than at the gate.  I would like to thank all of our parents for their support in adhering to the continued guidelines about not coming onto the school grounds. 

On the 29th of October we will be celebrating World Teachers Day. I am sure you will agree our teachers are wonderful, throughout this period of Remote Learning and the return to onsite learning our dedicated teachers have ensured all children have achieved their own personal growth throughout the year.

Over the last 8 months we have had work conducted on our Basketball courts to have them completely resurfaced, new towers installed and new lines painted. These works have now been completed and we are moving onto the second stage of this project to provide a stage to this area, landscaping works alongside the edges of the courts. All these works are part of the Minor Capital Works grant we received late last year. 

As we progress towards the end of 2021, we have begun our planning for 2022. I would like to welcome 3 new staff to our team, Eliza Smith who is joining us from Benton Junior College, Sarah Kerr who has been working with us over the last few months in PE and Stephanie Barth who has been a familiar CRT at Somerville. As part of this planning we have reflected on student, staff and wider community feedback upon which we will be bringing in two new specialist programs for 2022. Environmental Science and Indigenous Studies. Indigenous Studies will be taught across the whole school over a year, with 2 6 month cycles alongside Japanese. Half of the year students will have Japanese, the other half they will have Indigenous Studies. 

Environmental Science will be a new specialist area taught at Somerville Primary School that focuses on sustainable practices at school and home. Somerville works closely with CERES, an urban farm and education centre and Sustainability Victoria as part of the Resource Smart 5-star accreditation program. It is our goal as a school to become 5 star sustainable, contribute to positive environmental change within our community, and for our students to become active global citizens contributing to positive sustainable change. The Environmental Science program will focus on four key elements; water, waste, energy, and biodiversity underpinned by science elements including chemistry, biology, earth & space science and biochemistry. Students will engage in weekly hands-on exploration. Students will be responsible for maintaining and actively contributing to the existing environmental programs at SPS including vegetable garden and composting. 

As we transition into having the whole school back to on-site learning; we will be sending these details out again in a follow up letter tomorrow. Please also give particular attention to reducing the risks associated with congregation at school gates and taking steps to contribute to physical distancing near the gates of the school.

Drop off arrangements:

• If you have multiple children they are to come in together at the same time and at the same gate. Students with younger siblings need to follow the arrangements of their youngest sibling – For Example: If a senior child has a junior sibling – they would come in with the junior sibling through the junior siblings’ gate.
• Students cannot be dropped off before 8:45am as there is no supervision prior to 8:45. Families may wish to use Before School Care.
• All other Middles to be dropped off at the back gates at 8.45am
• All other Seniors to be dropped off at the back gates at 9.00am

**Please note: back gates are the Roslyn St gates as well as the laneway gate off Frankston-Flinders Road.

Pick up arrangements are as follows

• If you have multiple children they will be dismissed with the younger child at that child’s time. For example a senior child with a junior sibling will arrive at 8.45 and be dismissed at 3.00pm.They will be sent to the younger child’s room to be dismissed with the class. We must ensure there are no parents congregating outside the school gates at any time. This is why we are asking all siblings to be picked up at the same time.
• All other Middles to be picked up at the back gates at 3.00pm.
• All other Seniors to be picked up at the back gates at 3.15pm.

**Please note: back gates are the Roslyn St gates as well as the laneway gate off Frankston-Flinders Road.

Thank you again for all of your support with these arrangements, everyone’s collective efforts lead to keeping our school safe.

As in all school communities, some families relocate at the end of the year. Please advise the office as soon as possible if you will not be returning to SPS in 2022.  As you will understand, projected enrolments influence our workforce planning and class configurations. Thank you in advance for a prompt reply.

Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing all children back at school on Monday!

Kind Regards,

David Tapp