Family Fun Night

Family Fun Night was again successful and it was terrific to see parents and children enjoying themselves and participating in activities. It was extremely hot and I thank everyone for braving the weather and attending our evening and class information sessions. Huge thanks to all of the parents who assisted with the BBQ and Lucky Keys fundraiser. Big congratulations to the LeServe family who went home with a large hamper of goodies.

I received some valuable feedback about our school from parents. We discussed Compass, specialist classes, social issues, buildings and gardens. There will be some further opportunities for parents to provide feedback throughout the year.

Parent Teacher Student Conferences

Parent / Teacher / Student Conferences are scheduled for Tuesday 26th March. These will be held at school from 2.00pm until 8.00pm and all families are asked to attend.

Conferences are an opportunity to chat with your child's teacher/s about how they have settled in to the 2019 school year, their learning progress and any concerns which may have arisen.

Learning goals will be discussed and students are asked to attend the conferences in order to participate in discussions and to have a voice in decision making and evaluating progress. Students are encouraged through this process, to take responsibility for their learning and to be able take pride in their achievements.

Teachers will be requesting input from families to assist with developing 'One Page Profiles' for each student. These will be invaluable to teachers across the school and will include a student's strengths, challenges, specific needs, interests and passions.

Conference bookings are now open in COMPASS. Please log in, click on the 'Conferences' tab to access the booking system. If you require any assistance please contact the office..

National Day of Action Against Bullying

Loch Primary School will be participating in the National Day of Action Against Bullying which is to be held this Friday 15th March.

Bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence are all interpersonal behaviours that can create or contribute to negative social environments. It is very important that our school community has clear and shared definitions for bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence. I have included detailed information further on in this newsletter for parents to read.

The national definition of bullying for Australian schools says: Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.

Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:

• mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)

• not liking someone or a single act of social rejection

• one-off acts of meanness or spite

• isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.

However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. Likewise not all online issues are bullying. (Online bullying is sometimes referred to as cyberbullying and refers to bullying that is carried out through information and communication technologies.)

Our school can be much more effective when parents report bullying and support our efforts to deal with it. If your child reports that bullying is occurring at school, or the bullying involves students from outside of school, you should let the school us know the situation. Working together with the school is the best way to help your child resolve bullying issues.

Teachers will work with you to resolve the situation and will also work with the other student's parents. It is important to know and understand that due to privacy laws, we are not able to share information about any other students involved. It is also important that you do not approach any other children involved and reprimand or threaten them, likewise it is not appropriate to approach other students' parents.

Tips for contacting your child's teacher

Remain calm and focus on being constructive even if you feel upset. Yelling or threatening school staff will cause further difficulties and a defensive atmosphere. All of our teachers will want to listen to your concerns and will be able to do so if you are able to share information calmly and reasonably. Sometimes teachers will have a different perspective to you about what has been happening. Regardless of whether or not an incident is considered bullying or has occurred exactly as reported by your child, it is important that together action is taken to resolve the situation, build positive relationships and create safe environments at school. (It is wise to realise that there are many perspectives in conflict situations and that we all play a role in building our school culture and expectations.)

Prepare for a meeting with your child's teacher by:

making a time to talk with your child's teacher or school counsellor or guidance officer
writing notes (and any other records) based on what your child has told you so you can be as clear as possible about what happened.
checking your school website for any information regarding their policy or procedures for managing bullying

During meetings with staff:

Continue to be calm and constructive.
refer to your written notes to be as clear as possible about what happened and write notes of the discussions with your child's teacher or other staff
ask what steps will be taken and if a plan is to be developed with home and school strategies
recognise that investigating the situation at school will require time
keep a written record of when you contacted the school, who you have spoken with, and any agreements that were made
stay in touch with the teacher and let them know if problems continue or something new happens.

Please do read the extra information included in this weeks newsletter about bullying.

Instrumental Music Lessons

We are very excited to be able to offer instrumental music lessons in 2019.

We have sourced three qualified and experienced music teachers who will provide lessons on site at Loch Primary School. We are very lucky to have been able to entice these teachers to our small school and I hope that there is enough interest in our community to book lessons and keep the teachers busy.

Leigh Owens is an experienced and highly skilled musician himself who also has his own business in Wonthaggi and has been providing lessons to children for a number of years. He is highly sought after and offers lessons in guitar, keyboard and drums.

Leona Moore is a local to Loch and has been providing piano lessons to students for a number of years. She has an extensive music and performance background and is a highly skilled teacher who is offering piano lessons to Loch students.

Kerryn Lockhart is a talented vocalist and an experienced singing teacher. She has a wealth of experience in performing and sharing her skills with many years experience as a vocal teacher.

There are limited places for all three teachers as they are in demand, however it is hoped that our community will fill these lessons, making the visits to our school worthwhile.

Breakfast Club

It is very exciting to share with our community that we will be offering breakfast club on a Monday and Wednesday morning from 8.40am starting next week. Students are welcome to enjoy breakfast with us at school. Many thanks to Dayna Lightowler and Kelly Hogben who will be coordinating Breakfast Club.

Maths Specialist Initiative

I have spent the last two days at training in the city with Ms Rachael Geerts who is one of our Maths Specialists. We have been learning about best practice for teaching and sharing our journey and the work we have been doing to improve mathematics teaching and learning at Loch with other schools who are also participating in the Initiative. We are very lucky to have been involved in this initiative and will be continuing this work throughout 2019.

Updates

Mrs Benita Spence is currently on leave and will return in Term Two. (She is travelling to Ireland - lucky lady!) Mrs Jody Achterdenbosch will be teaching Phys Ed in her absence.

All of our Educational Support staff will be offsite next Monday 18th March participating in literacy training with Churchill Primary School.

Our Annual General Meeting of School Council will be held next Monday at 7.00pm followed by a general meeting at 7.30pm.

Zac and Thomas Sherar are wished the best of luck as they head out to the Regional Swimming competition on Thursday.

Our School Athletics Carnival is scheduled for Friday 29th March. Please log on to COMPASS and provide your consent for your child to attend.

Ms Tracey King

Principal

Calendar Dates

March

April