Welcome back to school and Term Three. We have had a terrific start to the term and welcome 30 new students to DPS. We know you are going to love being a member of the DPS community and we are so pleased to be your school of choice.

Cyber Safety

We are extremely lucky to have Senior Constable Heath Williams, from the Monash Youth Resource Office, come to DPS and conduct a cybersafety presentation for our Junior School students. This will be held on Thursday. Last term Heath visited our senior students and his presentation was very engaging and informative for our students.

Chess Club

Once again, we had an overwhelming response to Chess Club and both classes are officially full. Chess Club will begin next Wednesday 19th July in the gym. Thank you to Mrs Corfios for organising this opportunity for our students.

Dymocks – Lit Club 4 Kids

Lit Club 4 Kids are run by Dymocks Children’s Charities (DCC), and is the ultimate book club for kids 8 – 13 years who love reading! Lit Club 4 Kids is a safe and inclusive digital space for children to find new books, engage with authors and develop their interests. Each term a new Lit Club book will be announced along with new, super fun activities and resources including detailed teacher notes. But that’s not all, each book will also have an exclusive online Q&A event with the author just for DCC Lit Club members. This means you can ask all your questions about the book, what being an author is really like and more! For more information go to: https://litclub4kids.com.au/

Prep 2024

We are in the process of organising our Prep enrolments for 2024. If you have a child who will be attending Doncaster Primary School next year in Prep and you haven’t enrolled yet, we would encourage you to collect and fill out an enrolment form from the office and return it along with all of the relevant documentation as soon as possible. If you have any relatives or friends who are interested in enrolling Preps into Doncaster Primary School in 2024, can you please encourage them to contact the School Office. We’d love to take them on a School Tour!

School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS)

School-wide positive behaviour support (SWPBS) is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures. SWPBS assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people.

When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Students and staff benefit from:

increased respectful and positive behaviour
increased time focused on instruction
improved social-emotional wellbeing
positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
increased adoption of evidence-based instructional practices
a predictable learning environment with improved perceptions of safety and increased attendance.

SWPBS is something that the Leadership Team and teams of teachers have been researching and practising in pockets across the school throughout 2022 and 2023. The Wellbeing Team of teachers will be implementing a whole school roll out of SWPBS over the coming weeks. We are excited about this framework and the benefits for our students. We will be sharing parts of the program with parents via the school newsletter and compass posts.

Mid Year Reports

Please make sure you have downloaded your child’s Mid Year Report, which was available at the end of last term. We still have many unread reports. Please see Compass for directions on how to download your child’s report or contact your child’s class teacher.

Student Led Conferences

At the end of Term Two, we conducted Student Led Conferences across the school. The day was extremely successful, with students relishing the opportunity to present the work that they have been doing across the semester. Many students beamed with pride as they explained to their parents the reasons they’d been successful in each curriculum area. Well done to teachers and students on all of your hard work in preparing for the conferences.

Policies

Please remember to regularly check our school website for these policies:

Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Child Safety Code of Conduct
Complaints Policy
Child Safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedures
Volunteers Policy
Visitors Policy
Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy
Bullying Prevention Policy
Digital Learning Policy

If you have any questions regarding these policies, please contact the School Office. Hard copies are also available upon request.

Free groceries: Eastern Food Rescue

Eastern Food Rescue (formerly Food is Free Mitcham) is an outdoor free access pantry for everyone, where locals can either donate goods or take things that they need. The primary goal is to divert food waste from landfill and feed it back into the community.

Eastern Food Rescue collect donations from various local businesses to help keep the pantry full and also rely on community donations from neighbours. Regular donors include: Wendy’s Bakery (Mitcham), Mylk Bar (Mitcham) and Bakers Delight (Forest Hill).

There is no need to show ID, produce a concession card or be approved, ANYONE can attend and take the free food they have on offer. Remember to take your own shopping bags.

Location: 8-12 Simla Street, Mitcham,

Time: Accessible 24/7 but mini markets are 11:00am and 8:00pm Mon - Fri

Special Events: Free food market on Saturday and Sunday 11:30am at Antonio Park Primary School

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS

Kids Help - kidshelpline.com.au phone 1800 55 1800

Parent Line - betterhealth.vic.gov.au phone 13 22 89

Headspace - headspace.org.au phone 1800 650 890

eSafety Commissioner - esafety.gov.au - Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online

Have a great week everyone,

Carly Epskamp

Assistant Principal

Writing in Prep