Principal's Report

Welcome back to our students!

It was with much excitement on Monday, 12th October that we welcomed back all the children to onsite learning. While it was an option to stagger the return of the children across the week, we feel that every day is crucial and we needed the children back.

A big thank you to everyone in our community (students, parents and staff) for all your efforts in working together for the best possible outcome for our children.

Overall, the return back has been incredibly smooth. The children were extremely excited to see each other and their teachers and the transition back in has been successful.

We know 'Flexible and Remote Learning' has not always been easy, but through our collective efforts, our students have continued to make valuable progress in their learning. A smooth return to school is crucial as we aim to settle the students back into a routine and back into the ‘groove’ and re-establish relationships. The feedback we have received from the community in relation to our 'Flexible and Remote Learning' and how the return to onsite learning has occurred has been overwhelming. This very positive feedback was very much appreciated by the staff.

As the term progresses, we will continue to have in place strong measures to protect the health and safety of students, staff, families and the community. This includes restricting parent access to school grounds and continued emphasis on hand hygiene and physical distancing where possible. All our high touch areas are being cleaned continuously throughout the day and I once again respectfully remind parents they should not enter the school buildings.

We thank the school community for adhering to the guidelines we sent out last week regarding drops offs and pickups, as well as movement in and around the school. It enables us to provide the safest possible environment during this time.

We all have a role to play in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

At Camelot Rise Primary School our priorities for Term 4 are:

1. Mental health and wellbeing

2. Learning with a major focus on Literacy and Numeracy

3. Transitions in, through and out of school

Our core focus at Camelot Rise Primary School is student learning with a focus on Literacy and Numeracy. Our curriculum is carefully planned to ensure that all students maximise their learning in these important areas. Teachers will be continuing to undertake a range of assessment tasks coming out of the ‘Flexible and Remote Learning’ period, in preparation for the modified end of year reports – it is very important that children attend school every day.

We note with interest the call out by our state government this week for former teachers or people with Victorian Institute of Teaching accreditation to register to be a tutor in 2021. While there is still much detail to come on this initiative, we have already put in place plans to support the academic progress of the children as they return this term but also in 2021.

Are parents / community members allowed on our school site?

The short answer is a respectful ‘no’. The normal friendly and welcoming atmosphere at Camelot Rise needs to be different for now. The Department of Education and Training (DET) has been very clear about this, and parents must drop off children at the gate. Our staff will be there to welcome students and help get them to class as needed. We will have additional staff on duty before and after school to assist the students. Only staff and students are allowed onto the school site at this stage.

If your child is late to school or you need to collect your child prior to the end of the school day please call the office when you arrive at the staff car park gate and we will collect your child and walk them to class or bring them to you as required.

Parents are also required to wait outside the school gates and call the school if parents are bringing lunches or drink bottles to school for their children. Please try and remember these items at the start of the day.

We kindly ask parents to respect these rules.

Families using the Out of School Hours Care Program are permitted to enter the school grounds to sign their child / children into the program when they attend the program in the morning and sign them out when collecting their child / children at the end of the day.

We thank you for your support with this.

We are Learning in Term Four

All families have received a Compass notice from teachers in their child’s year level with explicit information about what the children will be learning this term in all curriculum areas.

This is very important information as this ensures our families know what is being taught in the classroom and we can create a real home / school partnership.

Book Week Dress Up day

On Wednesday, 21st October we will be having a ‘Book Week Dress Up’ day. We look forward to seeing the students and staff dressed up on this day.

We are not allowed to have our normal whole school ‘Book Week Parade’. We intend to take many photos of our students and we will share a number of these photos with our community via Compass and Facebook.

All of the students will attend a ‘Virtual session’ with Roland Harvey on this day.

We do understand that shops are not open in the traditional sense and this may make finding costumes a bit of a challenge however, we wanted to continue with this day as we feel our students, parents and staff need to have a day of ‘fun and laughter’.

Year 6 Graduation

Discussion around our Year 6 graduation has begun. It will be different to our previous ceremonies but we are committed to providing the students with a ceremony.

At this stage, parents will not be able to attend any sort of assembly or ceremony as per the current directions from the Department of Education but we will continue to utilise video platforms that served us so well during remote learning to share in these experiences.

The Year 6 Teachers have spoken to the students about what parts of the Graduation are the ‘mot important’ to them and ultimately we want to do the best we can do to accommodate their wishes.

We will continue to update the Year 6 families as to our plans in regard to our Year 6 Graduation.

Staffing and grade structures for 2021

As we are now planning for 2021 we ask any families that are not returning to Camelot Rise PS in 2021 to please let us know in writing (email preferred) as soon as possible.

If you know of any families that are looking to enrol their children to Camelot Rise PS in 2021 we ask them to contact the school as soon as possible and complete the enrolment forms.

Parent Opinion Survey

Each year the school conducts an opinion survey amongst a sample of the school community.

This year, all families are invited to participate.

Results from this survey will be used to inform and direct our future school planning and improvement. All survey results are tabled, shared, discussed and analysed at School Council Meetings. I ask you to please take the time to complete the survey as your opinions are important to us and will contribute to the future management and organisation of our school.Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential. The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to us that you complete the survey as honestly as possible. A unique code and letter was emailed to one parent in each family with further information on Wednesday 14th October 2020.

The survey will be conducted online and should take 20 minutes to complete.
The survey can be completed on any internet enabled device (iPad, Desktop or Laptop, Smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.
The survey will be open from Wednesday 14 October to Friday 13 November 2020.
The survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, Somali and Punjabi.

We have already had a number of families complete this survey and we look forward to getting as many responses as possible as this data is very valuable to us as we continually seek to improve Camelot Rise Primary School.

Parent Contributions 2021

In the coming weeks, we will inform the school community of the Parent Payments for 2021. This year, the Department has asked schools to itemise the payments. The cost for Parent Payments are always discussed and approved at our Finance and School Council meetings prior to being announced to the school community.

Excursion Levy

We are aware than many planned excursions and incursions that were planned for 2020 did not occur. As a school we have decided that the money that was not ‘spent’ in 2020 will be transferred to 2021 and this money can be allocated to any costs for 2021.

E.g. If a family paid $150 in the excursion levy in 2020 and only $25 was spent this family will have $125 in credit at the start of next year.

All families will receive a statement that outlines how much money they have in credit.

If an exiting student in Year 6 has a younger sibling enrolled at CRPS we will credit that amount to the younger student.

We have a number of families of Year 6 students that do not have younger siblings enrolled at CRPS and these families will have the option of having this money refunded or 'donate' this money to the school and we will allocate these funds to another student in 2021 that may not have the opportunity to participate in some activities.

Due to the uncertainty of events in relation to COVID – 19 we anticipate that we will not be having an ‘excursion levy’ in 2021, instead we will be asking families to pay for each individual event as it occurs. We feel this is the best approach in the current climate.

Further information about this will be sent out to all families in a few weeks.

We thank you all for your support in this matter.

Health and Well-being of our students

Ms Helen Thomas is the Camelot Rise Primary School and DET nominated 'Student and Community Well-being Leader'. If you have any concerns in relation to your child's health and well-being please contact Helen Thomas via email helen.thomas@education.vic.gov.au

Matthew Coney

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