Principal's Message

Welcome back folks to Term Two!  It has been a joy to see everyone return and get straight back into learning, interacting and enjoying each other’s company.

Staffing

This term there has been a change of role for Mrs. Sarah Hartshorn to teaching Year 5/6.  Prior to this term Mrs. Hartshorn was our Science teacher and tutor.  Sarah has very kindly agreed to move into what is now 5/6H for the remainder of the year.  Science is now being taught by Mrs. Tanya Dale, who is known to all of our students and many parents, having worked as a relief teacher and tutor at Launch PS previously.  Mrs Kiri Briggs (1/2C) will also increase her time fraction, working an additional day across our classes for the remainder of the school year.  The Tutor Learning Initiative Program will be continued across the two Year 3/4 classrooms, by myself,  for the remainder of this term.  This involves the teaching of small groups for around 12 hours per week, ensuring we continue to strive towards our vision of ‘point of need teaching and learning for all students’ and then moving the program into the Year 1/2 classrooms for Semester Two. The teacher shortage is indeed real.  Fortunately, we have some flexibility with our existing staff to be able to continue to staff our classes and learning support programs as planned.

Supercharged! Dance Program

Today Tessa visited our school to run the incursion with our Year 3/4 and 5/6 students.  It was wonderful to see everyone taking part and working collaboratively to ensure an awesome performance at the conclusion of the lessons.  Thanks so much to the families who came along to be our audience! Reminder that next week our Prep – Year Two students will be participating, and the performance will take place from 12:15 – 12:30pm. 

Mother and Special Friends Day Event

On Thursday 11th May from 3:30 – 4:30pm attendees are invited to visit our GP room collecting some scones and tea to enjoy before visiting their child’s classroom for a small activity.  Invitations are being sent home this evening, please RSVP by Tuesday 9th for catering purposes. 

Education Week: Monday 15th – Friday 19th May

Monday week sees the beginning of ‘Education Week: Active Learners: Move, Make, Motivate’ and we have so much happening at Launch that we would love you all to be involved with:

Monday 15th – Open Afternoon 3:45 – 4:45PM – Please stay behind after school and join in some fun activities in classrooms.

Tuesday 16th – Teddy Bears’ Picnic (2024 Prep students)

Wednesday 17th – Heat Kids Incursion

Thursday 18th – Grandparents’ Day

Friday 19th – Special Assembly, Year 5/6 Film Festival and Book Fair Visits for classes

Financial support for Education items

Just a reminder, after yet another interest rate rise that staff at school are always keen to help families experiencing financial distress.  From food parcels, to uniform support and payment plans for camps and excursions, there are many supports we can access to assist.  Email laura.caddy@education.vic.gov.au

Learning Support Program

Did you know that each year, eight or so of our Year 1 to 2 students are given the opportunity to participate in our Mini-Lit program run by Sonia Dunn, one of our Learning Support champions?  Mini-Lit is an intensive reading program designed to increase children's progress in reading accuracy, fluency, comprehension and spelling. It is a research-based initiative of Macquarie University in NSW, who have been producing reading programs for over 20 years.

As well as running programs such as Mini-Lit in which students leave their classrooms to access additional learning, we also provide our Learning Support Program across the school which aims to ensure all students are accessing learning at their point of need.  This looks like an additional adult in a classroom teaching a small group.  The small group lesson is planned by the classroom teacher and implemented by the ES staff member.  In total this is an additional 33 per week hours of additional assistance which is shared across our classes. 

School Communication

Our school communications will continue to predominantly flow through Compass as the first port of call, so I encourage families to make sure they have this app and/or access the platform regularly via their internet browser. This is where you will find notices, check the school calendar, receive our fortnightly newsletters, and updates via your newsfeed. Our website https://www.launchps.vic.edu.au/ also contains valuable information. Whilst the purpose of the website is to provide generalised information, it is another reference point for families.

Last week at assembly, we: 

• Ali from Parents and Friends presented awards to amazing Colour Run fundraisers!
• Informed our community about the extent of our site works that occurred during the break and the creation of several spoon drains that will ensure we have adequate drainage on our site.  The area is currently an exclusion zone as we provide the best environment for the return of the grass prior to winter setting in. 
• Spoke about the staffing changes mentioned above.
• Let students know about the upcoming dance workshops.
• Informed students about Chess Club continuing this term. 

As always, we look forward to seeing you around our place!

Laura Caddy

Principal