Message from the Principal

Dear Parents, 

This week, all students in F-6 were part of the swimming lessons with trained instructors at the St Albans Leisure Centre. Swimming and Water Safety is a mandatory component of the Victorian Curriculum, and our school is fortunate to have secured a spot in the newly built swim centre to provide this opportunity to our students. It is highly recommended students label all of their clothing, wear their bathers to school in the morning, and bring a plastic bag to pack their wet swimmers. We thank our families for their support in ensuring all of our students develop the skills necessary to stay safe around water.

Whole-School Raffle 

We have had a fantastic start to our Major School Fundraiser Raffle and would like to thank families for their support. There is still time to purchase more tickets as the raffle will be drawn on the 18th of December. There are over $2000 worth of prizes to be won, including a bike, basketball ring, scooters, gift vouchers and much more. Extra tickets can be collected from the office or your classroom teacher. Tickets are only $2 each.

Reporting and Assessment

Teachers have begun writing student reports for this semester. From next week, teachers will commence a range of assessments with all students to get the most up to date information on student progress toward their learning goals and against the Victorian Curriculum. To ensure every student is given the full opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge teachers use a range of assessments including work samples, portfolio pieces, one on one interviews and digital or paper-based tests. This information is used with all other assessment collected across the semester which teachers then share with their teams to determine a fair and accurate judgement of your child’s current learning ability across all areas. Our early data suggests that a vast majority of our students have already experienced significant growth in their learning this year and we look forward to celebrating this with them through their reports. Families will have the opportunity to book in an optional parent teacher interview at in Week 10 of this term, after reports have been published.

Play your part, be eSmart

We know that students achieve their best at school in safe and supportive environments, where they are free from bullying and disruptive behavior. At our school, we put a big emphasis on making sure we provide a great environment for our students, including one that is free from bullying.

Bullying is a serious issue for all of us. We know that it can happen anywhere, anytime, and can have devastating consequences. We also know that with the rise of social media, cyberbullying is an increasingly important issue. Where bullying was once confined to the playground, it can now occur online at any time of the day or night. 

Cyberbullying is just as harmful as face-to-face bullying, and online actions can have real life consequences. Social media services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat require account holders to be at least 13 years. Creating an account with false information is a violation of their terms. This includes accounts registered on the behalf of someone under 13. Parents should support their children to adhere to these guidelines.

What does cyberbullying look like?

Cyberbullying can occur in many ways, including: 

· abusive texts and emails

· hurtful messages, images or videos

· imitating others online

· excluding others online

· humiliating others online

· nasty online gossip and chat.

I am being cyberbullied—how do I stop it?

talk to someone you trust straight away—like a parent, sibling, uncle/aunt, teacher or friend, or contact Kids Helpline

don’t retaliate or respond—they might use it against you

block the bully and change your privacy settings 

report the abuse to the service and get others to as well

collect the evidence—keep mobile phone messages, take screen shots and print emails or social networking conversations 

What should I do?

Contact the school and make an appointment to discuss the issue. 

· Do not directly approach any other student or their family.

· Ask the school for a copy of your school's policies and any handouts on bullying.

Work with your child’s school to solve the problem by establishing a plan for dealing with the current situation and future bullying incidents.

Schools must follow privacy laws and may not be able to tell you everything that has taken place, especially about any other children involved. These laws keep you and your child’s information private too.