Camelot Rise Primary School Newsletter

From the Principal 

Victorian Government Schools Agreement (EBA)

The Fair Work Commission recently approved the new VGSA.  The agreement commences operation from Monday 25 July 2022 with a nominal expiry date of Wednesday 31 December 2025.  Principals were provided with the official Implementation Guide describing the key changes late on the afternoon of Friday 22nd July.

Many of the provisions in the new VGSA have been carried forward from the previous iteration, however, there are some significant changes including a staged reduction in face-to-face teaching time to a maximum of 21 hours in 2024.

In addition, new Time in Lieu provisions will need to be worked through, as these will affect out of hours activities such as Twilight Sports, Productions, Open Nights, Christmas concerts, Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences, Graduation, Information Nights as these events fall outside of ‘teacher work hours’. From 2023, school camps will also be included. How we manage these events in the future will need to be worked through over the coming months, although this year’s camps do not fall under the new agreement.  

 

This will have a significant impact on what schools can offer.

 

 Working out our ‘local agreement’ will take time and effort to get the best arrangements for both our students and staff.  It is likely that some of the ‘traditional’ after hours events previously mentioned will need to occur during the school day.  On occasions, scheduled meetings such as Staff Meetings and professional learning may be cancelled to accumulate ‘teacher work hours’ so that required events including Parent Teacher Interviews can be held. 

School Timetable

Due to the VGSA changes, it is likely that there will be some amendments required in the school timetable in 2023 and in 2024.  These will be to accommodate the way we teach but also due to the VGSA required ‘reduction in face-to-face teaching time’.  This will also impact the Specialist program.  These items and many more are all on the table and being worked through by School Leadership together with the Consultative Committee. Parents will be consulted if any significant changes are required.

Invitation to participate in the 2022 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opion Survey

All families are asked to participate in the 2022 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey (previously known as the Parent Opinion Survey).  An email was sent to all families yesterday asking them to participate in this survey.

 

Each year the school conducts an opinion survey with the school community. While previously a random sample of approximately 30 per cent of parents/caregivers/guardians have been selected to participate, this year all families are invited to participate in the survey. Results will be used to inform and direct our future school planning and improvement.

 

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.

 

  • 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 Monday 15 August to Friday 16th September. 
  • The survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, Somali and Punjabi.

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. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to participate. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

Questions?

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any general queries about the survey. For specific technical or participation-related queries, you may also contact the department or the supplier administering the survey, ORIMA Research.

 

  • Should you have any technical queries regarding the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey, please do not hesitate to contact ORIMA Research on 1800 654 585 (toll free), or by email: pos@orima.com 
  • Should you have any participation or survey-related queries, please contact the School, or the department by email: school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.

Tao - Swimming update

At our recent Out of Uniform Day our school community raised over $600 for Tao H (5CB) to participate in the National Swimming Championships that are being held this week in Brisbane. This is a great example of our school community supporting each other to help Tao participate in this important event.

 

We would like to advise you all that during our recent Year 5 & 6 ski trip Tao injured his knee quite badly and as a result he is not able to participate in this week’s championships. This is incredibly disappointing for Tao, his family and our whole school community. We are sure Tao will use this disappointment to inspire and drive him even more with his swimming pursuits and dreams. Hopefully in 2023 Tao will have the opportunity to participate In the National Championships.

 

As a result of this the money raised can now be spent on a school wide project. We will be asking the Junior School Council members to survey the children in their classes to give us some ideas as to how we can best spend these funds. Once all students have had the opportunity to talk with their class Junior School Council representatives, we will then be able to determine how best to spend this money to benefit all students at Camelot Rise Primary School. We will let you all know how this money will be spent.

School Production

We are very excited to inform you that the ticket sales are progressing well for our ‘Reality Cheque’ School Production. We encourage all families to purchase their tickets using the link below

https://www.monash.edu/performing-arts-centres/event/reality-cheque/

 

Father's Day Pizza Night

We look forward to our Father’s Day (Uncle, Grandparent, Guardian or significant other) Pizza Night this Thursday night. This promises to be a fun night with lots of games and activities to be played throughout the evening. Thanks To Kerryn Wardle for organising this event and the parent volunteers that have offered to help on the night.

 

Think U Know

ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), delivered nationally in partnership with police and industry partners to prevent online child sexual exploitation.

 

We incorporate up-to-date research, real case studies and examples from reports made to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.

The program is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, image-based abuse, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.

 

The program is a partnership  with the AFP, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Datacom and Microsoft Australia, and in collaboration with all State and Territory police and Neighbourhood Watch Australasia

 

We arranged for ThinkUKnow to present to our Year 5 and 6 students earleir this year and we are inviting them back again in Term 4. These presentations are age appropriate and   focus on the positive aspects of technology, while also addressing some of the challenges that young people are presented with when in an online environment.

 

ThinkUKnow will be invited back to school in 2023 to present to our younger students.

More information about ThinkUKnow can be found here: https://www.thinkuknow.org.au

 

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys