Message from the Principals 

Trafalgar Kindergarten

Construction of the new Trafalgar Kindergarten is well underway.  The foundations for the new building are almost complete onsite.  We have also received the photos below of the building under construction offsite. The Victorian School Building Authority continues to advise that the building is scheduled to arrive on site shortly.  In the meantime groundworks and preparation of the playground continue.

Councillor for the East Ward, Baw Baw Shire- Darren Wallace, attended the most recent meeting of school council to discuss our concerns about the lack of parent parking facilities associated with kindergarten.  At that meeting Cr. Wallace shared that improvements to School Road are part of the Shire’s long term planning but was unable to provide a timeline for this project. He also encouraged the school community to submit requests for infrastructure improvements in line with Baw Baw’s next planning and budget cycle. 

School Council has also received a response from The Hon James Merlino MP, Deputy Premier and Minister for Education.  In that letter the Minister states that the Department of Education and Training does not provide car-parking for parents and other non-staff vehicles.  The letter states that the matter has been referred to the local council who is responsible for the safe management of local traffic and the reduction of risks associated with daily congestion peaks.  

Final Assembly Friday & Grade 6 Graduation

This Friday we will hold our final assembly for the year.  This will be an opportunity for our school community to say a final farewell our Grade 6 students.  We will also present our Principal’s Awards. This includes ‘Academic Excellence’ Awards which will be presented to the ten students at each year level, with the highest results across all areas of the curriculum.  

Each month students receive Progress Reports (GPAs) that measure learning behaviours on a scale between 0 and 4.  The ‘GPA Perfect 4’ Awards will be presented to students that received a perfect GPA score of 4 every month this year.  

We will also announce the names of our 2020 Student Leaders including the School Captains.   Thank you to all students that put their hand up for a leadership position.  As always this was a difficult and rigorous process with a number of suitable applicants.  

The families of students receiving awards or being recognized as student leaders will be contacted this week. We would be delighted if you were able to attend.  The final assembly will commence at 2:30 pm in the gym. 

On Monday next week our largest cohort of students, our Grade 6’s, finish their time at Trafalgar Primary School.  We look forward to marking this important milestone and wish our students all the best for their start at secondary school. This year we will be holding the graduation ceremony in the newly refurbished Trafalgar High School Gym.  In previous year we have encouraged families to bring no more than two guests, In the new venue we been able to allocate four tickets to each Grade 6 familiy.  This is a strictly a ticketed event due to the large size of our Year 6 cohort. 

2020 Classrooms and Teachers

We expect to run 17 classrooms at Trafalgar Primary School next year.  All classes will be straight grades with classmates from the same year level.  We will continue to run a team-based approach to classroom instruction with each class taught by two to three teachers teaching in the same year level.

On statewide Transition day students worked together in 2020 classes and met their new teacher.  Students were sent home with a slip of paper showing their 2020 classroom and teacher’s name.  We have recently received a number of requests from parents for a list of students in their child’s class.  Parents are reminded that privacy legislation prohibits the school from sharing this type of information.  

2020 Classroom Teachers

Foundation:  Carolyne Lissenden, Tanya Laidlaw, Jess Prime

Year One:  Megan Woolfe, Emily Carter

Year Two:  Naomi Landmeter, Jess Board, Jan Carmody

Year Three:  Megan Waters, Ebony Pitisano

Year Four:  Jane Sneddon, Linda Child

Year Five:  Whitney Churchill, Jess Frost, Danni-Elle Gifford, New Teacher (to be confirmed) 

Year Six:  Meagan Franke, Lidia Vincent

Volunteer Morning Tea

On Friday this week the school will hold a thankyou morning tea for volunteers that have worked at our school this year.  Teachers have handed out some flyers to those currently assisting in their classrooms.  If there are other community members that have volunteered at our school this year we would be delighted if you were able to join us at 11 am in the staffroom.  To RSVP, please contact the school.

Festival on the Lawn

On Friday last week we held the annual Festival on the Lawn.  Thank you to all the staff and volunteers that made this event a success.  Once again the Festival was well attended.  Thanks to those families that braved the cold.   Fortunately the rain stayed away.  We battled the wind and the cool temperature later in the evening, which was in stark contrast to the 40 degree day we experienced the year before.   It is so important that our students have the opportunity to perform in front of an audience. 

Watching the students perform was a real celebration of their hand work and effort.  As was seeing the range of artworks on display in the gym.   It was also great to see the development of students from Foundation to Year 6.  A special thank you to our performing and visual arts staff for their preparation of our students. 

Thank you to the members of Parents and Friends Committee who assisted in the organisation, including setting up and packing up.  We hope the event provided an opportunity for some much welcomed fundraising.

Unfortunately, during the final item, while all the school students were performing, some unsupervised younger children were playing inappropriately with the new AFL goal posts at the far end of the oval.  This caused a goal post to snap off at the base which will now have to be replaced.

Scooters Stolen from School

On Friday 29th November three scooters were stolen from our schools bike shed.  The matter has been referred to police.  Unfortunately the bike shed was not locked on that day and there were no personal locks on the students property.  While a lock and key is provided to students we advise students to bring a lock with them to secure their personal property.  

It is normal practice that a bike shed monitor locks/unlocks the bike shed at the beginning and end of the day.  The school will make some changes to try and improve the security for users including having the teacher on bus duty play a role in the locking and unlocking. However, users need to be aware that there are many students that arrive late, or families that collect students early and require to have the shed unlocked.  Some students also ride home for lunch.  With so many users of the bike shed coming and going throughout the day it is not possible to guarantee the shed will remain locked at all times. 

We understand that this was distressing for those directly impacted and hope that our students will have had their property returned to them soon.  It is important and timely that our school community be reminded that the Department of Education and Training does not have insurance for personal property of staff, students and visitors. 

Trafalgar Primary School does not take responsibility for items of personal property that are lost, stolen or damaged at school or during school activities. Damage to personal property brought to school is the responsibility of the owner of that property.

Trafalgar Primary School encourages staff and students not to bring items of value to school, or to obtain appropriate insurance for such items. DET Personal Good Policy

End of Semester Reports

At Trafalgar Primary School most of your child’s reports are available live, all year round.  At the end of semester, the school produces a report based on the Victorian Curriculum.  Your child’s end of semester report will be available from Monday 16th December on Compass.  

While Compass does provide a mobile application.  A mobile device will not provide you with access to your child’s full report.  Currently, parents and carers must login to Compass on a desktop computer to access the more sophisticated data sets available.  From a desktop you can print and download most reports.

If you are having trouble accessing your Compass account please feel free to contact the school.

For further information about how we report and particularly where you can find written comments about your child's progress follow this link. 

Staffing Update

Congratulations Sharon Lowater!

Congratulations to our Business Manager, Sharon Lowater, on her successful appointment as Business Manager at Trafalgar High School commencing 2020.  This is a promotion from her current position at Trafalgar Primary School and we wish her all the best in this new role.  We especially look forward to the opportunity this creates to strengthen relations between our two schools.  We thank Sharon for her good stewardship of school resources since 2017.  With her skills and support we have been able to ensure the good financial operations of the school and have delivered a number of significant infrastructure and resourcing projects.   The leadership team will now commence a process to appoint a new Business Manager as soon as possible.

Thank you Neil Grimshaw

Thanks to Neil Grimshaw who has worked with us the last six months as a Grade 1 Teacher.  As a retired Principal, Neil’s expertise has been of enormous benefit to our Junior School Team.  We thank Neil for his support. He has earned a well-deserved return to semi-retirement.  I have no doubt we will see Neil some time in the future and we look forward to the opportunity to work with him again.  

Get well soon, Janie Grimshaw and Leanne Ferguson

Education Support Staff members Leanne Ferguson and Janie Grimshaw have suffered significant health set backs in recent months.  Both are likely to require some significant periods of leave.  We wish them both all the best in their recovery and hope to see them back at work soon.  

Thanks Deb Di Sisto and Vanessa Gunn

In Janie’s absence, Deb Di Sisto, the 2019 President of Parents and Friends, and Vanessa Gunn have been working in the administration office.  We thank these two for their work, especially at this end of the year when we manage the business of 2020 on top of the business as usual from 2019.

Congratulations and thank you to our Trainees

Hannah Templeton, Scott Mildenhall, Ella Hoyune and Meaghan Watson have all now completed their Certificate III in Education Support Services.  This team has made an amazing contribution to our school in the service of our students.  The trainees provided daily intervention and support to a wide range of our students.  We congratulate each of these staff members on completing their qualifications which also brings to a close their time at Trafalgar Primary School.  We wish Hannah, Ella, Scott and Meaghan all the best for the future.

Welcome to our 2020 Trainees

Congratulations to Abbey Schembri, Sophie Farrell and Taylah Summersgill, who have been recently appointed as trainees undertaking Certificate III in education support services.   

Abbey has just completed VCE at Lowanna College and she has worked part-time in hospitality at Querencia Retirement Village for the last 3 years.

Sophie currently works at KMart, babysits for several families, works in a hairdressers casually and helps her parents on the farm.

Taylah has just completed her VCE at Lowanna College and she currently works at Coles part-time, at the Moe Football Netball Club Canteen during functions and club days and recently commenced volunteer work at St Marys in Newborough.  Taylah has been part of the Sports Excellence Program at Lowanna. 

We welcome you all to the Trafalgar Primary School Community and wish you all the best with your studies.  

Congratulations on your retirement Raelene Gleeson  

Earlier this year we celebrate a significant milestone for Raelene Gleenson, 35 years service in Education.  After 35 years of service Raelene has reached her well deserved retirement, congratulations!  Raelene touched the lives of hundreds of Gippsland’s students over her years as a teacher.  She continues to be highly regarded as a teacher by many of her students and will be missed by all.  Perhaps most of all by her classroom sidekick and colleague Jess Frost.  We hope to see more of Raelene at Trafalgar Primary School in a different capacity as she takes up work as a relief teacher. 

Farewell Demi Brett

Demi Brett has been working at Trafalgar Primary School for the last 6 months as a Grade 6 Teacher.  We were fortunate to have Demi available to fill as a short term vacancy under a ‘skills shortage’ visa.  Demi will be returning to her family in the UK at Christmas time.  

Coming into a school as a Grade 6 teacher in the later half of the year is always a challenge as teachers and students begin the process of transitioning to high school. We thank Demi for the contribution she has made to our school.  She will be missed by us all, especially her students.     

Farewell Jess Scouller

Jess Scouller was trained as a secondary school PE teacher, and with some arm twisting came to work at Trafalgar Primary School as a Specialist PE Teacher.  With her AusSwim qualifications Jess was recruited with the role of developing a swimming program for our school. 

While she may have had some initial reservations about teaching in Primary School Jess quickly became a much loved and highly valued member of our school community.  With a swimming program firmly established and moving into its third year, Jess now leaves us to head to Secondary School.  She has accepted a position as a VCE Health and PE Teacher at Cairo Christan School.  Thank you Jess, for all you've done for us.  We wish you all the best in your new role.  

Congratulations and thank you Luke Simpson

Luke Simpson has worked in the Music Department at Trafalgar Primary School since the beginning of this year.  Luke has just completed his Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), with a focus on Music performance at Lowanna College. The position at Trafalgar Primary School gave Luke the opportunity to undertake structured workplace learning on a regular basis, one day a week. Luke became a valued member of the team at Trafalgar Primary School maintaining the schools significant music resources and ensuring our students have access to state of the art equipment for learning. 

Welcome Declan Breheny and Blake Dyson

In 2020 we welcome Declan Brehney to the role of Studio Manager.  Declan will commence the second year of his Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) in 2020 having recently undertaken work placement at South Street Primary School Moe.   

We also welcome Blake Dyson, Blake will commence the first year of his Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) in 2020.  Blake is studying Health and Physical Education at Lowanna College as part of the Sports Excellence Program. He will be working in Health and PE with us at Trafalgar Primary School.   

We welcome both Declan and Blake to the Trafalgar Primary School Community.

Welcome back Jan Carmody

In 2019 Jan Carmody took 12 months leave to teach a little closer to home at St. Pauls Anglican Grammar School, Warragul.  Her position there finishes at the end of this year and we look forward to Jan’s return in 2020.  She will be teaching in Grade Two.  Welcome back.

Teacher Vacancy

At this stage we still have one teacher vacancy.  We are currently working through a selection process to find the most suitable candidate.  This teacher will be working in the Grade 5 Team.  We look forward to being able to announce the name of the appointed teacher shortly. 

Changes to Specialist Program 2020

In 2020 students in every year level will continue to participate in four Specialist Education subjects: Health and Physical Education, Music, Indonesian and Visual Art.  All students will receive three terms instructions in each subject every year.  This is a return to the delivery model in place in 2017 and is a response to constraints on the school due to a decline in student numbers.  In Jess Scouller’s absence, Health and Physical education instruction will be picked up by the other specialist teachers.

The decision to keep all four specialist areas was based on State requirements to teach a certain number of hours of each subject area and a commitment to our school vision; in particular “Together,  empowering learners to follow their passion.“  we understand that access to a range of specialist subjects is incredibly important to our community and something that makes our school unique.  

Seeking Parent Volunteers for Indonesia Trip 2020

Last week we wrote to the parents of students travelling to Indonesia with the school in 2020. We called for expression of interest from Parents that may also wish to travel.    

Unfortunately the number of parent places will be limited based on final student numbers.  Parents would be required to fund their own travel.  If you are interested in participating we now invite you to submit a 50 word expression of interest here, telling us; what experience, knowledge and skills you have that would help make the trip a success?  Expressions of interest will close  4pm Friday 13th December. 

Those submitting an expression of interest are reminded that all travelling adults would be required to have a current Working with Children’s Card and comply with the Child Safe Standards, School Code of Conduct, Volunteer, and other relevant policy.    Once expressions of interest have been submitted they will be considered by the Principal and parents notified of the outcome.

Reminder about deposits for the 2020 Indonesian Trip

In order to proceed with the next stage of planning we require a deposit of $500 from each participating person to be paid by the 30th January 2020.  Once deposits have been received the school will book flights and accommodation, the itinerary will be confirmed and a final cost determined.  At this stage the approximate cost of $2500 - $3000 as presented at the information night, has not changed. 

Final payment will be due mid-June 2020 and we will require a scanned copy of passports by early May 2020.