From Our School Leaders
Lyndal And Taffy
Lyndal and Taffy are our much-loved School Chaplain and Therapy Dog at Scoresby PS. They have been with us for the past 3 years. Over the last few years, Lyndal has been facing health challenges and has soldiered on through these to keep going with her work here at SPS. We regret to inform our school community that the time has come for Lyndal to prioritise her own health and wellbeing, and she will be finishing up with us at the end of Term 2.
We have greatly enjoyed having Lyndal and Taffy working here with us. Lyndal started at Scoresby PS in February 2020, just as the pandemic was taking off. She was a terrific support to many students, staff and families during those hard years. Lyndal quickly started creating online groups and sessions for children to attend. Cooking and bedtime stories became regular events. We popped into a few sessions to join in the fun. Lyndal made videos of staff singing songs and doing silly things, and posted them out to the community to keep connection and provide a laugh.
Lyndal has been a great sense of stability to many students and families at SPS. She is very caring, kind and understanding of children’s issues and concerns. She has attended camps, organised outings and food hampers, and regularly contacts parents to touch base and see if there is anything they need.
Lyndal will be sorely missed at SPS. Health and wellbeing is something many of us take for granted and sometimes it needs to be the priority. It’s time for Lyndal to look after herself first.
We wish Lyndal all the best and sincerely thank her for her time and work at Scoresby PS.
We are currently in the process of finding a new chaplain with our new provider.
We’re Moving To Disability Inclusion Profiling
The new Disability Inclusion Profile system is rolling into the North Eastern Region, including all schools in Knox, this year and next. The DI Profile system is going to replace the Program for Students with a Disability (PSD) program that we have had for many years. For us, this means we have to migrate our current PSD-funded children across to the new DI Profile system.
Funding for children with a disability will, of course, continue. The new profiling system requires a DI Profile meeting to be held at school with a DI panel, parents, teachers and Disability Coordinators. This is a big change for this program as, in the past, teachers, aides or parents have not been able to fully explain the needs of the students face-to-face in a meeting.
In the DI Profile meeting, the student’s strengths, achievements and successes will be the focus, and parents and teachers will be required to provide evidence of differentiation and assistance needed to help the child be successful at school.
Sue and Nicole will be gathering evidence for the profile meetings and submitting the documents to the Disability Inclusion team. The DI team have a lot of work to do across the region and we have already begun the process, with two Scoresby children uploaded already.
A letter further explaining this process, and a consent form, will be coming home to existing PSD families by the end of term.
Staffing And Replacement Teachers
You may have heard that there is a teacher shortage at the moment and, at times, we are really struggling to find replacement teachers when our staff are absent. We have agencies that we contact to get replacements, and we have our own bank of teachers who are either on leave or doing CRT work, to call upon. There is a lot of illness around at the moment and even the replacement teachers are cancelling on us at the last minute due to their sickness. The issue of replacing absent staff is across all schools and is far worse in the secondary sector, with more curriculum-specific skilled teachers required.
At Scoresby PS we are working as hard as we can to make sure our teaching and learning programs continue. From time-to-time, grades may need to be split across a level if we are unable to find a replacement teacher. When we can, Sue and Nic step in and complete the morning work and then split the grade for the later part of the day. The staff at Scoresby PS have been amazingly flexible and understanding of the current situation. We are always appreciative of their commitment to our students and their teaching and learning programs.
Reports And Learning Tasks
It’s the time of the year when all teachers are preparing mid-year reports. This year our mid-semester reports will include:
- A general comment about students' learning habits
- English and Maths achievements
- English and Maths Learning Tasks that have been sent home throughout the semester
- Victorian Curriculum progression point
- HEART Values - personal growth and development checklist
- Specialist comments - Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Physical Education and Science
This semester there will be no Mandarin report due to the recent change in our Mandarin teacher. Miss Hou has not had the opportunity to formulate assessments on our students as yet.
The Fathering Project
Yesterday was the launch of Scoresby Primary School’s involvement in The Fathering Project. Our "Bricks and Brekky" Breakfast Club was well attended by fathers and father figures, who enjoyed the opportunity to build with Lego and have a ham and cheese toastie.
We also introduced our fathering figures to the Brickit app, where you are able to take a photograph of the Lego in front of you and it will give you ideas on what you can build with the pieces.
We are looking forward to working with our SPS Dads Group to run adult only and adult and children events. If you are interested in signing up to our SPS Dads Group, please scan the QR code below.
It’s Time To Enrol!
We are now taking enrolment applications for 2024. If you have a four-year-old starting with us in 2024, you can pick up an enrolment form at the school office or download one from our school website. If you know of anyone who is enrolling at Scoresby PS next year, please encourage them to enrol this term.
SUE HARTLEY AND NICOLE RHEUMER
Scoresby Primary School Leaders