Congratulations to our year 6 students and teachers: Phillip Island Adventure Camp

The weather was perfect for our school camp.  The activities were exciting and challenging for the students.  Considering this group had not been on the middle year camps due to covid, we found they teamed well and learn’t quickly to perform the skills necessary to complete the activities.  The group were confident and prepared to have a try to do their best with lots of encouragement. And this is what camps are about!  It was pleasing to listen to the children talk about the best bits and share the fun times they were having together.  The schedule was sequenced well and activities went all day and into the evenings.  The accommodation and food was great. We have loaded lots of photos in the gallery section of the website.  Thank to our class teacher and support teachers who attended.  It is a massive organisational process to setup and run our camps.  

Curriculum:

Last week, we had a curriculum day where our teams planned their Inquiry Units for each term of 2023. This week, the teams had a Planning Day to detail their term two units of learning. Setting up effective and purposeful plans as a group is so important and demanding for the teams.  They are empowered with a strategy to resource the upcoming curriculum requirements which we call a ‘continuum’ and they sequence these units of learning over the course of the year to ensure they complete goals and content.

NAPLAN for year 3 + 5 students was completed during the previous two weeks. Shelley Gunn coordinated the classes and procedures and managed the process very well.  Individual students who missed the key date and time for a test, were able to do a supplementary sitting the next day. The children completed all tasks in English and Maths online using ipads.  

Harmony Day was held on Tuesday with children enjoying the opportunity to wear yellow and orange clothing. During the day classes joined in social team building activities.

Thank you to Sarah VN who coordinated the cross country event Thursday 23 March and thank you to the many parents who assisted. We delayed the event due to a storm that hit our area at 9.00 am.  

Camps: We have our year 5 outdoor education camp this week. The year 5 students go to Forest Edge in Neerim and the year 4 students attend Mt Evelyn Camp in the second half of the week.

Our new School Council for2023:

We have a vacancy on SC for a parent who has an accounting background to join our finance sub committee. If you feel you can assist then please phone David Foley as school.

Strategic Plan 2023 - 2026 and School Annual Implementation Plan 2023 (AIP):

These plans are now finalized and available for parents to read on our web site. Go to

SSP ~ School Strategic Plan + AIP ~ Annual Implementation Plan

Marketing:

Prep Tours have commenced and enrolments are open. Tours can be booked on line.  

There is an after school activity session for kinder kids in our Prep classes next Wednesday 29 March at 3.45 pm.

Parents and Friends: PFA:

We have a new core team to coordinate events. It would be great to have parents actively involved in the planning and running of events. We had a Dance Party at lunch time last Friday and students were able to buy an icy pole.  Student leaders assisted with parents to organise this event. On Monday 3^rd April in week 10 we have our school walkathon. Parent assistance will be valued if you can volunteer in the morning sessions.

School Calendar of Events:

This year we are committed to communicating important dates to parents.  We are aware parents felt we didn’t provide enough lead time for the curriculum day held earlier in March. It is clear that parents had to juggle work commitments and find someone to care for their children on this day. So we will continue to publicise events early and the school web site calendar is updated continuously now and weekly newsletters have upcoming dates on the school website and Compass newsletter.  We are asking parents to indicate in a brief survey if they intend to extend their holiday period on the first day of school in term 2 ie Monday 24^th April, which is the day before ANZAC day. The reason we are doing this is to ascertain and match the number of teachers we employ on this day to the number of children on site.  Or projections indicate about half of our student population might attend, so knowing this figure means we will adjust our workforce requirements.  We will form classes based on the number of children who turn up at each year level. Note all schools are now required to give Time in Lieu to all the teachers attending camps, so we may be able to release some of those teachers on this day.  

School Policies: If you wish to find and read the school policies, protocols and processes on specific topics then please access a full alphabetical list on our school web site. We continue to update these in line with direction from the Department of Education. We  loaded our newly approved Reconciliation Action Plan to our school Policy and Reports page on the school web site.

Important Dates for the remainder of term:

Monday 27 – 29 March ~Year 5 Camp

Wednesday 29 March ~ Year 4 Camp

Monday 3 April ~ School Walkathon

Thursday 6 April ~ last day of term + assembly at 2.00 pm

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