Government School Principal Conference
Yesterday Kate Wojcik and I attended the Principal Conference in Melbourne. It was a great day to be able to hear the latest from the Department of Education and the Minister for Education, Ben Carroll, for the latest directions and advice. Another great part of the day was hearing about the latest research into education and the trends that are happening and to hear from other schools to take inspiration from their improvements in both student learning outcomes and wellbeing successes.

Grounds Update
Over the weekend a small but dedicated team battled the weather to make some changes in the yard. We have removed the mound of dirt in the quiet are near the front of the school and created new garden beds along the entrance path. Thank you to Seamus and Dean for giving up their day. We have exciting plans for where the mound was and will be working with the students to shape those plans over the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates.

Feedback Please
Your feedback is extremely important. Feedback from staff, students and families ensures we can gain a wider perspective from within our school community and adapt/adjust accordingly, where necessary. Yesterday families were sent a link to our Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey. This survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour and student engagement. It is expected to take between fifteen and twenty minutes to complete, and I strongly encourage you to participate.

Congratulations
On Friday 5th July, Natasha Irvine and her partner Georgia welcomed into the world a beautiful baby boy, Connor John Irvine. All are doing great and very excited at the expansion of their family!

Electric Blowers
We have two electric blowers for sale at $15 each (cash only) that are no longer required. If you would like one, please call in at the office and see me.

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Student attendance is not required on Friday 9th August 2024, as teachers have a Curriculum Day scheduled.

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With the Olympics kicking off, it is time to turn our attention to all things Track and Field and that means it is time for Whole School Athletics Day (Thursday, 8th August). For those who have not experienced this event yet, this is a day where the whole school community comes together on our oval for a day of fun competition. For many students and families, it is one of the highlights of the year.

The Prep and Junior students participate in a day of activities that are focussed on fun and participation. Points are still collected for Houses, but there are no winners or awards. Events are based around the Track and Field events, but are less technical and designed to encourage participation and enjoyment.

The Middle and Senior students participate in their events to not only win points for their House, but also in an attempt to qualify for the School team at the District Athletics. Ribbons are also awarded to the place getters in each event.

We welcome all members of the community to come along for the day and join in the fun either as a spectator, or one of those very very valued parent volunteers who can assist a teacher with the running of an event on the day. No experience or athletic knowledge is required, just a willingness to lend a hand. Anyone who is interested in assisting, please contact Shane Kennedy via email – shane.kennedy@education.vic.gov.au. If you do have a preference for an event, i.e “I used to compete in the Triple Jump back when I was much younger”, please include this in your message.

Kylie will be opening the canteen for coffees, hot food and snacks for all visitors and will also be running a special lunch order day for the students.

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This term we are holding Learning Conversations with families and class teachers. These will be on Wednesday July 31st from 3:40pm – 7pm and Tuesday August 6th from 3:40pm – 5pm.

Families can access bookings on the Sentral Portal app.

The Learning Conversations will be for 10 minutes with parents/carers and classroom teachers. In this time, you will be able to discuss learning successes and achievements from Semester 1, look at workbooks, see more of the tasks your child was proud of and also discuss future learning goals and needs for Semester 2.

These Learning Conversations will take the place of previous Student Led Conferences, where your child led the meeting and shared their learning. It will allow time for teachers and parents/carers to talk about the learning and needs of your child together. Families are welcome to have their child present for these conversations, but this is no longer a requirement for the evenings.

Please look for the links on the Sentral Portal to sign up for your times with class teachers later this week. We look forward to seeing you all on July 31st or August 6th.

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This year we will be celebrating reading with some special events through Book Week. Shortly some of the picture story books and junior fiction and non-fiction titles will be on display in the school library for students and classes to visit, read and discuss the nominations. Staff are also beginning to plan their door displays, with the theme of Reading is Magic in mind to inspire us all.

On Tuesday 20th August from 2:45pm, we invite parents, carers and family members in to our classes for an afternoon of reading and sharing favourite books.

Then on Friday 23rd August, we will celebrate the end of a magical Book Week with our dress up day and parade in the hall from 9:15am. We love seeing the door displays around the school and all our students, staff and volunteers getting into the spirit of the week by donning a costume and enjoying the day with each other.

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Families will have been notified this week about details around the up-coming Life Education incursions. Please check your Portal messages and Broadcasts from class teachers about the focus for each year level this year.

During Week 4 and 5, classes will participate in the incursion in our library, with Healthy Harold making some appearances as well. It is a great learning opportunity that sparks a lot of conversation and follow up learning within Personal Learning time across the term.

Please check the Sentral Portal for more details and to ensure you have given permission and paid before the end of this.

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Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey and is seeking your feedback. The survey, offered by the Department of Education, is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement.

Your opinions are important to us and will contribute to identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. The department will use the results from the survey for research purposes and to improve outcomes for students.

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 29 July to Friday 30 August 2024, emails with log in information were sent to families earlier this week.

PLEASE NOTE: Only one parent / caregiver / guardian from your household is invited to complete the survey on behalf of the student’s family. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school if your child’s family lives in two separate households, so both households can have the opportunity to provide their feedback.

To protect your responses, please DO NOT share the survey link and PIN with others, or on a public website, forum or similar.

Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential.
The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to our school that you complete the survey as honestly as possible. ORIMA Research, a private research company, is conducting this survey on behalf of the Department of Education. ORIMA Research Pty Ltd has not been and will not be provided with the contact details, names or any other personal identifying information about the parents / caregivers / guardians invited to complete the survey. The department, the survey supplier (ORIMA Research) and the school can never personally identify you, or see your responses. The department and ORIMA protect your responses in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic). ORIMA Research also adheres to the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021, as well as relevant State and Territory legislation. For more information, please visit ORIMA’s Privacy Policy here: http://www.orima.com.au/home/privacy-policy and the department’s Schools’ Privacy Policy here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/schoolsprivacypolicy.aspx.

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Congratulations to our Values Award recipients; Read more…

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A huge congratulations to the Boys T-Ball team who competed in the Western Metropolitan Region finals last week. Against very stiff competition, we managed to win two of our games and only lose one. Unfortunately, our loss put us out of the running for the final. Despite the result, the boys played with great sportsmanship and spirit and were terrific representatives of our school, district and division.

Thank you to Mr Bride and Mrs Irvine for coaching the team through the qualifying rounds, including many lunchtime practice sessions. The improvement the boys have made was very impressive.

Thank you also to the dedicated crew of parents and grandparents who came along to support the team. It was a big effort and very much appreciated.

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We were part of the High Ability Coding workshop on Monday, 22^nd July. We were on a Zoom call using the program Scratch to code our own computer game. The program was based around the Port Phillip Bay and learning about our environment.

We first learnt about the Spider Crabs that migrate into the bay for the shelter it provides. They then shed their outer shell to grow a new one. We investigated the predator and prey relationship and found out that stingrays eat the crabs when they are vulnerable. When this is happening, the crabs hide under the sand. We then used this information to develop a Scratch game to demonstrate the information in an engaging way. We got to do this for about an hour and a half. Some of our favourite parts of the session was playing the original game we created, adding sounds and movement to our character and learning new ways to use Scratch.

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Please read more for TheirCare’s latest newsletter; Read more…

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Please ‘read more’ for information about events and activites in the region;

Read more…

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