Dear Parents/Carers of students in Years Foundation, 1 & 2, The staff are very excited to welcome your child back to school on Tuesday 26th May. To ensure that they resume school in a happy and supported way, we will be implementing some procedures to help everyone in our community stay safe.

These have been recommended by the Department of Education and the Chief Health Officer of Victoria.

Students Entering and Exiting the School:

Morning Drop Off:

Students only will enter the school via designated House Colour Gates. Students have been allocated a House Colour when they enrolled at the school (siblings are placed in the same House Colour) this has enabled us to spread the drop off of students around the perimeter of our school. The class teachers have been asked to follow up with families to make sure you are aware of your child’s House Colour prior to resuming school on Tuesday.

We will have social distancing signs on our fences so that parents are aware of the need to keep themselves and others safe. Staff members will be supporting families with these requirements to ensure that drop off and pick up times happen in a calm and organised manner. We ask that you are patient and supportive as we implement the changes required during these unprecedented times.

The gates will be sign posted and are listed below. The school gates will open at 8:40am each day, please note that the gates are opening 10 minutes later to reduce the time spent in the school yard prior to the commencement of lessons.

Staff have been rostered onto each gate to supervise students entering the yard and also help any student who requires assistance making their way to their classroom. If you have any messages or concerns about your child in relation to them starting back at school please email their class teacher via the school’s email address prior to Tuesday so the teacher can contact you. Teachers will not be available to speak to parents on Tuesday morning as they will be welcoming the students back into their classrooms.

House Colour Entry and Exit Gates:

Gate 1 (Deutgam St) Students with bikes and scooters (Main Office gate)

Gate 2 (Deutgam St) Blue House Students (Year 6 Wedge Building)

Gate 3 (Wedge St) Not in use

Gate 4 (Pyke St) Green House Students and Camp Australia (prior to 8.30am & after 3.30pm)

Gave 5 (Pyke St) Red House Students (Between Room 12 & Learning Gallery)

Gate 6 (Werribee St) Yellow House Students (Between Rooms 6 & 7)

Gate 7 (Deutgam St) Not in use

After School Pick Up:

To reduce the family traffic of everyone arriving at the same time to collect students we will be having staggered `After School Pick Up’ times. We ask that these be adhered to.

2:50pm – Year 2 students and siblings

3:00pm – Year 1 students

3:10pm – Foundation students

Students will exit via their House Colour Gates with supervision from staff. Teachers will walk the students to the allocated gate and supervise them until they have been collected by parents.

Parents are reminded to please remember to follow Social Distancing signs and be patient while the teachers identify families and allow students to make their way to you. The first couple of days might be a slower process while we work out the most efficient way to get everyone out of the school safely and with the least amount of disruption to our awesome families. This is a new process for us too, but together we can make it work.

Returning Student Book Packs:

To ensure your child has a smooth return to school we do not require the student’s books and stationary to be returned on the first day. It is more important for your child to walk confidently into the school instead of trying to carry a heavy bag of books. Teachers will notify you about the requirements for returning books during the first week back or this week via Class Dojo.

Nathan Cuthbertson (ICT Leading Teacher) will also be communicating with parents regarding the return of any borrowed technology from the school used during Home Learning.

We are very mindful of how anxious students and our parents will be about school resuming, please know that supporting our community is our top priority. If as a community we all have everyone’s best interests at heart and help each other to make these different procedures work, then our students will feel more confident and happier to come back to school.

We thank you for your continued understanding and support.

Information for parents / carers on moving from primary to secondary school can be found here. While parents / carers can access the Information Pack and Application Form on the Department’s website, we would prefer you to use the prefilled Application Form which was posted on 22nd April .

Following advice from the Victorian Government on Tuesday 12 May, some students will be returning to school from Tuesday 26 May.  The Victorian Chief Health Officer has advised that it is safe for Victorian school students and teachers to return to on-site schooling in a two-staged approach:

• Stage 1 – from Tuesday 26 May 

• Early years students (Prep to Grade 2) and senior secondary students (Year 11 and 12) undertaking the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), and all specialist school students will return to on-site schooling. All staff will attend on-site.

• Stage 2 - from Tuesday 9 June

• Grade 3 to Year 10 students will return to on-site schooling, subject to health advice.

The Department’s latest advice on can be found at www.education.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

Every Victorian child should have access to the world of learning opportunities that exist beyond the classroom. The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps ensure that no student will miss out on the opportunity to join their classmates for important, educational and fun activities. 

It is part of making Victoria the Education State and the Government’s commitment to breaking the link between a student’s financial circumstances and their outcomes.

School camps provide children with inspiring experiences in the great outdoors. Excursions encourage a deeper understanding of how the world works while sports teach teamwork, discipline and leadership. All are a part of a healthy curriculum.

CSEF is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school excursions, camps and sporting activities.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or  support an out of home care student you may be eligible for CSEF. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. The allowance is paid directly to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

HOW TO APPLY

New applicants should contact the school office to obtain a CSEF application form or download from the website below.

 
If you applied for CSEF at your child's school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

You only need to complete an application form if any of the following changes have occurred:

• new student enrolments: your child has started or changed schools this year.
• changed family circumstances: such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing this year.

Check with the school office if you are unsure.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about CSEF visit:
https://www.vic.gov.au/camps-sports-and-excursions-fund

We will regularly share resources available through our membership with you, including Insight Articles and Webinars. You can also access your resources at any time using the below URL (unique to our school) and password.

URL & PASSWORD

https://schools.happyfamilies.com.au/login/wps

PASSWORD: happywps

We recommend bookmarking this link. You should only need to put the password in once and the site will remember you.

The latest Insights articles are listed below:

Term 3 2024
The quest for independence and identity
Gettting along with siblings
Parenting with Influence, Not Control
The Power of Perspective
Stop, look and listen to your kids
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Term 2 2024
The best way to say 'No!' to your kids
Making Family Life Fun
Teaching children that mistakes are okay
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Technology Giants and Our Kids
Family Goal Setting
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View webinars     View Articles

INSIGHTS ARTICLES 

A new Insights article is released weekly during the term and we will include these with the school newsletter. Insights articles are written by Dr Justin Coulson and other leading experts and provide parenting education and support for a wide variety of traditional and contemporary parenting challenges. You can also access 300+ previous Insights articles on our school’s URL.

Each week Justin will be answering a question from the school community.  click here to watch video.

PARENT WEBINARS

You have access to 4 live webinars a year (one per term). We will announce upcoming webinar details in the Insights articles. You’ll have access to the recording via our school’s URL but as the webinars are live, we recommend you watch them in real time so that you can ask Dr Justin and / or the guest presenter any questions you may have.

We hope you enjoy the Insights and webinars!