TERM DATES

• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)
• 2021 TERM 1: Wednesday 27th January Teachers start (All students start Thursday 28th January) - Thursday 1st April (2:30pm finish)
• 2021 TERM 2: Monday 19th April - Friday 25th June (2:30pm finish)
• 2021 TERM 3: Monday 12th July - Friday 17th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2021 TERM 4: Monday 4th October - Friday 17th December (1:30pm finish)

2021 CAMP DATES

• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp - Wednesday 4th August to Friday 6th August
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp - Monday 17th May to Wednesday 19th May
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp - Tuesday 5th October to Friday 8th October
• Year 6: Canberra Camp - Monday 24th May to Friday 28th May

SCHOOL COUNCIL The final School Council Meeting for 2020 will be held next Tuesday night at 7pm. Grateful thanks to all Council members who have managed to help steer the ship through the troubled waters of COVID this year, and have still been able to provide thoughtful and considered discussions on a range of matters. Greatly appreciated by all of us.

GRADE 6 GRADUATION Grade 6 Graduation will look different this year. The Schools Operations Guide from the Department of Education (current version dated November 17) states ‘Year 6 and Year 12 graduations are permitted face to face in Victorian schools. Students from the graduating year level and staff can attend in person. Parents/carers and other family members or friends cannot attend in person but could engage via an online broadcasting of the event’.

Obviously, graduation ceremonies don’t ‘just happen’ and take many weeks of planning, thought and consideration. Due to the above limitations, considering the safety of all students at Viewbank Primary School and wanting the best possible experience for the graduating students of 2020, we have opted for a virtual event. An onsite graduation ceremony (students and teachers to attend only) will be held on the 9th December. The ceremony will be filmed and edited. The recording of the ceremony plus a slideshow and a special video which students will be working on over the next few weeks will be available for families to watch on the evening of Wednesday 16th of December. The link will be provided via Compass. Further information regarding the link and time will be distributed in due course.

THINK U KNOW A reminder to parents of Grade 4 students of the Online Safety Sessions being offered next week. With the students moving to Grade 5 next year, they will be accessing the 1:1 iPad program for the first time. We strongly encourage you to attend one of the online sessions to learn a little bit more about what you can do to keep your child/ren safe online. This will be an adults only event run by Detective Superintendent Jayne Crossling from the AFP, who has a wealth of knowledge in this area. Sessions will be run via WebEx on Tuesday, December 1 and Thursday, December 3 at 7.30pm and further information is available via the Compass post sent previously.

2021 GRADE STRUCTURE AND TEACHER ALLOCATION We are still finalising the last of our appointments for 2021, so we will endeavour to publish our grade structure and teacher allocation list in next week’s newsletter.

PARENT SURVEY You will be invited via COMPASS on Monday to complete a localised parent survey to help provide feedback for our School Review to be undertaken in Term 1 next year. We anticipate it should be just a 15 minute exercise but the accumulated responses will be invaluable for the Review Panel, some of whom have no connection to the school and hence come in with eyes wide open!

PLANNING WEEK Staff will be released in the week commencing December 7 for a single day to plan in their new teams for 2021. On Tuesday, December 8 students will meet their 2021 teachers in their 2021 grades as part of our transition program across the school.

I hope everyone has a lovely, mask-free (whilst outdoors!) weekend. Things continue to look up!

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Policy Update for Website In the coming weeks many updated and new policies will be placed onto the school website and outdated policies removed.

These revised policies have all gone through the staff and community consultation process and been endorsed by School Council as required. Please take the time to look over the policies available.

Revised policies: Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy, Statement of Values and School Philosophy, Bullying Prevention Policy, Attendance Policy, Inclusion and Diversity Policy, Digital Learning Policy, Assessment and Reporting Policy, English Policy, Homework Policy, Library Policy, Learning and Teaching Policy, Heat Health Policy, Camps and Excursions Policy and Curriculum Framework Policy,

New policies: Inquiry Policy, Personal Property Policy, Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy

Taking Care of the Environment Keeping our school environment clean is very important to Kaela and Naomi from 2B.

This week, they have been busy producing environmental posters to display around the school.

Here are some of their messages

• Use the correct bin for your waste
• Pick up litter
• Remember to water the garden
• Help save the environment by thinking about how to recycle materials

Be kind and caring

Gill

Term 4 I would like to thank our staff for their continuing hard work throughout this last term. They have supported the students, and each other, to have a relatively smooth transition back to on-site learning, have attempted to ‘catch-up’ as many students as possible after Remote Learning, are writing reports and planning for 2021 grades and events. We also have a school review in Term 1 of next year that a huge amount of work has gone into already – please have a read of all the updated policies that are on the website!

Overarching all of this has been the coronavirus changing rules and regulations. The Department of Education and Training (DET) has also provided school operation guides that we must follow that reflect the changing advice from the government, but need to be read and implemented through a school ‘lens’. These guides have changed relatively often this term (and sometimes do not reflect things that have been put out on social media prematurely) and have meant a lot of reading and implementing changes as soon as possible to ensure our compliance.

There are many things we will do over the remaining 3 weeks (and have done so recently as well) that at first glance look ‘normal’, but upon closer inspection will have been adapted e.g. split recess and lunch to provide class/grade/teacher ‘bubbles’.

Raising Resilient Problem Solvers From: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/blog/raising-resilient-problem-solvers/

Personal problem-solving is an under-rated skill shared by resilient children and adults. First, identified alongside independence, social connection and optimism by early resilience-researchers in the US, the ability to solve your own problems is the basis of a child’s autonomy and self-efficacy.

When parents solve all children’s problems we not only increase their dependency on adults, we also teach kids to be afraid of making mistakes and to blame themselves for not being good enough. As I (Michael Grose) noted in my book ‘Anxious Kids’, this is fertile ground for anxiousness and depressive illness.

So how can we raise kids to be courageous problem-solvers rather than self-critical, low risk-takers? Continue reading at the above link for strategies and ideas in the following 6 areas:

• Turn requests for help into problems for kids to solve
• Ask good questions to prompt problem-solving
• Coach them through problems and concerns
• Prepare kids for problems and contingencies
• Show a little faith
• Applaud mistakes and stuff ups

Patrick

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Government assisted Fund provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports, incursions and excursions ($125 per child). Applications for the Governments ‘CSEF Fund’ can be accessed by filling in the application form and returning it to the office with a copy of your current Health Care Card. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply) i.e. a Centrelink Health Care Card or Pension Concession Card or Veteran Affairs Gold Card.

If you applied for the CSEF at your child's school in 2020, you do not need to complete an application form in 2021 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 in 2021 or you did not apply in 2020.
• changed family circumstances; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing at the school in 2021.

Funds are paid to the school and will be automatically allocated to the Term Expenses unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.

2021 Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements Viewbank Primary School is looking forward to a new year of teaching and learning and would like to advise you of the 2021 Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements.

Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements are paid on Compass from Saturday 19 December 2020. Please check 'Course Confirmation/Payment' in 'My News' on your homepage and follow the prompts. If you are having issues with Compass, have forgotten your password or have no access please contact the school office as soon as possible.

Payments are due by Monday 27 January 2021. A Compass Payment Plan Option for Essential Student Learning Items is also available on Compass: Four even payments of $75.00 to be deducted on 01Feb, 01Mar, 01Apr & 01May 2021.

Please be advised there are alternative payment options for families who may be experiencing financial hardship or who would prefer a personalised payment plan. Please contact me if you wish to discuss these arrangements.

Late Arrivals The gates will be locked at 9.00am, if you arrive after this time please go to the Main Gate, Gate 1 on Nevin Parade and call the office and a staff member will meet your child at the gate.

Early Leavers If you need to collect your child early please call the office and a staff member will arrange for your child to meet you at the Main Gate, Gate 1 on Nevin Parade.

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

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ART NEWS In the Art Room as a celebration of our return to school every student from Foundation to Year 5 have had the opportunity to make a butterfly. The beautiful creations are now fluttering around the reception area in wonderful cheering coloured waves….

There are some similarities between the symptoms of hay fever or allergies and coronavirus that may make it difficult to distinguish without a test. If you are experiencing ANY of the below – no matter how mild – get tested ⤵️

🤒Fever

😰Chills or sweats

🤧Cough

🥵Sore throat

💨Shortness of breath

💧Runny nose

👃Loss of sense of smell or taste

Don’t assume your symptoms are ‘just allergies’ – get tested and know for sure. Find your nearest testing location: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/getting-tested #EveryTestCounts

More info about hay fever and coronavirus (COVID19): https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/seasonal-hayfever-and-asthma-covid-19

PHONE NUMBER: 0448 075 422

EMAIL: viewbank@oshclub.com.au

A PLUS SCHOOLWEAR Our uniform supplier is A Plus Schoolwear which is located at 41-43 Northern Road Heidelberg West. Open hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s from 9am to 4.30pm (closed on weekend and public holidays).

They will be closed from Friday 18th December 2020 to 13th January 2021 for the annual Christmas break. From 13th January until the first week of February My Uniform will be open 5 days a week from 9am to 4.30pm.

You can also purchase your uniform online at www.aplusschoolwear.com.au