PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Friday 5th March, 2021

TERM DATES

• 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 - Wednesday 19th May to Friday 21st 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

MINISTERIAL VISIT We were very fortunate on Monday to have a visit from Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, Member for Mill Park and presently the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. She was at Assembly to present this year’s Sustainability Captain’s Badges to Amelie Bonaccorso, Ned Vimbalkar and Aranee Santhan. Her portfolio also includes being Minister for Solar Homes, and hopefully her attendance will inspire our captains to lead sustainable practices amongst their peers during 2021.

WELCOME KAREN BUTLER Our new Assistant Principal, Karen Butler, started at Viewbank on Monday and has settled in well to her new role. I am sure you will get the opportunity in time to say hello and make her feel welcome here.

PUPIL FREE DAY AND LABOR DAY HOLIDAY A final reminder that tomorrow is a pupil free day to allow staff to undertake professional development in Maths with Michael Ymer. With Monday also being a public holiday, we look forward to seeing all of our students bright and chirpy on Tuesday, March 9 which, coincidentally, is the final day for our school Review.

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING The first meeting of our new School Council is scheduled for 6.45pm on Tuesday, March 9. The slightly earlier start time is to allow for our election of Office Bearers meeting prior to our first formal meeting as the ‘new’ school council for 2021. The meeting will be held in the staffroom.

HOUSE ATHLETICS It has been a big start to the sporting calendar at Viewbank PS, with the House Athletics scheduled for Willinda Park, Greensborough on Friday, March 12. The PE department, headed by Sharon Groves and Kori Stuckey, have been working tirelessly throughout the term to coordinate and hold swimming events and now the athletics carnival which is always a logistical challenge, but has been coordinated beautifully so far. I look forward to attending on the day and seeing our students doing their personal best.

WORKING BEE One of the challenges of Covid is coordinating some practices and events that we have taken for granted in the past. At this stage we have flagged the weekend of the 13th and 14th March as our working bee weekend, with decisions to be made on whether we ‘zone’ areas for work, or timetable numbers in attendance in order to be covid-compliant and safe. Watch this space for further details in next week’s newsletter.

I hope everyone has a great ‘long’ weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Student Individual Learning Plans An Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is a document that establishes a set of learning goals and objectives for an individual student. ILPs are developed by teachers, students and parents to:

• support and actively engage the student in the learning process.
• build necessary skills and achieve success in various aspects of the curriculum.
• understand personal learning strengths in ways that enhance learning competence and confidence.

The ILP informs parents / guardians and students of progress and plans the future directions for learning.

Teachers are currently developing ILPs for selected students and these will be communicated with you in the coming weeks. When you receive your child’s ILP please review the goals and strategies and if you would like to provide any suggestions or feedback to the teacher, please email the school (Attn. Class teacher’s name) by the end of term 1.

Department of Education Parents and Carers page

Department of Education and Training’s Parents and Carers page provides practical information for all Victorian parents and cares. It covers Birth to Year 12 and provides advice on a range of topics including : behaviour, child development, health, children with additional needs, safety and services for parents and carers.

It can be accessed here: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/Pages/default.aspx

In the ‘School age’ section, there is a range of information available including:

• Going to school;
• Learning;
• Carer planning;
• Services;
• Behaviour;
• Child development;
• Students with additional needs;
• Safety; and
• Family health.

Each of these sections then addresses multiple areas in depth.

I strongly encourage you to take a look.

Teacher Professional Practice Days What are Professional Practice Days? As part of the Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2017, teachers receive one day per term when they are out of the classroom to focus on the improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning. Staff at Viewbank are currently taking their Term 1 Professional Practice Day.

What this means for your child: Your child’s teacher will spend one day each term further developing their skills in areas that are aligned to the school priorities. Your child will directly benefit from these improvements in their daily learning. On these days, an alternative teacher will be provided with the learning plan for the day and be well equipped to assist your child with their learning needs. We are scheduling the Professional Practice Days ahead of time so there is minimal impact to our students and, where possible, there is consistency in teaching. These days are on top of existing student-free days.

The work undertaken by teachers on these days will be consistent with Department and school priorities and selected from the following areas:

• planning
• preparation
• assessment of student learning
• collaboration
• curriculum development
• relevant professional development
• peer observation including feedback and reflection.

Extra Curricula Clubs We have a range of weekly extra curricula activities that students are invited to participate in. Some are free and others require parent payment. If your child wishes to join please encourage them to go along on the scheduled day or you may like to contact the school office or the classroom teacher to discuss participation.

Library Lunch Open Times 1:30pm to 2pm (See timetable below)

Have a wonderful long week,

Gill

Hello Viewbank Community As I walked into Viewbank Primary school on Monday I felt honoured and excited to join a great culture of education, community and united passion. I had the pleasure of visiting the classrooms to see the outstanding learning and student engagement that happens every day. I was thrilled to speak with the students and hear their thoughts and visions about their learning. I look forward to supporting the students and families over the next few months at Viewbank Primary School.

Swimming On Wednesday 3rd March, the following 16 students competed in the District Swimming Trials at Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre: Huy Ho, Jacob Clare, Tilly Carr, Matilda Parker, Asher Gualano, Abbey Lewis, Ishara Lewis, Bethany Cadusch, Brody Cameron, Callum McLauchlan, Zoe Ryan, Chloe Grigoropoulos, Eliza Coleman, Madison Ford, Anne Carpenter and Alexandra Palmer.

Mrs Groves and I were very proud to see Viewbank students showing respect and good sportsmanship at such an important event. Congratulations to all of our District Swimmers, a special mention to the following students that received ribbons on the day:

• Huy Ho 2nd place in under 11’s boys breaststroke
• Tilly Carr 3rd place in under 12/13 girls butterfly
• Jacob Clare 3rd place in under 11’s boys butterfly
• Abbey Lewis 3rd place in under 9/10’s backstroke
• Ishara Lewis 3rd place in under 11s girls backstroke.

EAL The EAL (English as An Additional Language) program is designed to support students in the initial stages of learning English. EAL classes are fun, interactive lessons where students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of English Language Experiences. This week some students from Foundation to Year 2 began their online EAL classes via Webex. The students were able to interact with Mrs Cleeve online and learn English through games and activities.

I look forward to another great week next week!

Karen

School Tours We will not be running any school tours in term 1 due to the current Covid guidelines. Detailed information about our school and enrolment process can be found on our website

Enrolments We are currently accepting enrolments for 2022 and are happy to assist with any queries.

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.

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.

Eftpos Machine The school no longer has an eftpos machine. All payments are to be made via Compass or the school's General Office.

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

PARENTS AND FRIENDS COMMITTEE MEETING Become more involved in your child's school by joining the Viewbank Primary School Parents and Friends Committee. We are a social group who enjoy a dinner out while planning fundraising and social events. This is a great way to make new friends and get involved.

We invite new members and new ideas. This committee is open to all parents and guardians, a warm welcome is extended to all.

Our Annual General Meeting of the Parents and Friends Committee will be held at school on Tuesday, March 9, commencing at 6.00pm for a 7.00pm finish in the staffroom. At this meeting we will conduct the election of office bearers, before handing over to the team to conduct our normal meeting.

If you are interested please just turn up on Tuesday night. If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact the Office on viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au or 9459-1512.

​​ICY POLE FRIDAY Students are able to purchase icy poles over the counter at lunchtime every Friday. All icy poles cost $1.00 each.

District Tennis Last Friday Bryce Cox and Aryan Dhawan represented Viewbank at the District Tennis Trials. Both boys did a wonderful job and played their best. Unfortunately neither made the team this time but we wish them all the best for their future tennis endeavours’.

Our Year 6 Students from our Defence Force Mentor Program decided to get behind Soldier On to help support our modern-day veterans and their families who have been impacted by their service by taking part in the March On with Soldier On – School Challenge.

What is the March On with Soldier On – School Challenge?

It is a fundraising campaign that pays tribute to the bravery and sacrifices made by our soldiers on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea in WW2. All of our Year 6 students today walked a symbolic 1km together around our school oval.

Our school thanks all of our Year 6 students and their families for getting behind Soldier On while we Marched On for Soldier On.

Art News Printing, painting and creating with acrylic paints in the Art Room this fortnight. Check out the wonderful colour and brush work of our talented Years 3-6.

Cybersafety sSessions Jayne Crossling is coming back to school (via MS Teams again) to run a couple more Parent Cybersafety sessions. They are the same as last time, so parents who attended last time do not need to attend again.

The details are below:

Cybersafety Sessions:

• Monday 29th March 7-8pm
• Tuesday 30th March 1.45-2.45pm

via: MS Teams (no account required)

A link will be sent out closer to the date to registered families.

RSVP: Please click here and fill out the Google Form.

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SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE - Every Friday 8:45am to 9:15am, next to the music room. Jumpers with the school logo, long and short sleeve school polo tops and school dresses will be $5.00 and all other items $2.00. We are currently asking for donations of any unwanted reusable school uniform items to sell at our stall.

Instrumental Music Enrolments 2021 Can all students who would like to join or continue to participate in our school instrumental music programs in 2021 please inform the relevant teacher below of your expression of interest.

SINGING WITH GABRIELLA - Gabriella

• Email: favrettogab@gmail.com
• Phone: 0413 676 733

STRINGS WITH MR CAI - Gabriella

• Email: favrettogab@gmail.com
• Phone: 0413 676 733

GUITAR/BASS GUITAR - Alec

• Email: alec.stalder@gmail.com
• Phone: 0422 690 842

PIANO/KEYBOARD - Ella

• Email: ellac.blackburn@gmail.com
• Phone: 0410 938 840

DRUMS - James

• Email: orangejimmy@gmail.com
• Phone: 0405 845 628

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).

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