Thursday May 10 - School Finance Meeting 6:30pm, School Council Meeting 7:30pm
Thursday May 17 - Special Lunch Day (Sushi)
Friday May 25 - Fundraising Children's Disco (evening event at Viewbank Primary School)
Wednesday June 6 - A parent training workshop on entering absences will held in the staff room, 3pm.
Monday June 11 - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday
Tuesday June 12 - Pupil Free Day
Wednesday June 27 - Variations to hours day, 3 Way Conferences 11am to 7pm
UPCOMING TRANSITION DATES* — May Information Night: Thursday 3 May 7-8pm, Education Week Open Day: Tuesday 22 May 9.30-3pm, Education Week Open Morning: Saturday 26 May 9am-12pm *Full Transition timeline available below
Annual Working Bees — Saturday May 26 (Term 2), Saturday August 11 (Term 3), Saturday November 3 (Term 4)
PUPIL FREE DAYS — Tuesday June 12, Monday December 17
TERM DATES — TERM 2: Monday 16 April - Friday 29 June, TERM 3: Monday 16 July - Friday 21 September, TERM 4: Monday 8 October - Friday 21 December
CAMP DATES — Year 6 Canberra Camp 14 - 18 May, Year 4 Anglesea Camp 30 May - 1 June, Year 5 Lady Northcote Camp 9 - 12 October, Year 3 Urban Camp 10 - 12 December.
GRADE 3 TO 6 CROSS COUNTRY Congratulations to all students who participated in Monday’s Cross Country at Price Park. The windy conditions made life a little more difficult than normal, so it was a fine effort to complete the 2 or 3 kilometre event. Many thanks to Blair Morton for his meticulous organisation, and to his loyal band of helpers (staff and parents) for ensuring the event went ahead smoothly.
SCHOOL COUNCIL The May meeting of School Council is scheduled for this evening (Thursday, May 10), under the direction of our new SC President (Kate Ryan) and Vice President (Rebecca Deighton). The meeting commences at 7.30pm in the staffroom. The Finance Committee meets at 6.30pm in the Principal’s Office.
NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The tests cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. The assessments are undertaken every year in the second full week in May. Therefore NAPLAN will be undertaken next week from Tuesday, May 15- Thursday May 17 inclusive. NAPLAN 2018 results will be provided to schools from mid-August to mid-September.
ADVANCE NOTICE Please don’t forget that we have an Education Week Open Day on Tuesday, May 22 from 9.30am-3.00pm. All welcome. I don’t need to remind you of the student disco on Friday, May 25. Your children will be doing that constantly.
CANBERRA The bus departs for Canberra next Monday at 6.30am. I know everyone is looking forward to the early start. Seriously, it is an amazing camp and a highlight of seven years of education at our school. We also have the Grade 4 Anglesea camp commencing on Wednesday, May 30, so it’s a busy month all round.
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
BUILDING A STRONG HOME/SCHOOL PARNERSHIP This week I would like to share some excellent resources that are available online for parents to further develop and support their child’s learning and wellbeing.
LEARNING POTENTIAL RESOURCES – Australian Government The Learning Potential Resources website offers a range of fun and engaging literacy and numeracy activities for parents to support their children in the work they are doing in the classroom. All of the resources are tablet-friendly, free to use and easy to access. They have been designed for parents and families of children in Foundation to Year 6.
STUDENT WELLBEING HUB It seems we hear the word ‘literacy’ added to a growing list of terms each year. Whether emotional, digital, visual, financial, physical or any other, what links all of these literacies is the concept of wellbeing. It is easy to see that someone with the knowledge, skills and competencies to operate successfully in specific fields would have well-honed skills of resilience, a sense of self-worth, and high levels of wellbeing. The Student Wellbeing Hub has many great ideas for building the foundations of students’ social and emotional literacy skills. The hub contains portals for educators, parents and students.
Parents Portal Parents will find information and resources about important topics to help their child have a safe and positive experience at school.
Student Portal – Primary Students can find some great age appropriate resources here to help them keep safe, and happy, fit and healthy at school. Choose the correct year level to get started.
FAMILY MATHS NIGHT Thank you to all the families who kindly donated at the Family Maths Night. Through your generosity, we raised $178.00 which will be used to purchase additional mathematics equipment for our students. A photo display from the night can be found on the display board across from Mr Kersing’s office.
SECOND HAND UNIFORM SALE A sale of second hand school uniforms will be held during the School Working Bee on Saturday 26th May between 9.00-10.30am. School jumpers with the logo, school dresses and Year 6 polo tops are $5.00 and all other items are $2.00. All items have been washed.
Have a great week
Gill Nicholls
STUDENT ABSENCES If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify the school before 9am on the day of their absence via Compass. Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility.
Why do I need to notify the school if my child is absent? Schools need to know when and why a child is absent and you need to know if your child isn’t at school. From the end of Term 2 2018, all Victorian government schools are required to contact parents/carers as soon as practicable on the same day of an unexplained student absence. If your child is absent on a particular day and you have not contacted the school to explain why, the absence will be marked as unexplained. This system also promotes daily school attendance. Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education, they learn new things every day – missing school puts them behind.
What is your responsibility? You are legally required to ensure your child attends school every day or you must provide an explanation for their absence. You should let the school know in advance of any upcoming absences or let them know in the morning if your child won’t be at school. In order for schools to implement the same day notification requirement, it’s essential that you provide the school with your most up-to-date contact details.
Please ask the office if you require any further assistance in entering your child's absences on Compass. A parent training workshop on entering absences will also be held in the staff room on Wednesday 6th June at 3pm.
Kind regards
Lucy Addati
MOTHER'S DAY STALL This years Mother’s Day Stall was held on Friday 4th of May, 2018. Children who have an IOU can collected them from the office this week. Thank you to all of the parent helpers who supported the day with the setup, selling of gifts and packing up the stall.
ENTERTAINMENT BOOK AND DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP Purchase your Entertainment Membership NOW to help Viewbank Primary School raise much needed funds! Viewbank Primary School are again fundraising with the very popular Entertainment Book or Digital Membership. You'll receive hundreds of valuable offers for everything you love to do, and help our fundraising at the same time. Hurry, Entertainment Memberships sell out quickly.
ICY POLE FRIDAY Students are able to buy icy poles over the counter at lunchtime. All icy poles cost $1.00 each. We are asking for parent helpers to assist with the sale of these icy poles on Fridays from 1pm to 1:30pm.
BOOK CLUB All items from Book Club Issue 3 have now been delivered. If you have not yet received your order, please contact Louise Buissink at the Library by Friday 19th May. I will not be able to follow up missing items after this date. Issue 4 catalogues will be sent home in 2 weeks. Every dollar you spend earns points to buy more books for the Library. Thank you for your support.
YEAR 6 CAMP PARLIAMENT AND CIVICS EDUCATION REBATE Students from our school will soon be undertaking, an education tour of the national capital. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy. The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the camp.
CRAFT/CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS Dear Parents/Guardians, The Year 3 students will soon be participating in an Inquiry unit about sustainable design. In our ‘Tuning In’ stage, students will be constructing creations using different materials. We are asking for donations of craft/construction materials for the students to work with. This can be anything from yarns and fabric, to boxes and clean recyclable plastic, to fastening materials like split pins. For safety reasons, we will not be accepting or working with tools or hardware during this task. If you have item/s you wish to donate, please drop them in to any of the Year 3 classroom teachers by Friday 18th May. We thank you for your ongoing support! Year 3 team
THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE The Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge (VPRC) has commenced for this year. Registration forms are available on Compass and from the Office. Students in Foundation to Year 2 are required to read 30 books (20 from the Challenge list) and students in Year 3 - 6 are required to read 15 books (10 or more from the Challenge list). The Challenge finishes on the 7th September so there is plenty of time to meet the Challenge. Successful students will have their names published in Honour Roll on the Challenge website and will be issued with a certificate in early December. Are you up to the Challenge?
Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Government assisted ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions. Applications for the Governments ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ can be accessed by filling out the form available on Compass, at the office or via the link below. To be eligible for this funding, you need to hold a current Pension or Health Care Card. Please note: as this funding is means tested, the Parent/Guardian MUST be the card holder, no Medical Health Care Cards in the student’s name will be accepted as it will be rejected by the CSEF system. Funds will be automatically allocated to the Term Expenses unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.
TRANSITION DATES Please download the below timeline for your future reference.
HATS ON From 1st September until 30th April school hats must be worn outside during all outside activities.
Hi Viewbank Parents and Families, Viewbank OSHClub has had a big first few weeks of Term 2. We introduced our new Child Care Management System which requires signing in and out on our new Ipads. It also means that we are no longer using Fully Booked. If you were enrolled with OSHClub you should have received a email with a link that will take you to the new IParent Portal where you can make bookings and updates to enrolments. The OSHCLub Team will do their best to support any enquiries that you might have but please bear with us as we are also learning the new system as well. This weeks goal is to show our Mum's love and appreciation as it is Mothers Day on Sunday. Some of the activities that we will be running are: Mothers Day Painting, Lego Challenges, Make Mothers Day Cookies, Make Cloud Dough and many more. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to come and have a chat with the OSHClub team. Many thanks, The Viewbank OSHClub Team, Taryn Fletcher