• Friday 11th June - Cadbury® Freddo & Friends Box Fundraiser Orders Due (Orders to be placed via Compass)
• Friday 11th June - Return to Onsite schooling
• Tuesday 15th June - School Council meeting, 7pm

TERM DATES

• 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 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp - Tuesday 5th October to Friday 8th October

TERM 2 PARENT AND FRIENDS BAKERY LUNCH DAYS - All Term 2 dates are now open for ordering via Compass Canteen

• Thursday 10th June (Orders closing on 7th June, 3:00pm) - Cancelled Due to Remote Learning
• Thursday 24th June (Orders closing on 21st June, 3:00pm)

Yet another week of uncertainty and reacting quickly to the changing landscape of lockdown. I had two versions of my newsletter ready to go out this week, and I would have preferred to use the other one, welcoming everyone back on site. I pray I can use it next week. For now …

REMOTE LEARNING - EXTENSION I trust that we were all able to move quite rapidly back into the remote learning regime on Monday, having been there a number of times before! We were able to have our learning plans in place, devices loaned and onsite learning applications processed within 24 hours of the ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown having been announced which was a great effort by all concerned. Thank you once again to a wonderfully supportive and flexible school community. As you are very much aware, yesterday’s announcements mean an extra week of lockdown – I sent a Compass message yesterday evening detailing the impacts on our school and any changed arrangements for the next week. Please make yourself familiar with this message and the details contained within. The information should hopefully be on our website by the time you read this newsletter.

SCHOOL COUNCIL The next scheduled meeting of School Council is set down for Tuesday week, June 15, commencing at 7pm. At this stage, we are unsure whether this will be an onsite or WebEx meeting and naturally all Councillors will be advised as soon as we have direction on this. At this stage, I suspect it is wise to plan for a WebEx.

SOLAR PANELS Like lockdown 2020, we happened to have a building project occurring on site during lockdown, with the installation of our solar panels on the roof of the gymnasium being completed earlier this week. We hope and expect to pocket some significant savings on our energy bills in upcoming years whilst using a more environmentally friendly source of energy production. It will be interesting to see how much we contribute ‘to the grid’ over upcoming months.

That’s it from me this week. Take care, take heed of all public health safety messages and take time to read Gill’s newsletter piece on attending to our mental health. Hopefully, we will be back to the new ‘normal’ this time next week and on site.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Remote Learning Thank you to our school community for the positive and supportive way you have transitioned to Remote Learning. We thank you for your patience, your willingness to adopt new procedures and the support and encouragement you are giving your children each day.

I’m sure many families are continuing to find their way and navigate the best way forward for Remote Learning at home. There is certainly no ‘correct’ way so please go with what feels right and be kind to yourselves. Not every lesson will be successful and technology will certainly throw up unexpected challenges but all we ask is that you do your best.

Remember, please be kind to yourself and look after your wellbeing.

Below is some advice provided by the Department for Parents and Carers.

Taking care of yourself Looking after your own wellbeing and mental and physical health is important. Sometimes it can be hard to do, but as much as possible try to:

• remind yourself that no one is perfect and that you are doing the best you can
• eat well and drink plenty of water
• get enough sleep
• make time every day to do something that you enjoy
• ask for help from family, friends, your GP or a counsellor.

If looking after yourself is challenging and you have concerns about how you are coping, support is available. Talk to someone you trust, contact your general practitioner (GP), a counsellor or psychologist or visit a hospital emergency department.

There are a range of services you can access for advice and support:

• Parentline - a phone service for parents and carers of children from birth to 18 years old. Offers confidential and anonymous counselling and support for parenting issues.
• Raising Children’s Network: parent mental health – offers advice and support on looking after yourself, healthy relationships, conflict management, dealing with stress and anxiety, anger management and helping children adjust to family breakdown.
• Better Health Channel’s Self-Care – provides self-care strategies, connecting with others, being kind to yourself, relationship support, seeking mental health support.
• Lifeline – a national organisation providing all Australian's experiencing a personal crisis with access to 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention strategies.
• Beyond Blue – offers confidential one on one calls and chats with a trained mental health professional and tools and resources to look after your mental health.
• Black Dog Institute - provides self-tools and apps, advice on when and where to seek help, information on mental health conditions and support groups.

Additional information There are support services available to support your whole family. For more information, visit:

• Beyond Blue: Healthy families - offers information to support the young people in your life – whether you’re a parent or carer or another family member.
• ReachOut: Parents coaching - offers free online coaching to parents and carers of teenagers. If you’re worried about your relationship with your teenage child, or worried about your child’s wellbeing or behaviour, coaching can give you strategies to help.
• ReachOut: Relationships for families- information on how to deal with conflict and resolve family issues.
• Raising Children Network: Building good parent-child relationships – offers information on why good parent-child relationships are important and guidance on building positive and caring parent-child relationships.

Stay safe and have a great week.

Gill

Japanese Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a Japanese lesson that focussed on pets that students had at home. The students used a variety of language skills to describe the features of their pets. When talking to the students, they were able to describe the colours and types of pets. I was overwhelmed by the students’ overall skill levels; they worked collaboratively to describe and create interesting sentences. The students were even able to present their descriptions to their peers. Fantastic work 1/2G!

Our Amazing Staff Preparing Students For Remote Learning On Thursday 27th May, it was announced from the Acting Premier that Victoria would go into a 7-day COVID-19 lockdown. The staff at Viewbank went quickly into action to implement and plan for remote learning. Teachers worked to modify plans, set up Google Classrooms, print learning packs and ensure students would have the resources they needed for home learning. It was an honour to witness and listen to the professionalism of the staff as they supported students, parents and their colleagues.

Student Success During Remote Learning During remote learning, the Viewbank community has shown incredible collaboration and communication between families and their teachers. Congratulations to all our families for displaying persistence and optimism with remote learning. Similar to onsite teaching, remote teaching comes with its own challenges and unique situations such as technology issues, which has been pleasing to see families work to overcome these. Viewbank students have had regular online daily meetings via WebEx, with students submitting tasks online. These WebEx meetings have been incredibly beneficial, with students being excited to see their teachers and friends, as well as learn new ICT skills. Congratulations to the amazing effort of our students and parents over the week! Fingers crossed we are able to have students back for on-site learning ASAP.

Have a great week!

Karen Butler

Postponed Events Postponed events due to lockdown, new dates will be advised via Compass once confirmed:

• Year 2 Bundoora Farm Excursion – 01Jun
• Year 4 Linked Incursion – 08/09Jun

Bakery Lunch Orders Due to the current COVID guideline the planned Bakery Lunch Order day on Thursday 10th of June has been cancelled. All orders that had been placed have been cancelled, with the money returned to your Compass Wallet. Funds are not refunded back into your bank account.

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

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

VBPS - CADBURY® FREDDO & FRIENDS BOX FUNDRAISER As part of our plan to improve Viewbank Primary School we will be running a fantastic Cadbury® Fundraiser Drive in June.

We are pleased to announce that for this drive we have CADBURY® FREDDO & FRIENDS BOX for sale. Selling for 50 cents an item ($60 per box), this represents excellent value to the buyer and our profits will go towards making improvements around our school.

Fundraising activities such as this make a vital contribution towards improving our facilities for the benefit of our children. In anticipation of a successful fundraising drive, we thank you for your support.

Chocolates can be purchased or donations made via the Course Confirmation and Payments section on Compass. If you wish to participate in this fundraising activity please place your order before Friday 11th June, 2021.

Chocolate boxes will only be provided to families who have paid before the due date.

Purchased chocolates will be sent home with the children during the last week of Term 2.

Bakery Lunch Orders - Every 2nd Thursday during Term 2, 2021

Lower Plenty Bakehouse will be to providing the school with fundraising Lunch Orders every second Thursday during Term 2. These lunches will be implemented via our Parents and Friends Committee and all money raised will be used towards our major school oval upgrade.

Our Term 2 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates are:

• Thursday 10th June (Orders closing on 7th June, 3:00pm) - CANCELLED
• Thursday 24th June (Orders closing on 21st June, 3:00pm)

Orders need to be placed in advance via Compass Canteen. Ordering will close the Monday before the lunch date at 3pm. All of Term 2 Lunch dates are now open and ordering is able to be placed in advance for the whole term if you choose to do so.

Please see attached a Parent User Guide on how to order via Compass Canteen. Please note a 35 cents order fee will be charged at check out.

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

CLASSROOM CUISINE provides lunch orders to our school on a MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and FRIDAYS.

Lunches must be ordered online using the CLASSROOM CUISINE website.

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.

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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 Can all students who would like to join our school instrumental music programs in 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