TERM 4 PARENT AND FRIENDS BAKERY LUNCH DAYS - All Term 4 dates are now open for ordering via Compass Canteen.

• Thursday 11th November (Orders closing on 8th November, 3:00pm)
• Thursday 25th November (Orders closing on 22nd November, 3:00pm)
• Thursday 9th December (Orders closing on 6th December, 3:00pm)

2021 TERM DATES

• Term 4: 4th October - 17th December (1:30pm finish)

2022 TERM DATES

• Term 1: 28th January (Students start 31 January) - 8th April (2:30pm finish)
• Term 2: 26th April - 24th June (2:30pm finish)
• Term 3: 11th July - 16th September (2:30pm finish)
• Term 4: 3rd October - 20th December (1:30pm finish)

2022 SCHOOL CAMP DATES

• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp - Monday 8th August to Wednesday 10th August
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp - Wednesday 18th May to Friday 20th May
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp - Tuesday 4th October to Friday 7th October
• Year 6: Canberra Camp - Monday 6th June to Friday 10th June

RETURN TO SCHOOL It was wonderful to have all our students back to school together this week, as life slowly returns to normal. We are used to referring to the ‘new’ normal, and for a while the new normal will mean no ‘mixing’ of classes, parents on site only via appointment and subject to vaccination requirements, assemblies limited to students only and outdoors and more. One further consequence of this ‘new’ normal is that for a while there may be certain circumstances where individuals or even classes are required to quarantine due to suspected or actual Covid cases. Our school will continue to support students in these circumstances providing packs of work to complete whilst these students remain off site. As mentioned in previous newsletters, other parents have indicated they will keep students home for other reasons, but this is parent choice and work will not be provided in this situation.

SCHOOL COUNCIL The November meeting of School Council is scheduled for next Tuesday night at 7pm via WebEx.

MASTER PLAN Our master plan is nearing completion and once endorsed and permission to share is granted by the VSBA, I will readily share it with the school community. As mentioned before, we hope to launch into actual building works during the middle of 2022.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR GRADE PLACEMENTS 2022 – CLOSING SOON! Each year at this time, we seek input from families with regards to the placement of students into classes for the following year (if that is necessary). We do recognise that there might be some limited circumstances initiating a parental grade request, but please think carefully about this and if you really do feel a need to inform us of these circumstances then do let us know.

At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year, and in fact still need to select a few teachers to fill those roles next year. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the development of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed. We have also not settled on a grade structure for 2022, with the possibility of one or two composite classes in the Grade 3 to 6 area of the school to keep class numbers down. Having said that, if there are special circumstances that we need to know about, you are welcome to let us know of these. Such special circumstances might include but are not limited to health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances, and if your request includes that information it will be denied. Information requiring our consideration needs to be addressed to ‘The Principal’ and emailed to the office by Friday, November 12. Please title the email “CONFIDENTIAL – GRADE REQUEST’. Please note that emails received after this date will NOT be accepted.

INTENTION TO LEAVE As mentioned in previous weeks, it would be extremely helpful to us that if any family is intending to leave our school community in 2022 because of relocation or other reason they advise us as soon as possible. A phone call to the office, or an email to the school or my email account asap would be most appreciated. Thank you to those who have already done this.

That’s it from me for this week. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. A bit of shopping perhaps!

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

I hope everyone was able to have a relaxing long weekend.

It is certainly great to have our students and staff back onsite and as the term progresses we look forward to actioning some of our Term 4 highlights.

Resilience Survey Project 2022 Resilience and wellbeing are key factors to ensure a happy and fulfilling future for our young people.

This year we have again chosen to partner with Resilient Youth Australia who have surveyed more than 350,000 Australian school students aged 8-18 over recent years.

We will administer the Resilience Survey this year online in class time between Monday 8 and Friday 19 November. Students typically take 20-25 minutes to complete the survey.

The data from the survey will be reported in aggregate descriptive form only, by year level and gender, and no individual student responses can be identified.

The Resilience Survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. The survey collects the self-reported resilience and wellbeing of students and will provide valuable information to assist us create and maintain the best culture of wellbeing and resilience that we can.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s participation in this survey project, please contact me.

Thank You to Our Amazing Teachers Last Friday was World Teachers’ Day and our School Captains Charlie and Austin presented a very thoughtful speech, on behalf of all Viewbank students, to acknowledge and thank our dedicated staff for all their hard work. I’d like to share their speech.

We are all here today to honour our amazing teaching staff on World Teachers’ Day! On behalf of all the students at Viewbank Primary School I would like to thank every one of you for all the support and care and extra hard work you put in to get us all through both normal and remote learning! You really deserve this morning tea and so much more because you somehow kept us going and kept us motivated. I pretty much grew up at this school and every single teacher I’ve ever had has helped me to strive to reach my full potential. Every teacher has inspired me to work hard and you have all encouraged me in every way possible, but there’s also been a lot of fun along the way. Personally, I have loved every minute I have been at this school. I think all the kids will agree that our teachers are absolutely the best - thank you all so much for everything you do for us, every single day!

You all might not know it but the kids in your classes think that you do a wonderful job teaching us all. Now hold on, I do have proof. We decided to interview the year one and year one and two classes. Here are the results.

1😭 0. 2☹️ 0. 3😕 9. 4🙂 13. 5😁 59.

Wow! 72.8395% to be exact, but just under 73% is incredible!

You guys should be so proud. We've got such great staff and teachers here at Viewbank, that I don’t even know how to explain it. Covid has hit hard and you all handled it so well. I was talking to mum the other day and I asked her, “If we had enough money to move my little brother to a private primary school, would you?” She said “no, Viewbank is better than any private school Charlie. You already know this, you’ve had some great teachers.” And my mum is a bit of a critic too.

You all really should be so proud. Teaching really is a hard job and you have nailed it. I think now I’m just rambling on about how amazing this school is, (which it is) and it would be a good time to wrap it up.

Let’s give you all a round of applause. Thanks for listening folks.

Stay safe and take care

Gill

Remote Learning: Limited Access

Access to school grounds is limited to:

• school staff
• students attending on-site learning
• contractors, including cleaners and maintenance workers
• outside-school-hours-care (OHSC) staff, enrolled children and their families.

If you need to collect or drop off anything at the school please call the office and a staff member will meet you at the main gate (Gate 1) on Nevin Parade.

Thank you for your understanding and stay safe.

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

Bakery Lunch Orders - Every Second Thursday - All Term 4 dates are now open for ordering via Compass Canteen.

• Thursday 11th November (Orders closing on 8th November, 3:00pm)
• Thursday 25th November (Orders closing on 22nd November, 3:00pm)
• Thursday 9th December (Orders closing on 6th December, 3:00pm)

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

Orders need to be placed in advance via Compass Canteen. Ordering will close the Monday before the lunch date at 3pm.

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. Due to COVID-19 Guidelines, this event has been cancelled until further notice.

CLASSROOM CUISINE provides lunch orders to our school on a MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and FRIDAYS. RESUMING MONDAY 8TH NOVEMBER

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 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