• Saturday 14th November - School Fair

PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Two extra days yet to be confirmed in 2020

TERM DATES

• 2020 TERM 2: Tuesday 14th April - Friday 26th June (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 3: Monday 13th July - Friday 18th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)

CAMP DATES

• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp (Mon 27July to Wed 29July 2020)
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp (Tue 06Oct to Fri 09Oct 2020)

Another week almost down, and I trust that everyone is coming to terms better with the necessary arrangements for Term 2. It continues to be a hive of activity here with the Northern Classrooms ‘razed’ to the ground this week, and the tidy up completed by early next week to enable the earthworks and footings, and inground site services to be established over May. All things being equal our new buildings will be delivered to site and installed during the Queen’s Birthday ‘week’.

Naturally, we take our directions from the Premier and Education Minister, based on advice from the Chief Health Officer and I guess we are all waiting for the May 11 meeting to determine future directions. Until then, continued thanks to our school community (staff, parents and students) for your support and understanding in these difficult times.

School Council is scheduled to meet on May 12 remotely – the ‘platform’ of choice in the DET is WebEx, and we intend to have a ‘dummy’ run prior to the night to make sure our meeting is efficiently run. We are also working on putting together a presentation in lieu of a 2021 Information Night which will be made available on our website by the second week of May so please feel free to share that information with would be new families for next year.

The last piece of the puzzle will be a virtual tour, which we will also be working on soon – just need to find a Go-Pro.

Enjoy your weekend with families and please continue to be safe and avoid complacency.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

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School work in the time of COVID-19

I would like to remind you of the support website provided for families by the Department of Education and Training (DET) https://education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning.aspx in particular, the section on Screen time, Health and Wellbeing https://education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning-screentime-wellbeing.aspx.

There are also a number of useful pointers in this article “How to survive home schooling your kids”

https://www.racv.com.au/royalauto/living/at-home/home-school-remote-learning-tips.html. My one caveat to the article is in the title – you are supporting learning at home, not home schooling – these are two very different ‘beasts’: (3 minute read)

• Remember, you are not your child’s teacher…
• … but you are their parent
• Stick to a school routine
• Organise a learning space
• Take a break
• Make the most of the morning
• Remember that not all learning is formal
• Give kids some control
• Keep up their social contact
• Resist the urge to take over
• Everyone practise patience
• Accentuate the positives

Don’t forget our remote learning sections of our website:

Technology/Google classroom help here http://www.viewbankps.vic.edu.au/remote-learning

Parent and student wellbeing support here http://www.viewbankps.vic.edu.au/wellbeing

Your first port of call is the classroom/specialist teacher, if you have any other enquiries, please email the office at viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au.

We have a number of iPads available for loan to families who require them. Please send an email to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au requesting one of these. Please put ‘Device Required’ in the subject line. Please note, our devices are Wi-Fi only.

Have a great weekend everyone, stay dry!

Patrick

Hopefully everyone is beginning to feel more in control of remote learning. This week has felt calmer from our perspective and I hope that parents and carers are beginning to get their heads around Google Classroom. We have had a lot of positive feedback to lessons being released by 7.00am each day allowing for families to plan out the day ahead. It’s empowering to have a schedule and established routines in place.

I can’t thank our parents and carers enough for the wonderful support you are providing for our students while they are learning from home.

During the week, I asked the students in 4T to let me know what they felt about remote learning. Below are some of their responses and also a very clever news report ‘live’ from our demolition site.

Have a great week

Gill Nicholls

4T students reflecting on remote learning.

School is very different, it’s confusing and challenging. Even though we’re not spending recess with our friends or doing a hands on activity I’m still having fun, knowing that we’re all in this together. Online school lets you feel as though you’re having a normal day of school just without a teacher and students. Also it gives you a sense of creativity. We know that everyone is doing their best and on behalf of the year fours we thank you. - Ivy S

I am finding remote learning kind of boring. Lunch and recess breaks aren’t what they use to be and I kind of miss going to school because being at home is lonely and I’ll be excited to go back to school. I enjoy being inside and instead of going outside to play I get to play VIDEO GAMES with my friends. I also like that you can take a break whenever you want. It is challenging to concentrate and keep doing your work when you just want to play video games. I also find it challenging to do my work because you have no one to explain your work. The best part by a long shot is that you can do all your work at one time and then you have all the time to do whatever you want. It’s like when school finishes early. You also don't have a bed time because you don't have to get up to go to school. I miss my friends, being active and learning new things. - George S

This year in term 2, we had to start remote learning. The things I like about remote learning are: there is much distraction, more free time, you can get help faster – there is no line in front of my mum, there’s lots of fun things to do because you can’t take all your toys to school. I am really happy that you can still do lots of work at home and I can sleep in. The things I miss are: my friends, my teacher, the gigantic school yard and the variety of books in my tub. - Angus C

My remote learning experience has been fun and very enjoyable, I have been working great on my own. I usually understand all the tasks given to me but since Mum works in her office in the room next to me, she can always come and help me. Usually she comes in to take photos of my work so I can show my teacher online. I always write a comment to let Mrs Taylor know how I went with the task. Mum encourages that, she says otherwise teachers might feel like they’re sending work out into the ether. I only just discovered what ether means. Some bits have been challenging but mostly it’s fun and I feel like I’m learning. Plus, the fact that I’m around my family and pets makes me feel motivated and encouraged to learn. It helps to know that I can work at my own pace and choose what to start on. The best thing is that if I finish early, I can go out and play! I like to play with my rabbit, but I also like playing PlayStation and Minecraft on the PC with Dad. My work environment is my room upstairs on my desk. I keep it bright, it has my cool things and I love being in my room, it’s colourful and filled with books. I can also eat when I want to and feel safe in my own room. A huge bonus is that I can sleep in if I want because I don’t have to put on a uniform and I can brush my teeth after breakfast as my computer starts and I answer my teacher’s roll call on Google Classroom (really helpful website). I actually love school from home, even if there’s no friends here, because I really just work so much better in the peace and quiet with no one to talk/distract me. I think remote learning is fun and great to do to keep up every student’s education while we keep safe and healthy. - Essie F

Remote learning wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. It’s actually kind of challenging. It’s challenging because the teachers aren’t there in front of us to go through our work with us but I do like how if we do have questions we can ask the teachers through Google Classroom or Gmail. I’ve found it really fun being able to message or FaceTime my friends to ask them, “do you know what this means?” I guess it’s just a whole new way of learning, I’m sure it would be really hard for Mrs Taylor too, she has a family with 2 kids plus 24 children in her class.

The things I do enjoy about remote learning is that I can sleep in a bit longer and get to hang out in my room to do my work, I really like the interruptions of my little brother Thomas, he just wants to play because I’m home. He doesn’t know that I’m in ‘school’.

Hope we get back to school soon but this was definitely pretty cool, Mum doesn’t think so though. 😂 - Isabelle G

Grayson and Lucas Yr5 Reporting live from VPS

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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 anything from the school please call the office and a staff member will meet you at the gate at the top of the ramp on Lascelles Avenue.

Remote Learning Office Hours The new Remote Learning Office hours are from 9am to 3.30pm. To contact the school outside of these hours you may send an email to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au or leave a message on the answering machine.

Attendance On Compass Can all parents continue to mark any school absences on Compass as normal. This will allow the school to be aware of missed lessons.

Thank you and take care

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

Hi everybody!

This week we have decided to add a maths puzzle and a colouring in to the puzzles. If you attempted the puzzles last week you can check your answers below.

Hope you enjoy them!

Joel, Annabella, Phoebe and Luke

P.S Has everyone seen the footage of the building at school getting knocked down? It is amazing!!

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Answers to last week’s trickier puzzles!

Viewbank Art News Hello Viewbank Primary School artists!! Hopefully everyone is slowly getting used to learning from home – I know it is a bit challenging for all of us but I did come across a “fun fact” the other day that mentioned that some of the best art work, music compositions and scientific discoveries have come from periods of time not unlike what we are experiencing. So that is something positive! I’m definitely seeing some wonderful art being submitted by you all so each week I’ll put up a selection of your art in the Newsletter. This week I want to share some Leaf Art which was from Year 1 and 2. So keep being creative, keep learning and keep looking for rainbows! Best wishes from Mrs Cleeve

For those Parents and Students looking for new reading material while remote learning this term, Scholastic Book Club is available for online ordering and delivery to your home. Due to access restrictions to School, we can only offer the Home Delivery option, for an additional fee of $5.99.

Copy the link below and share https://scholastic.com.au/book-club/virtual-catalogue-1/

After accessing the online catalogue above, you can place your order using your Scholastic LOOP account or app.

It is recommended that orders for Issue 3 be placed no later than Wednesday 6th May.

Thank you for supporting our school.

PHONE NUMBER: 0448 075 422

EMAIL: viewbank@oshclub.com.au

Uniforms can be purchased online at www.aplusschoolwear.com.au with one of three delivery options:

• Free collection in store during trading hours
• Postage to address of customer’s choosing, at $12.50 for two items or less, or $17.50 for three items or more
• Free delivery to school, to an existing student at Viewbank Primary. Please note, this option is not available if the customer does not already have a student at the school