• Tuesday 23rd February, 2021 - School Photo Day (MSP Photography)

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

SCHOOL REVIEW All schools must participate in a school review every 4 years to provide assurance of ongoing compliance with the minimum requirements for school registration, and to inform the development of their four year School Strategic Plan (SSP). Next week we will be undertaking such a review – on Tuesday, February 16 and Thursday, February 18 in particular. The Review Panel consists of an external reviewer, appointed by the Department of Education and Training (DET) – Brian Mills; two practising Principals from other schools who fulfil roles as Challenge Partners – Cheryl Bondeson (Preston West PS) and Jeffrey Jackson (Rosanna PS); our Senior Education Improvement Leader (S.E.I.L.) – Stewart Milner; our School Council President (Ian Sherlock); as well as our school’s Principal Class members (Bill Kersing, Gillian Nicholls and Patrick Walsh), Leading Teacher (Jane McLeod) and Learning Specialists (Jamie Ruddock, Sandy Farley and Phillip Byrne). Other staff will participate in the Review as well as focus groups of students and parents.

As a result of the review, our next Strategic Plan will be formulated for the period 2021-2024. We will keep you updated with regular information as we work our way through this important process.

SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS A reminder that the closing date and time for nominations for School Council, in either category (parents or school employee member) is Monday, February 15 at 4.00pm.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU INTERVIEWS I trust that you have or will avail yourselves of the opportunity for attendance at a ‘Getting To Know You’ interview this week. These first interviews always serve a valuable purpose in sharing relevant information to make the new school year transition as seamless as possible.

SWIMMING TRIALS These went perfectly on Monday at Watermarc pool, with the P.E. Department (Sharon Groves and Kori Stuckey) working closely with our ‘outgoing’ Assistant Principal (Patrick Walsh) and other staff to trial students in various events for the District event on February 25. We can be grateful that, despite the inability to have parent spectators in these Covid-normal times, our students still had the opportunity to perform and compete. Many thanks to all for making these possible and well done to all students!

DOGS IN THE SCHOOL YARD There have been a few occasions in recent weeks where parents, innocently or not, have brought dogs into the school grounds. This is a courteous reminder that we have an ongoing school rule that dogs are not permitted in the schoolgrounds. Thank you.

FAREWELL FOR NOW We bid our Assistant Principal, Patrick Walsh, farewell next Thursday as he takes up the Acting Principal role at Research Primary School until the end of term 3. Whilst we fully support this career opportunity, nonetheless we will miss you Patrick! Patrick, as you will be aware, is an extremely hard-working, respectful and dedicated staff member. Thanks for everything you have done for our school, Patrick, (so far), and we look forward to your return in Term 4.

Have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Policy Review and Feedback The Fundraising Policy is now available for community consultation. Please take the time to read this policy and if you have any feedback or comments please email the school (attn. Mrs Nicholls) by Friday February 26. Once finalised and ratified by School Council, this policy will be added to our school website.

All policy documents as well as the Child Safe Standards on the school website have now been updated.

Have a great week,

Gill

Parent Thank You Email Thank you to the parents who provided the below email to the school. We expect so much of our students, we sometimes forget what outstanding young people they are – a credit to themselves, you, and our staff. It is great to see our school values in action!

Just a quick note to let you know how grateful our family is to the caring older children at Viewbank. On his first lunch break our little prep became overwhelmed when he couldn't find a friend or a teacher. He was not only spotted and cared for by two older children, but they went and got his teacher for him as well. The kindness and problem solving shown by these older children has had a big impact here and I think it's important they receive the feedback they deserve. Thank you big kids!

Child Safety Briefing – School Council One of the critical actions in the Child Safety Standards (Child Safe Standard 6: Strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse) is to provide a yearly briefing to the School Council. This was done at our School Council meeting on Tuesday evening. The DET provided presentation can be viewed here:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/programs/health/protect/school-council-training.pptx. We strongly encourage you to view this as it outlines the school’s legal obligations, as well as that of the School Council. *Please note, case studies are discussed that may cause distress.

Other resources

DET’s Child Protection Portal: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/childprotection/Pages/default.aspx

Follow these links for information on:

• Understanding the Child Safe Standards
• Identify child abuse
• Your reporting and legal obligations
• Report child abuse: the four critical actions
• Child Safe Standards: Creating a safe environment
• Identify and respond to student sexual offending
• Respond to child sexual exploitation and grooming
• Privacy and information sharing
• Responding to other concerns about the wellbeing of a child
• Online learning for schools
• Child protection in early childhood

Child Protection for Parents: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/safety/Pages/child-protection.aspx

You can find all Viewbank Primary School’s child safe polices, and related documents, here http://www.viewbankps.vic.edu.au/forms-policies

Thank You And Farewell – For Now As Mr Kersing has mentioned above, this is my last newsletter before I take up the Principal (acting) role at Research Primary School on Thursday the 18th February. This is a fabulous opportunity for me to ‘dip my toe’ into a principal role, and I am grateful to the support that Bill and Gill have given me to explore this next step. I am very excited about what lies ahead, but I will miss the Viewbank vibe that is so strongly influenced by the students, staff, parents and broader community. That said, all things being equal, I will see you all again in October!

Have a great weekend, and middle of the year, everyone!

Patrick

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.

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

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

Swimming Trials On Monday 72 students from years 3-6 attended the Viewbank Swimming trials. It was fantastic to not only see all students giving it their all in the water, but also cheering each other on and encouraging one another to trial for extra events. The Viewbank spirit was truly alive!

A big shout out to Patrick Wash, Kori Stuckey, Jane McLeod, Michael Betson, Kate Ryan, Rebecca O’Mahony and Neralie Cadusch who made the day run like a well-oiled machine. Congratulations to all for a wonderful day!

BOOK CLUB Issue 1 catalogues have sent home this week. All orders are due by Wednesday 17th of February. Every dollar you spend earns points to buy more books for the Library. Thank you for your support.

Art News For the first week's back in the Art Room our source of inspiration was the summer abundance of insects. We created small studies of these small creatures but still individuality in the artworks was apparent. Please enjoy these wonderful examples of some of the students’ observational drawings…

A request for newspaper: In the Art Room we are going to create 3D masterpieces as our next unit of work for the Years 3-6. We have everything we need except for newspaper. Any donations of this once plentiful resource will be gratefully received in the Art Room. Thank you from Mrs May and Years 3-6.

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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