• Friday 26th March - Parents & Friends, Easter Raffle and Bakery Lunch Orders due by today
• Monday 29th March - Parents & Friends, Easter Raffle to be drawn
• Monday 29th March - Cybersafety sSessions, 7pm
• Tuesday 30th March - Cybersafety sSessions, 1:45pm
• Thursday 1st April - Parents & Friends Bakery Lunch Day
• Thursday 1st April - Last day of Term 1, 2:30pm dismissal
• Monday 19th April - First Day of Term 2

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: Coonawarra Farm Resort Camp - Monday 17th May to Friday 21th May

END OF TERM – EARLY DISMISSAL As is customary, Term 1 ends at the slightly earlier time of 2.30pm on Thursday, April 1. Because of Covid safety plans, we will NOT be having an assembly to mark the end of term, and so students will be dismissed from classrooms at 2.30pm.

SCHOOL COUNCIL An extraordinary meeting of School Council will be held via Webex at 6.30pm on Monday, March 29 for the purposes of tabling and approving our Annual Report of 2020. The meeting is expected to be very brief. The Annual Report will then be made available to our school community via the website and Compass.

BADGE PRESENTATIONS Many thanks to Lauren Pearce (Melbourne FC) and Bailey Hunt (Western Bulldogs FC) who both attended a special badge presentation ceremony on Friday, March 19, to present house captain badges for 2021. Monday’s assembly saw Lachlan Sutherland, assistant Curator at Montsalvat, present the Visual Arts Captains badges. Due to the wetness of the Tiger Turf, the JSC badges could not be presented to Semester 1 leaders in Foundation to 2. We will hold a special assembly at 3.10pm on Friday to present these, as well as Student Of The Week certificates for students in the younger grades. Next Monday’s assembly sees the presentation of Green Team badges, as well as the presentation of the Japanese captains badges.

COVID HYGIENE STRATEGIES At our school we continue to insist on the use of hand sanitiser in all areas of the school, after all breaks, and as frequently as possible. We continue to advise that at the first sign of symptoms such as runny nose and sore throat, that students and staff remain home and go and get tested. Whilst Australia’s current successes are well known, and considerable in comparison to the rest of the world, complacency and a lack of diligence are our worst enemies and it is important to keep up the safeguards that have so far protected us.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Bullying, No Way! Thank you for supporting the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence on Friday. Students participated in age appropriate activities on the day learning about what bullying is, what it may look like and what students can do if they witness bullying or if someone is bullying them. Many of the activities were about giving students strategies (voice and agency) to act.

Bullying Facts

• Approximately one in four Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students (27%) report being bullied every few weeks or more often (considered to be frequent) during the last term at school.
• Frequent school bullying was highest among Year 5 (32%) and Year 8 (29%) students.
• 83% of students who bully others online, also bully others offline.
• 84% of students who were bullied online were also bullied offline.
• Peers are present as onlookers in 85% of bullying interactions, and play a central role in the bullying process.
• Hurtful teasing was the most prevalent of all bullying behaviours experienced by students, followed by having hurtful lies told about them.
• Cyberbullying appears to be related to age (or access to technology), with older students more likely to engage in cyberbullying than younger students.

(Source: Cross, D., Shaw, T., Hearn, L., Epstein, M., Monks, H., Lester, L., & Thomas, L. 2009. Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (ACBPS). Child Health Promotion Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth).

The following Primary School Fact sheet may assist you or your child to have open conversation about this topic.

Thank you to those parent who participated in The Resilience Project Zoom session on Tuesday evening. If you could not make the event the following link is a recording and will be available until April 8.

Last week I let you know about The Resilience Project’s new initiative PROJECT+

The link for the Parent/Carer Support page did not allow access so I will download each issue and included them in the newsletter.

Have a great week

Gill

Foundation Students Attending Full Time The Foundation students have made a successful transition to school in 2021. Our Foundation students are now attending school full time and are continuing to learn the routines and processes related to school. Our Foundation teachers have had an opportunity to work individually with their students to test and review their understanding in both Literacy and Numeracy.

Planning Week This week, the staff have had an opportunity to work together to plan and organise teaching and learning activities for Term 2. Each teaching level has engaged in a ‘Planning Day’ where they could carefully plan specific learning opportunities for the Mathematics, Literacy and Inquiry units. During each year level’s Planning Day, the students engage in a variety of specialist sessions. Thank you to the teachers at Viewbank for creating and delivering an engaging curriculum.

Supporting Reading At Home Developing a love of reading can help to develop confident and capable readers later in life. As we are creeping closer to the holidays, a common question educators are asked is how parents can help with reading at home. I am sharing some links from the the Department of Education that have some helpful suggestions for how to read together, help your child work out difficult words, as well as have a ‘book chat’, a series of great questions that you could ask your child before, during or after reading.

Physical Education This week some of the Year 5’s played Numbers Basketball during their ‘Invasion Games’ unit. Invasion Games involve teams scoring by invading their opponents’ territory whilst working as a team to attack, defend and strategize within an allocated time. Invasion sports include basketball, football, netball and hockey. Well done Year 5’s, it is great to see you improving your skills in Physical Education.

Have a great week.

Karen Butler

OSHClub (Outside School Hours Care) Please be aware that if your child is not registered with OSHClub they will be unable to access the program in an emergency. Therefore it is highly recommend that you register your child/ren for OSHClub in case you may need it one day.

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

Bakery Lunch Orders Are Back!!! - Thursday 1st April, 2021

The Viewbank Primary School Council has approved for the Lower Plenty Bakehouse to provide the school with 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.

Our first Bakery Lunch order day will be the last day of Term 1, Thursday 1st April. Orders need to be placed in advance via Compass Canteen.

Orders will close on Friday 26th March, 2021.

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.

​2021 VIEWBANK PRIMARY SCHOOL EASTER RAFFLE

$1.00 per raffle ticket, great prizes to be won!! Please return all sold tickets to school by Friday 26th March, 2021. Raffle to be drawn on Monday 29th March, 2021. Please ensure name and phone number are clearly written onto all sold tickets.

All money raised will be going towards our schools fundraising oval upgrade project.

Thank you for your support.

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

Friday the 19th of March was the National Day for the Action Against Bullying. Students signed a pledge to stand up to bullying which was displayed in the yard. Students also completed activities in their classrooms and wore a ‘touch’ of Orange. It was a great day.

ART CAPTAIN BADGE PRESENTATION Our Art Captains received their badges at assembly on Monday. Thank you to the parents of each of our art captains (Ashlie Richter, Madeleine Jeannot and Emily Nelson) for attending and special thanks to Lachlan Sutherland, Art Curator at Montsalvat, for finding the time to make the presentations.

Lachlan spoke about Montsalvat in Eltham and it’s place in the community and in the world of Art.

Cybersafety sSessions Jayne Crossling is coming back to school (via MS Teams again) to run a couple more Parent Cybersafety sessions. They are the same as last time, so parents who attended last time do not need to attend again.

The details are below:

Cybersafety Sessions:

• Monday 29th March 7-8pm
• Tuesday 30th March 1.45-2.45pm

via: MS Teams (no account required)

A link will be sent out closer to the date to registered families.

RSVP: Please click here and fill out the Google Form.

2021 ANZAC Appeal badges can be purchased from the school's general office, ranging from $1 to $10.

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.

Library Lunch Open Times 1:30pm to 2pm (See timetable below)

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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