TERM DATES

• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)
• 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 - Monday 17th May to Wednesday 19th 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 CAPTAINS It gives me great pleasure to announce the Viewbank Primary School Captains for 2021:-

• GIRLS - Charlie HEMINGWAY (Captain), Bethany CADUSCH (Vice Captain)
• BOYS - Austin IREDALE (Captain), Jess XU (Vice Captain)

We are certain these fine young students will continue to be great representatives for our school and excellent role models for their peers. We were genuinely spoiled for choice!!

PARENT SURVEY Next week a very localised parent survey will be distributed to our school community. Different to the DET survey, the questions posed will be relevant to our School Review which is taking place in term 1, 2021 as well as helping us frame some decisions on a range of matters moving forward. We would love to hear from you in terms of what we are doing well, as well as improvement areas, and feel free to answer anonymously or put your name to your response.

FOUNDATION 2021 VIRTUAL INFORMATION NIGHT Many thanks to our staff, especially the Foundation Team, for putting together our virtual information night for 2021. This goes ‘live’ on Thursday evening, November 26. We have been permitted to run Transition sessions (Kindergarten to Foundation) all week, and whilst it isn’t quite how we have run these sessions in the past, it has certainly been a great opportunity for our 88 ‘new’ Foundation students to ‘see’ their new school for the first time!

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING The final School Council meeting for 2020 is scheduled for Tuesday, December 1 commencing at 7pm. All things being equal, we hope to have this meeting onsite!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and looking forward to very positive announcements from the Premier on Sunday.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

Online Safety Parent WebEx Sessions The online world is ever changing and it is sometimes difficult to stay up with the latest developments and ahead of our children.

In order to assist parents to gain a greater understanding we have arranged two PARENT ONLY WebEx sessions led by Detective Superintendent Jayne Crossling from the AFP, who has a wealth of knowledge in this area.

These sessions are open to all parents but we would like to strongly encourage the parents and carers of our current Grade 4 students to attend one of the virtual information sessions about online safety before your child participates in the school 1:1 iPad program.

Our 1:1 iPad program is for all Grade 5 and 6 students and we highly recommend that parents attend one of the online sessions to learn a little bit more about what you can do to keep your child/ren safe online.

More information will be distributed closer to the time, please keep the date free in your diary.

• Tuesday 1st December - 7.30pm via WebEx
• Thursday 3rd December - 1.30pm via WebEx

Many thanks to Nat Carr and Angela Roccasalva for organising these sessions.

Student Artwork This term I have been so lucky to have a steady stream of visitors to my office proudly sharing their wonderful work.

These lovely collages were designed by Ahmed and Georgia in FE. Thank you!

Have a lovely week,

Gill

The Resilient Youth Survey In 2021, we are continuing our partnership with The Resilience Project. You will have noticed this as an item on the 2021 Parent Payment Charges, sent last week. This includes a parent Webinar to be held on Tuesday 23rd March – please add this to your diaries!

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

The Resilience Project has partnered with Resilient Youth Australia who have surveyed more than 350,000 Australian school students aged 8-18 over recent years.

As part of our ongoing commitment to The Resilience Project, we will be administering the Youth Resilience Survey to our Grade 3 - 6 students online during class time between the 23rd November and the 4th December. Students typically take 20-25 minutes to complete the survey. We completed this survey in 2019 with our Grade 3-5 students, so will be able make some comparisons once the data collection process is complete.

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, including withdrawing them from it, please contact your child's teacher via the school email viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Reports Our teachers are in the process of writing Semester 2 reports. This is just a reminder that Semester 2 reports will be more in line with what occurred in Semester 1, than what we would normally provide for an end of year report. From the first newsletter of the term:

The Department of Education and Training has recently adjusted the expectations around student reporting for Semester 2 in recognition of the continued disruption caused by COVID-19. While we have continued to deliver a teaching and learning program and monitor the learning of each student, we have adjusted our usual program to reflect the recent period of remote and flexible delivery.

Viewbank Primary School will therefore provide a simplified written report for the parent/carer of each student enrolled at the school for Semester 2, 2020 focusing on what progress has been made and what has been achieved by each child.

Reports will include:

• a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum taught;
• a comment on student participation and engagement in the learning program offered;
• for English and Mathematics - student achievement information, a five-point scale.
• for all other curriculum areas taught - a short comment on progress and achievement across the semester

Patrick

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.

If you applied for the CSEF at your child's school in 2020, you do not need to complete an application form in 2021 unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

You only need to complete an application form if any of the following changes have occurred:

• new student enrolments; your child has started or changed schools in 2021 or you did not apply in 2020.
• changed family circumstances; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing at the school in 2021.

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.

2021 Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements Viewbank Primary School is looking forward to a new year of teaching and learning and would like to advise you of the 2021 Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements.

Parent Payment Charges/Arrangements are paid on Compass from Saturday 19 December 2020. Please check 'Course Confirmation/Payment' in 'My News' on your homepage and follow the prompts. If you are having issues with Compass, have forgotten your password or have no access please contact the school office as soon as possible.

Payments are due by Monday 27 January 2021. A Compass Payment Plan Option for Essential Student Learning Items is also available on Compass: Four even payments of $75.00 to be deducted on 01Feb, 01Mar, 01Apr & 01May 2021.

Please be advised there are alternative payment options for families who may be experiencing financial hardship or who would prefer a personalised payment plan. Please contact me if you wish to discuss these arrangements.

Late Arrivals The gates will be locked at 9.20am, if you arrive after this time please go to the Main Gate, Gate 1 on Nevin Parade and call the office and a staff member will meet your child at the gate.

Early Leavers If you need to collect your child early please call the office and a staff member will arrange for your child to meet you at the Main Gate, Gate 1 on Nevin Parade.

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

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There are some similarities between the symptoms of hay fever or allergies and coronavirus that may make it difficult to distinguish without a test. If you are experiencing ANY of the below – no matter how mild – get tested ⤵️

🤒Fever

😰Chills or sweats

🤧Cough

🥵Sore throat

💨Shortness of breath

💧Runny nose

👃Loss of sense of smell or taste

Don’t assume your symptoms are ‘just allergies’ – get tested and know for sure. Find your nearest testing location: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/getting-tested #EveryTestCounts

More info about hay fever and coronavirus (COVID19): https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/seasonal-hayfever-and-asthma-covid-19

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).

They will be closed from Friday 18th December 2020 to 13th January 2021 for our annual Christmas break. From 13th January until the first week of February My Uniform will be open 5 days a week from 9am to 4.30pm.

You can also purchase your uniform online at www.aplusschoolwear.com.au