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 COUNCIL Tuesday night’s School Council Meeting was the first of our new Council. It gives me great pleasure to announce the election of the following office bearers –

• President Jason HEMINGWAY
• Vice President Nicholas DEANE
• Secretary William TONG
• Treasurer Anu CHIKARSAL

On behalf of the school community, I thank these parents for willingly stepping up to the plate and filling these important positions on School Council. Our remaining School Council Members for 2021 are Michael PARRENT, Carole SENECA, Fiona MITSINIKOS, David FILCOFF and Roger SCHMIDT (Parent Members) and Gillian NICHOLLS, Jane McLEOD, Lucy ADDATI and myself (School Employee Members).

WORKING BEE Our first working bee for 2021 (and indeed for a long time!) will be held on Sunday, March 14 from 9am until 12 noon. There will be a few subtle changes to the way we have run these before because of Covid, but nonetheless we are still hoping for the support of our community to complete routine tasks and some projects to enhance our school grounds and buildings. ‘Check – in’ will be in the area near the new playground. We hope to see you.

SCHOOL ATHLETICS An action packed sporting fixture at Viewbank PS continues on Friday with the Grade 3 to 6 athletics carnival to be held at Willinda Park. Good luck to all competitors in your endeavours to do your best and special thanks again to the PE Department, headed by Sharon Groves and Kori Stuckey, for the amazing logistical organisation of the day that you do so well!

SCHOOL REVIEW Our four-yearly School Review concluded on Tuesday with the panel working together to construct our new Strategic Plan, based on the recommendations/observations/feedback of all stakeholders over the last few weeks, in addition to an analysis of the array of ‘data sets’ available to the school. Many thanks to staff, parents and students for your feedback and contributions and to all panel members, including our external reviewers, for giving up so much time to contribute to our school’s improvement. The final review recommendations and summary will be written up by our external reviewer in the next few weeks and will undergo a quality assurance process before becoming available to the school. I will share this report through the newsletter and talk to it at School Council, but suffice to say the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We are a high performing school, but through the process of review we have selected a few areas for particular focus over the next four years – Writing, Speaking and Listening (Literacy), Statistics and Probability, Measurement and Geometry (Numeracy) and Student Voice and Agency particularly as it relates to student goal setting.

A busy week so far! I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

We are thrilled to be working with The Resilience Project team again this year. Students have already begun weekly Resilience Project lessons in their classes learning about gratitude, empathy, mindfulness and emotional literacy.

Yesterday afternoon the VPS Staff took some ‘me time’ and participated in a staff wellbeing workshop presented by Leah Stevenson.

So parents, now it is your turn! We are very pleased to be able to offer a

Parent Zoom session with Hugh van Cuylenburg

Tuesday 23rd March, 2021 - 6:30pm-7:30pm

During the parent presentation, Hugh will share his experiences and combine them with practical strategies that can be implemented every day to improve our overall wellbeing.

The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs to schools, sports clubs and businesses and provides them with evidence based, practical strategies to build resilience and happiness. The Resilience Project has delivered programs to over 1000 schools around the country and worked with many elite sporting teams including Australian cricket, netball and soccer, NRL and AFL clubs. Through presentations, wellbeing journals, schools curriculum, teacher diaries and their App, The Resilience Project seeks to help all Australians become mentally healthy.

Programs offered by The Resilience Project are based on the following strategies:

• Gratitude - Appreciating what you have, not begrudging what you don’t.
• Empathy - Thinking of the needs of others/kindness.
• Mindfulness - Being present in the moment, not becoming distracted by unhelpful or negative thoughts.

Please don’t miss this wonderful opportunity.

National Day Against Bullying and Violence 19 March On Friday 19 March we will be participating in The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). This is an important day to help create positive change for students, staff and the school climate and stand together against bullying and violence. The theme for the NDA 2021 is Take Action Together. This theme aims to elevate student voice, empowering young Australians to join the conversation.

At Viewbank, we are proud to say ‘Bullying. No Way!’ We are putting our bullying prevention initiatives in the spotlight and calling on our school community to stand with us on Friday 19 March 2021. By standing together we can build supportive learning environments and find workable solutions to address bullying. Everyone has a role to play in supporting young people in dealing with bullying and helping to energise positive discussions about the issue.

Please help our school community deliver a powerful message that bullying and violence are never okay.

Have a wonderful week,

Gill

Hats Just a reminder for students to bring a hat to wear each day. Students need to wear a sun protective hat that shades the face, neck and ears for all outdoor activities from Mid-August until the 30th April each year. To view a copy of Viewbank’s SunSmart policy, please click here.

Staff Professional Learning- Mathematics with Michael Ymer On Friday 5th March, staff participated in professional learning with Michael Ymer (mathematics teaching coach) to develop various ways to teach mathematical skills in the classroom. These hands-on sessions facilitated staff to consult with their peers and take turns to try various examples of activities. Michael is an engaging presenter and inspires staff to develop a love of mathematics for both teachers and students. On Monday, and Tuesday next week, Michael will be visiting our school again to demonstrate practical lessons in the classrooms and be observed by the teachers.

Naplan The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 2021 for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students will be held on Tuesday 11 May, Wednesday 12 May and Thursday 13 May 2021. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.

The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers and principals which can be used to improve student achievement.

All students are expected to participate in the NAPLAN tests. During test week, catch-up tests will be available for individual students who are absent on test days. These students may undertake catch-up tests on the days in the test week after the scheduled test, up to and including Friday 14 May 2021.

Support can be arranged for students with disabilities, if the student regularly uses similar support for classroom assessment tasks. Large print, braille, electronic and black and white versions of the tests are available for students that require them. Exemptions may be granted to students with significant intellectual disabilities and to students who have been learning English for less than one year.

If your child is eligible for support due to disability or an exemption, you should discuss this with their teacher prior to the tests. Parental consent is required before any support due to disability or exemption is granted.

For more information about the tests, please visit the VCAA website at or the NAP website.

Art Extraordinaires I had the pleasure of visiting an Art class this week to view the astounding artwork that the Year 6 students were completing. The students enjoyed talking about the techniques they were using and how they developed their artwork over time.

I look forward to another great week!

Karen

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.

Eftpos Machine The school no longer has an eftpos machine. All payments are to be made via Compass or the school's General Office.

Thank you

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

​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.

Art News Printing, painting and creating with acrylic paints in the Art Room this fortnight. Check out the wonderful colour and brush work of our talented Years 3-6.

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.

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