• Tuesday 4th February - Information Evenings
• Tuesday 4th February - Foundation Welcome BBQ
• Thursday 6th February - Information Evenings
• Tuesday 11th February - Getting to Know You Interviews
• Thursday 13th February - Getting to Know You Interviews

PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Tuesday April 14th, 2020
• One extra day yet to be confirmed in 2020

TERM DATES

• 2020 TERM 1: Tuesday 28th January - Friday 27th March (2:30pm finish)
• 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 6: Canberra Camp (Mon 25May to Fri 29May 2020)
• Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp (Wed 27May to Wed 29May 2020)
• Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp (Mon 27July to Wed 29July 2020)
• Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp (Tue 06Oct to Fri 09Oct 2020)

WELCOME A very warm welcome back, and first time welcome, to current and new Viewbank PS community members! We have a new decade, a new school year and new classrooms to look forward to, along with a host of activities, opportunities and learnings to take place. I trust that everyone had a great festive season and New Year and had the opportunity to holiday, relax and recharge!

2020 sees 93 new Prep/Foundation students commence their lifelong education journey at Viewbank PS today, with more than 15 students and their families commencing at different grade levels across the school. We trust your stay with us will be a long and productive one.

We welcome Tara Dean (5D), Ellen Maxwell (4M) and Lauren Beriman (2B) to Viewbank Primary School as our newest members of staff and wish you all every success in your new roles. Narelle Taylor (4T) will be on leave for the first 3 weeks of term and will be replaced by Nicole Baillargeon who is well known to all having been our Art teacher for Semester 2 last year.

At this stage, it looks as if the demolition of the Northern Classrooms will commence over the Term 1 holidays, with the construction phase commencing early in Term 2 and hopefully being finished during Term 3. I have been suitably assured that this won’t be like an episode of Grand Designs, with budget and time frame blowing out!! You will be aware of some temporary arrangements put in place to facilitate the building program, and save money to boot, not least of which will be Grade 1 team teaching in both the library and music room. Congratulations to the staff who did an amazing job setting up the rooms and ensuring that the classroom programs will continue in an unabated (and perhaps enhanced?) fashion as the benefits of team teaching become apparent to all. I have included the drawings of what the new rooms will look like as an attachment to this week’s newsletter.

Term 1 offers a number of highlights with ‘Getting To Know You’ interviews, Information Nights, School Swimming Trials, Foundation Family Welcome BBQ, Junior School Council Elections, School Council Elections, House Athletics and more. Later in the year we have our School Dance, the potential for a School Fair and hopefully our first international student trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.

We encourage you to keep informed by reading the newsletter religiously each week, bookmarking and visiting Compass and the school’s website frequently www.viewbankps.vic.edu.au, and asking any questions if still in doubt by contacting the General Office.

We further encourage you to ‘get involved’ in any way you can, which may include membership of any of the many sub-committees we have (Parents and Friends, Buildings and Grounds, Education, Engagement), membership of School Council (I will be calling for nominations in next week’s newsletter!), submitting an expression of interest to attend camps as a parent helper, attending working bees, being a ‘reading’ parent, and more. The Information Nights will be an excellent lever to find out how to get involved or, again, just ask!

NOTICES FOR APPROVAL Each year we distribute a form seeking blanket permission for students to undertake a range of activities – for example, permission to undertake local excursions within walking distance of the school, permission to publish photographs in the newsletter and so on. These permissions were added to Compass as part of the process when paying your school charges. If you did not complete your permissions online can you please collect a paper consent form from the office within the next week.

SCHOOL COUNCIL The first School Council meeting for the year, and the last for this current School Council, will be held at school on Tuesday, February 11 from 7.00pm in the staffroom.

YARD SUPERVISION You will be aware that all of our staff are timetabled on for yard duty supervision at various times throughout the day. Supervision hours extend from 8.50am through to 3.40pm. Outside of those hours, if you cannot care for your child, we have an exemplary Out Of School Hours Care program (OSH Club) that can cater extremely well for your child’s supervision. At morning recess (11.00am-11.30am), there are 4 teachers on yard duty at any time proudly wearing that much sought after fashion accessory (the fluoro vest!!) for easy recognition by our students. Similarly at lunch time (1.10pm – 2.00pm) there are 4 teachers on duty. Before and after school we have two teachers on duty. In addition throughout the year, Grade 6 students are nominated, selected and trained to be peer mediators, which we think definitely contributes to the resolution of minor disputes and assists in a harmonious, bully-free playground environment. We have varied our recess and lunch breaks this year, adding 10 minutes to the recess break but reducing the lunch break by the same time amount of time.

STAFF CAR PARK A reminder that the school property on the Northern side of the turning circle is the designated staff car park, and it is not to be used for parent car parking. Access in and out is one- way, and parents flaunting this rule, particularly at the busy pick up and drop off times, compromise the safety of our students and others. Please adhere to this request!

SCHOOL CROSSING SUPERVISION We are all very aware of the terrible bushfires that affected much of Eastern and Southern Australia late last year, and indeed are continuing, and our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected and to our own families who may have been impacted in some way. As another consequence, we will also be aware of the very poor air quality thus created and the impact continues to be felt. Banyule Council has issued an advice indicating that on certain days where the air quality is measured as either hazardous or very poor, school crossings will not be supervised (hazardous air quality) or may not be supervised (very poor air quality). The memorandum in part states …

“On days when the air quality is poor or very poor, we expect a high number of school crossings supervisors to be concerned about their health and choosing to not work outdoors. While we will endeavour to have enough staff available to cover all crossings, supervision of all crossings cannot be guaranteed.

Moreover, depending on the number of staff not presenting to work and subject to the timing of their communication with us, we may not be able to inform schools about crossings not being supervised.

We request all schools, and parents and guardians of children to take into account this information, monitor the air quality in our region, and adjust their plans to get to and from school accordingly. I would appreciate if you could pass on this information to your school community.

Should you wish to discuss the matter further, please don’t hesitate to contact me by email at ana.caicedo@banyule.vic.gov.au. “

MOBILE PHONE POLICY You will be aware that as a result of a Ministerial Order, mobile phones and any device that may connect to or have a similar functionality to a mobile phone such as a smart watch, must not be used at Viewbank Primary School during school hours, including lunchtime and recess, unless an exception has been granted. Mobile phones owned by students at Viewbank Primary School are considered valuable items and are brought to school at the owner’s (student’s or parent/carer’s) risk. Students are encouraged not to bring a mobile phone to school unless there is a compelling reason to do so. Where students bring a mobile phone to school, Viewbank Primary School will provide secure storage. Secure storage is storage that cannot be readily accessed by those without permission to do so. At Viewbank Primary School students are required to store their phones. These should be handed in to the school administration office to be placed in a lockable cupboard. Classroom teachers will assist in ensuring this policy is enforced. Students who use their personal mobile phones inappropriately at Viewbank Primary School may be issued with consequences consistent with our school’s existing Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy.

The full policy is attached for everyone’s information with this week’s newsletter.

Enjoy your weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

.

Welcome to all our new and returning families. I hope everyone managed to have a safe and relaxing holiday break.

It was great to see so many excited students ready for the 2020 school year this morning. I’m sure there were a few nerves but most students bravely headed into class, ready to meet up with their new teacher and classmates and check out their classroom.

All school staff officially returned to work on Tuesday but many staff have been in during the holidays, setting up classrooms, organising resources and taking care of administration.

On Wednesday, all staff were engaged in Professional Development. For the teaching staff, the day was spent with Michelle Hutchison learning about Smart Spelling, a spelling approach that will be introduced this year across the school.

The Education Support Staff spent the morning completing CPR training.

Annual privacy reminder Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy

Please take time to remind yourself of the school’s collection statement, found on our website.

For more information about privacy, see: Schools’ Privacy Policy – information for parents. This information also available in nine community languages.

Foundation Welcome Barbecue

I very much look forward to meeting our new families and catching up with our continuing families in the coming weeks.

Have a great week,

Mrs Nicholls

Welcome back! Welcome back everyone and welcome to our 2020 Foundation families!

I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year, and you have managed to keep safe and cool during the past few weeks.

It was great to see and hear the buzz around the school this morning, the students were obviously excited to see each other, but it was also fabulous to see the parents reconnecting with each other again.

School Values In 2019, we went through a long process to review our School Values - were the Values still current and reflective of our staff, student and community standards?

After discussion and surveys with staff, students and parents, the 2019 School Council endorsed the following 4 School Values:

• Respect;
• Responsibility;
• Resilience; and
• Kindness.

Over the coming months there will a gradual 'rebranding' with our new Values replacing our previous ones.

2020 Information Evenings The 2020 Grade 1 to Grade 6 Information Evenings are being held on Tuesday 4th February and Thursday 6th February. While many of you have been to many of these, and it may seem like more of the same, we strongly encourage you to attend, if you are able. Too often, teachers are asked questions at the ‘Getting To Know You Interview’ that were addressed at the Information Evening, taking away from the valuable 10 minute timeslot. Timetable as below:

TUESDAY 4th February: Year 1, 5, 6, Specialist team

THURSDAY 6th February: Year 2, 3, 4, Specialist team

Getting to Know You Interviews The 2020 ‘Getting to Know You Interviews’ are being held on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th February. These 10 minute meetings are an excellent opportunity for you to share important information regarding your child, information that will help the classroom teacher best support your child to ensure that they can succeed. As it is very early in the year, the teacher will be able to provide information on how your child has settled into the 2020 class, as well as some preliminary information regarding initial academic performance. A comprehensive report and interview regarding academic and social progress will be offered mid-year.

The teachers do their best to ensure that the interviews are completed in the allocated time. However, at times, interviews may run longer than expected. Please try to be understanding. If you have more than one child at Viewbank PS, it would be helpful to have at least a 10 minute ‘break’ between each interview.

The booking system will be open via Compass on Monday the 3rd February at approximately 10am and will close to further bookings on Monday 10th at 4pm. If you have any difficulties booking a time, feel free to contact the Office.

I would like to thank the teachers for giving up their evenings (Information Evenings and Getting To Know You Interviews) with their families and other commitments. Our staff do this because they recognise the importance of a strong school-home relationship, to make sure we have a common understanding and that they value your input. We are fortunate to have such committed teachers and support staff at Viewbank PS!

Student Wellbeing and Mental Health The transition back to school, and into a new school, can be a challenging time for children and parents! The following are some tips to help you get back into the swing of things in 2020!

• Set a regular bed time / sleep routine
• Turn technology off at least 1 hour before bed
• Establish a homework routine (for reading, tasks etc)
• Eat a healthy breakfast
• Give yourself a few extra minutes in the morning to get ready and out the door
• Make lunches the evening before
• Be positive about the return to school.

Does your child have some reservations about returning to school?

• Talk to your child, empathise
• Be a detective - attempt to find out the reason for reservations
• Remind your child of the friends they have at school
• Make sure your child knows where they will be picked up from, or what time you will be home
• Talk to your child’s teacher.

Student accident insurance, ambulance cover arrangements and private property brought to school Please be aware that the Department of Education and Training (DET) does NOT provide personal accident insurance or ambulance cover for students. Parents and guardians of students who do not have student accident insurance/ambulance cover are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport, as well as any other transport costs. Private property brought to school by students, staff or visitors is not insured and DET does not accept responsibility for loss or damage. This can include mobile phones, ‘wearables’, toys, sporting equipment, bikes and scooters, and cars parked on school premises.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Patrick

​

Welcome back everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday break.

VOLUNTEERS/PARENT READING HELPERS SIGN IN/OUT OFFICE PROCEDURES We have installed two new electronic sign in systems at the office which require all volunteers to enter their ‘Working with Children Check’ number for the first time on the system. Once you have registered on the system your WWCC number will be recorded and you will not need to enter again. Without your WWCC card you will be unable to sign in and volunteer.

It is a requirement that all volunteers/parent helpers sign in and out at the office. It is imperative that we are aware of who is in the school at all times. Please also wear the visitor lanyard while volunteering at the school as this helps identifying persons on school grounds and creates a safe environment for all.

WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECK (WWCC) A ‘Working with Children Check’ is just one part of creating and maintaining a child-safe environment. Viewbank Primary School encourages all parents to obtain and register their number with the school. It is a requirement that all parents/guardians who wish to volunteer or participate in school activities have a current WWCC.

2020 SCHOOL CHARGES/FEES School Charges/Fees are now due. Please be advised there are alternative payment options for families who may be experiencing financial hardship or who would prefer a regular payment plan. Please contact me if you wish to discuss these arrangements.

CSEF (Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund) CSEF (Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund) is a government assisted fund which provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions ($125 per child). Applications for the Governments ‘CSEF Fund’ can be accessed by filling in the attached form and return to the office with a current Health Care card. To be eligible for this funding, you need to hold a current Centrelink Health Care Card or Pension Concession Card or Veteran Affairs Gold Card. Please note: as this funding is means tested, the Parent/Guardian MUST be the card holder, no Medical Health Care Cards in the student’s name will be accepted as it will be rejected by the CSEF system. 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.

TERM 1 EXPENSES Term 1 Expenses will be published on Compass on Monday and are due on Friday 14 February.

COMPASS If you have any questions or require assistance with Compass, please do not hesitate to contact the office or refer to the Compass Parent Guide on your Compass Newsfeed.

STUDENT ABSENCES If your child is sick or a holiday, you are required to notify the school before 9am on the day of their absence via Compass. Therefore there is no need to phone the office if your child is absent. Notifying the school of your child’s absence either prior to, or on the day that they will be away, helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and will fulfil your legal responsibility. Victorian government schools are required to contact parents/carers as soon as practicable on the same day of an unexplained student absence. If your child is absent on a particular day and you have not contacted the school to explain why, the absence will be marked as unexplained and a text message will be sent.

LATE ARRIVALS PROCEDURES It is parent’s responsibility to accompany their child to the office when their child arrives after 9am so they can be signed in and record their attendance accurately. When you record the late arrival in Compass it provides us with the explanation but does not mark your child as present. When you present at the office, staff will record your child’s actual arrival time which updates the class roll.

EARLY LEAVERS PROCEDURES Parents are required to come to the office when collecting their child early from school and fill in the ‘Early Leavers’ register at the front desk. The Office Staff will ring the classroom and ask for your child to come to the office with their bag. Children are only to be collected by their parent from the front Office (not the classroom). This will minimise disruptions to the children's learning.

Kind regards

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

​

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.

ICY POLE FRIDAY Students are able to buy icy poles over the counter at lunchtime. All icy poles cost $1.00 each. We are asking for parent helpers to assist with the sale of these icy poles on Fridays from 1pm to 1:30pm.

SSV State Team Trials The following is taken from the School Sport Victoria (SSV) website:

Each year, talented Victorian school students have the opportunity to trial for a place in the School Sport Victoria (SSV) Team Vic state team and participate in annual School Sport Australia (SSA) Championships including the Pacific School Games (PSG) held every second year. Forty-six teams will be selected across twenty-one sports, involving over one thousand primary and secondary school students representing 'Team Vic'.

The sports include Australian Football, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Cross Country, Diving, Football (Soccer), Golf, Hockey, Netball, Orienteering, Rugby League, Softball, Surfing, Swimming, Tennis, Touch Football, Track and Field, Triathlon, Volleyball and any sport approved for Pacific School Games.

The SSA Championships offer gifted and talented students the opportunity to participate in higher levels of sporting competition against students from other Australian states and territories. This opportunity may be the highest level that students may achieve in their lifetime or may just be the stepping stone to higher state or international representation.

Students who nominate for trials obviously need to be playing competitively at a very high standard in their chosen sport. As a guide, they would be the type of player who is dominant in their age group and regularly winning ‘Best and fairest’/’Most Valuable Player’ awards. The purpose of these trials is NOT to provide an opportunity for students to gain experience or ‘have a go’; it is about identifying elite talent for a Victorian State Team.

If your child is suitable and interested, please check the SSV website for further details:

HATS ON From 1st September until 30th April school hats must be worn outside during all outside activities.

RUNNING GROUP Starting from week 3 every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:15am on the oval, for any students in years 4-6. All abilities welcome. Pack a spare pair of socks/shoes in case the oval is damp. Hope to see you there!

SCHOOL CHOIR Every Wednesdays, 8.30, in the Music room. Everyone from Year 2 to 6 are welcome!

PHONE NUMBER: 0448 075 422

EMAIL: viewbank@oshclub.com.au