Thursday May 17 - Special Lunch Day (Sushi)

Friday May 25 - Fundraising Children's Disco (evening event at Viewbank Primary School)

Wednesday June 6 - A parent training workshop on entering absences will held in the staff room, 3pm.

Monday June 11 - Queen's Birthday Public Holiday

Tuesday June 12 - Pupil Free Day

Wednesday June 27 - Variations to hours day, 3 Way Conferences 11am to 7pm

UPCOMING TRANSITION DATES* — May Information Night: Thursday 3 May 7-8pm, Education Week Open Day: Tuesday 22 May 9.30-3pm, Education Week Open Morning: Saturday 26 May 9am-12pm *Full Transition timeline available below

Annual Working Bees — Saturday May 26 (Term 2), Saturday August 11 (Term 3), Saturday November 3 (Term 4)

PUPIL FREE DAYS — Tuesday June 12, Monday December 17

TERM DATES — TERM 2: Monday 16 April - Friday 29 June, TERM 3: Monday 16 July - Friday 21 September, TERM 4: Monday 8 October - Friday 21 December

CAMP DATES — Year 6 Canberra Camp 14 - 18 May, Year 4 Anglesea Camp 30 May - 1 June, Year 5 Lady Northcote Camp 9 - 12 October, Year 3 Urban Camp 10 - 12 December.

CANBERRA CAMP By the time you read this, our students and teachers at Camp Canberra will be finishing off activities on Day 4, and contemplating the long drive back to Melbourne tomorrow. Many thanks again to everyone who gave of their time so readily to ensure a wonderful camping experience. I managed some time north myself, and can assure everyone that the weather was perfect, accommodation and food excellent and activities stimulating and interesting. Hopefully, technology has enabled us to get some photo highlights in this newsletter to verify the aforementioned reference!! The students will return by 5pm tomorrow, but as always please keep an eye and ear out for updates on Compass throughout the mid to late Friday afternoon.

EDUCATION WEEK Education Week will be celebrated at Viewbank PS with an Open Day on Tuesday, May 22 from 9.30am until 3.00pm, a Foundation Expo event on Wednesday, May 23, a student Disco on Friday, May 25 and an open morning on Saturday May 26 from 9.00am until midday. A big week of events!!

WORKING BEE Our Term 2 Working Bee is being held on Saturday, May 26 from 9am until 12.30pm. Always plenty to do and we would love to see you there. There will be a separate Compass Event posted later this week, highlighting the ways you might be able to help and mentioning that we really need your expertise and energy!!

ANGLESEA CAMP It seems we haven’t even finished one camp and we are preparing for another. Well, that’s true!! The Grade 4s head down the coast to Anglesea on Wednesday, May 30 for three days of activities on the Bellarine Peninsula. The Anglesea camp is a bit of a favourite of ours with canoeing, archery, the giant swing, ropes courses, night walks, initiative activities, and more. There’s even a Ga-Ga pit (in-joke!!). More on the camp as the event draws nearer.

DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY Good luck to our competitors as they represent themselves and our school at the District event on Wednesday, May 30. Always a highlight.

NAPLAN Many thanks to Kylie Kirkwood for her coordination, and the Grade 3 and 5 teachers for implementation of this year’s NAPLAN testing. Always a bit of a logistical exercise, but well handled by staff and I congratulate our students for their efforts.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

What an amazing time we are having in Canberra! Here are a few photos of some of our wonderful experiences.

Have a great week

Gill Nicholls

STUDENT ABSENCES If your child is sick or absent, you are required to notify the school before 9am on the day of their absence via Compass. 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.

Why do I need to notify the school if my child is absent? Schools need to know when and why a child is absent and you need to know if your child isn’t at school. From the end of Term 2 2018, all 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. This system also promotes daily school attendance. Going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education, they learn new things every day – missing school puts them behind.

What is your responsibility? You are legally required to ensure your child attends school every day or you must provide an explanation for their absence. You should let the school know in advance of any upcoming absences or let them know in the morning if your child won’t be at school. In order for schools to implement the same day notification requirement, it’s essential that you provide the school with your most up-to-date contact details.

Please ask the office if you require any further assistance in entering your child's absences on Compass. A parent training workshop on entering absences will also be held in the staff room on Wednesday 6th June at 3pm.

Kind regards

Lucy Addati

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK AND DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP Purchase your Entertainment Membership NOW to help Viewbank Primary School raise much needed funds! Viewbank Primary School are again fundraising with the very popular Entertainment Book or Digital Membership. You'll receive hundreds of valuable offers for everything you love to do, and help our fundraising at the same time. Hurry, Entertainment Memberships sell out quickly.

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.

ADF NEWS Dear Defence Force families, it’s been a very busy term 2. We have had the planting of our Gallipoli Oak and our school choir singing the National Anthem and the Last Anzac, at our ANZAC day remembrance assembly. I have also had the opportunity to provide one on one support to many of our students. I will be attending a state meeting at Defence Plaza on the 6th of June. These meetings keep us abreast of any changes that may affect Programs that run and create a network for both Primary and Secondary schools. A reminder, if you have any concerns please let me know or if it’s to do with external matters please contact Defence Family Helpline on 1800 624 608 and ask for Mrs Aileen Kris.

Kind regards

Georgeina Fisher

A HEALTHY LUNCH BOX Nutrition Australia says a lunch box has 4 components, a main item, a fruit or vegetable snack, a second snack, and a drink. The Australian National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey reported that there are key areas of nutrition that school kids are lacking. Some of these include calcium, fruit and vegetables and an increase in sugar. As most kids are in school five days a week, their lunch box constitutes as a high portion of their daily food intake so ensuring multiple food groups are covered is essential. An easy way to create a balanced lunch box is to include an item of food from each of the 5 food groups:

• Vegetables.
• Protein, including meat, poultry, seafood or plant-based protein.
• Grains or foods high in complex carbohydrates.
• Fruit.
• Dairy or foods high in calcium.

MUSIC NEWS - DRUM KIT This week’s lessons have been cancelled and students will be given make-up lessons throughout the term.

BOOK CLUB All items from Book Club Issue 3 have now been delivered. If you have not yet received your order, please contact Louise Buissink at the Library by Friday 19th May. We will not be able to follow up missing items after this date. Issue 4 catalogues will be sent home in 1 week. Every dollar you spend earns points to buy more books for the Library. Thank you for your support.

YEAR 6 CAMP PARLIAMENT AND CIVICS EDUCATION REBATE Students from our school will soon be undertaking, an education tour of the national capital. Students will be given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy. The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist families in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the camp.

THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S READING CHALLENGE The Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge (VPRC) has commenced for this year. Registration forms are available on Compass and from the Office. Students in Foundation to Year 2 are required to read 30 books (20 from the Challenge list) and students in Year 3 - 6 are required to read 15 books (10 or more from the Challenge list). The Challenge finishes on the 7th September so there is plenty of time to meet the Challenge. Successful students will have their names published in Honour Roll on the Challenge website and will be issued with a certificate in early December. Are you up to the Challenge?

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Government assisted ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions. Applications for the Governments ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ can be accessed by filling out the form available on Compass, at the office or via the link below. To be eligible for this funding, you need to hold a current Pension or Health Care 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 will be automatically allocated to the Term Expenses unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.

TRANSITION DATES Please download the below timeline for your future reference.

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

Hi Viewbank Parents and Families, Viewbank OSHClub has had a big first few weeks of Term 2. We introduced our new Child Care Management System which requires signing in and out on our new Ipads. It also means that we are no longer using Fully Booked. If you were enrolled with OSHClub you should have received a email with a link that will take you to the new IParent Portal where you can make bookings and updates to enrolments. The OSHCLub Team will do their best to support any enquiries that you might have but please bear with us as we are also learning the new system as well. This weeks goal is to show our Mum's love and appreciation as it is Mothers Day on Sunday. Some of the activities that we will be running are: Mothers Day Painting, Lego Challenges, Make Mothers Day Cookies, Make Cloud Dough and many more. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to come and have a chat with the OSHClub team. Many thanks, The Viewbank OSHClub Team, Taryn Fletcher