PUPIL FREE DAYS

• Monday 17th August, 2020 (to be confirmed)
• Monday 2nd November, 2020

TERM DATES

• 2020 TERM 3: Monday 13th July - Friday 18th September (2:30pm finish)
• 2020 TERM 4: Monday 5th October - Friday 18th December (1:30pm finish)

Dear parents and carers,

It has been a week of change, adaptation, flexibility and perspective. Never before have we relied so much on daily media, emails, texts, compass posts and more to literally determine what we do, and where we go. One of our school values is Resilience, and this will be tested continuously over the next few weeks and months. It is an absolute credit to the whole school community, students, parents and staff, that we have continued to attend to daily remote learning, adjusted to the temporary school closure, and maintained our focus. It is a further credit that communication, both ways, has been relatively clear, considered and respectful. Thank you.

With regards our school closure, I mentioned elsewhere that it has been largely precautionary. Our thoughts and concerns are with the staff member who contracted the virus. I can report that from my last conversation yesterday, they were travelling and feeling well. I will be checking in regularly. Their privacy should be, and will be, respected.

The processes surrounding closures involve a number of agencies, including the Department Of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Department Of Education and Training (DET) and the Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA). Currently we are awaiting a ‘deep-clean’, and DHHS are determining if any contact tracing needs to be undertaken at our school. We are hopeful for a reopening very soon.

The building works ground to a halt on Thursday as well, much like a marathon runner hitting the wall with the finish line in sight. Short of asphalting and a few other final touches we are done – potentially two or three days work to go. Once the handover is complete, we will have the heating and cooling installed – a ‘cassette’ system. Once they are finished, data projectors will be installed, followed by furniture delivery and set up. They are like us in awaiting direction from the Deputy Secretary to reopen the school albeit with the Stage 4 restrictions and remote learning constraints for us still in force.

PRINCIPALS’ DAY THANK YOU Thank you so much to the Viewbank community for the wonderful video that you made to acknowledge Principals’ Day.

Your kind messages of support and appreciation made us both laugh and cry. We feel incredibly valued.

It is an absolute pleasure to work together leading Viewbank Primary School. We are so proud of the hard work and resilience that our school community is demonstrating throughout these challenging times.

Please find below a presentation of some of the thank yous we have received from our school community.

We wish everyone good health.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing, Gill Nicholls and Patrick Walsh

Principal Class

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For over 19 years Principals’ Day has recognised the valuable work performed by School Principals in Victorian Government Schools. This year Principals’ Day is particularly relevant given the extraordinary pressures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind all our amazing teachers and support staff are a trio of leaders that make a world of difference. Every day these three champions take the heat and make tough calls to deliver the best education experience possible.

Our entire school community including staff, teachers, students, parents and carers would like to express our gratitude for the strength of leadership consistently demonstrated by Principal Bill Kersing along with Assistant Principals’ Gill Nicholls and Patrick Walsh.

Today, Friday 7th August please take a moment to reflect on the commitment and professionalism shown by our school Principals. We are lucky to have these outstanding leaders. So if you happen to see Bill, Gill or Patrick on Friday please take the opportunity to let them know how much their efforts are appreciated.

Thank you Bill, Gill and Patrick for your tireless promotion of our children’s well-being.

Ian Sherlock

School Council President

On behalf of the School community and School Council

Happy Principals’ Day Bill, Gill & Patrick Principals’ hard work may often go unnoticed, but these three amazing leaders play a huge role in the success of our teachers, staff and students. Your communication, compassion and commitment to the wellbeing of the school community during these very difficult and challenging times is highly commendable and much appreciated. We thank you for all your support, commitment and kindness.

Remote Learning: Limited Access: Access to school grounds is limited to:

• school staff
• students attending on-site learning
• contractors, including cleaners and maintenance workers
• outside-school-hours-care (OHSC) staff, enrolled children and their families.

If you need to collect anything from the school please call the office and a staff member will meet you at Gate 2 at the top of the ramp on Lascelles Avenue.

Remote Learning Office Hours: The Remote Learning Office hours are from 9am to 3.30pm. To contact the school outside of these hours you may send an email to viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au or leave a message on the answering machine.

Attendance On Compass: Parents need to continue to mark any school absences on Compass as normal.

Thank you and take care

Lucy Addati

Business Manager

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Unfortunately, our Transition event for Foundation 2021 students “Storyland" has been postponed due to current restrictions. This event was scheduled to run on Tuesday, 11th August.

We thought we would begin the Transition process online as we couldn’t wait to share a fun story with you. We hope you enjoy this video.

We are still accepting enrolment forms during Term 3, please call the office once you have arrived and a member of staff will greet you and accept your enrolment form.

PHONE NUMBER: 0448 075 422

EMAIL: viewbank@oshclub.com.au

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