CNPS SCHOOL VISION: To build a community of curious, creative and engaged learners who are empowered to meet the challenges of our rapidly changing world. Collectively we will work with our students to become responsible global citizens who have the skills, knowledge and personal attributes they need for their future.
Principal’s Column
Welcome back everyone. We had a great start to the year with all students in Year 1 to Year 6 settling in very quickly. This coming Monday, we look forward to welcoming our Foundation students to our CNPS family for their very first day of primary school. It will be a very special moment for both our new preppies and their parents. No doubt there will be a few tears on Monday. All Foundation parents are welcome to stay behind for our Tea and Tears gathering after saying goodbye to their children.
What an interesting year 2021 will be. Whatever this year brings, we are all ready and geared up to ensure that we will have a great year full of learning and fun. We have lots of great initiatives this year that will enhance our student's creativity, academic, social and emotional wellbeing skills. We are also so very pleased to commence our playground works that will see an inclusive playground adjacent to our Booeegigat building as well as our very own Kitchen Garden (next to our Wa-Dam-Bak building opposite the basketball courts). All works are hoped to be completed by the end of term 2 (fingers crossed). This year we will move into our second stage of our Ground’s Master Planning process, where we will present our student, staff and parent feedback to the community and start developing plans using this information. Stay tuned for more information regarding our workshops this term.
The year 2020 challenged us all with frequent changes, quick adaptions, and the need to continually care for other's wellbeing. The impacts of COVID-19 affected us in many different ways and will take some time for recovery. Data collected from the Department of Education and Training (DET) found that approximately 10% of Victorian students were impacted negatively both mentally and academically. Due to this, the Victorian government has made a commitment to invest heavily in a COVID recovery plan which includes setting 3 clear Key Improvement Strategies for every school in Victoria.
DET KEY IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES
- Learning, catchup and extension
- Happy, healthy and active kids
- Connected schools
We have worked hard over the holiday break to develop a strong recovery plan that reflects these three key improvement strategies.
LEARNING, CATCHUP AND EXTENSION
- Professional Learning Communities - Staff will be working collaboratively in teams to analyse data, research best practice, and implement a strong teaching plan that will focus on improving student’s academic skills in literacy and mathematics.
- Tutoring Program - Students who have been identified as not making significant growth during Remote and Flexible Learning will be provided with a tutoring program developed by their classroom teacher. For more information, see CNPS Tutoring Initiative.
HAPPY, HEALTHY, ACTIVE KIDS
- School Wide Positive Behaviors - Staff and students will be working collaboratively to develop positive learning environments as part of our Positive Behaviors program. This includes a strong focus on developing our values and what they look like at CNPS.
- Respectful Relationships - We will be continuing our journey to embed the Respectful Relationships curriculum across the school. A particular focus will be incorporating this within our inquiry program.
- Increased Wellbeing Supports - This year we will be introducing various whole school wellbeing awareness activities through national events such as the International Day of Happiness, International Day of Friendship, Harmony Day and World Mental Health Day.
CONNECTED SCHOOLS
- Inquiry and Digital Learning - This year we will be introducing SeeSaw in Foundation to Year 6 to create a powerful learning loop between students, teachers and families. Families will gain a window into their student's learning and engage in home to school connections. In addition to this, we will be releasing various apps for learning that students will be able to access both at home and at school to enhance student achievement and engagement in learning.
CNPS Tutoring Initiative
In line with DET’s (Department of Education and Training) Tutor Learning Initiative, Coburg North Primary School has designed a model for tutoring that will support our students whose learning has been disrupted as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In order for us to get the best results possible, we have decided to use our tutoring funding (equivalent to one teacher) to provide release for our classroom teachers to tutor their own students. This model allows for a greater number of students to gain tutoring time from a teacher who knows their learning needs best.
In order for this to happen, we have introduced a STEM specialist class. During STEM sessions, groups of up to five students will be taken out by the classroom teacher for 20 minutes at a time, over 4 weeks to be tutored. The tutoring group will also be seen a minimum of 3 times a week during in their reading/mathematic block during targeted teaching groups, focusing on lifting achievement in their selected goal. Parents will be informed of students who have been selected (based on reading and mathematics data) with a list of resources and supports for parents to assist with at home to allow for greater success of academic achievement.
Our teachers will be using the Professional Learning Communities Inquiry cycle to inform their teaching. More information about this cycle can be found at: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/management/improvement/plc/Pages/default.aspx .
If you have any further questions about our 2021 Tutoring program, please contact the school at coburg.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au.
Welcoming New Staff to the CNPS team
With a growing school comes growing staff. This year we have 6 new teachers, 4 returning teachers, and 3 new Education Support teachers. We would like to welcome to our CNPS team the following staff members. We are very happy to recruit these excellent staff members that will no doubt bring much to our dynamic CNPS family.
New Teaching Staff: Grace Pear; Jessie Wright; Natasha McGirr; Shannon Dowling; Melanie Adams; Candice Vanzin.
Returning Staff: Eva Norbury; Lewis Bainbridge; Lynne Evans (term 1); Courtney Jory (term 2); Carmel Post (term 4).
Education Support Staff: Alika Abeck; Kiarra-Lee Quinn and Zacharia Abdulwahed (School Technician), Paul Sutton (Facilities Manager).
Meet our 2021 School Captains
Abbi
Dear School Community,
I'm Abigail and I am a School Captain for this year. I am so excited to be able to represent this school and make a change.
In my time being a School Captain, I would like to start the Kitchen Garden Project. I would love to organise fundraisers to build playgrounds in the tanbark area for all students to enjoy. I would like to make some more lunch clubs, which the students can help to choose. I will incorporate student voice into most of the things that the captains do. While I am a leader, I hope you will feel comfortable talking to me or any other school captain, or Monika about any issues you have, or ideas for our school. If you don't feel comfortable at school, we will help you to feel better.
Rowan
My name is Rowan and I am very excited to be the school captain of CNPS this year. I want to improve the school by adding more plants, by getting more play equipment and a better oval for our students. This year I am looking forward to the return of our festivals and events from the ones we lost last year because of COVID-19.
Camille
Hello everyone, I’m Camille and I was recently elected as one of the 2021 school captains. I’m so excited to lead the school using student voice. One of the first things I’d like to do as a captain is to give even more chances for students to put their ideas into the school. My goal as captain is to make sure all students, teachers and staff have a fun time at school.
Ted
Hi I’m Ted. I am one of the school captains. I hope to do a lot this year. If you see me in the yard and you have an idea or suggestion on how to improve our school, feel free to talk to me about it.... or just say hi. I would like to improve the school’s playground equipment for the kids at CNPS, also I think we should have more days like Solar day. I loved how much of a say we had in that. I know we missed out on a lot of things last year because of COVID-19, so I will try and make up for this this year.
That is all for now. Have a good year.
Congratulations to our Specialist Captains
This Friday we announced our Specialist Captains during assembly. We are please to announce the following captains:
- Music: Janie and Jackson
- Art: Holly and Tilda
- PE: Archie and Charlotte
- Italian: Asha and Hayat
- Sustainability: Neve and Zoya
- Technology: Flynn and Artin
- CNNN: Lilah, Alice, Sophia, Tess and Grayson
- SWPB: Ella
- Library: Jing and Ethan
- House: Blake and Alice (Red); Milli (Yellow); Ava and Luca (Blue); Will and Marieanne (Green)
School Council Elections
Next Monday (February 8,) I will call for nominations for both the Parent, DET and community categories for school council. There are 7 vacancies on council; 5 parent representatives, 1 DET (staff representative) and 1 community representative.
School councillors whose terms expire at this election are as follows:
- David Deveny (parent rep)
- Nicola Andrews (parent rep)
- Kirrily Noonan (parent rep)
- Georgina Murphy (parent rep)
- Ruzica Duric (parent rep)
- Tim Prendergast (DET rep)
- Cathy Berryman (community rep)
If you decide to stand for election, you can either nominate yourself, or be nominated by someone who is eligible for the same category as you wish to stand for.
Nomination forms need to be in by Monday, February 15.
If there are more nominations received than there are vacancies on council, a ballot will be conducted in the two weeks after the call for nominations has been closed.
The School Council Election Process and Timeline 2020
- Notice of election and call for nominations - Monday, February 8
- Closing date for nominations - Monday, February 15
- If there are more nominations than vacancies: List of candidates and nominations will be posted on Compass - Wednesday, February 17
- Ballot papers will be prepared and distributed - on or before Monday, February 22
- Close of ballot - Monday, March 1
- Vote count - Tuesday, March 2
- Declaration of poll - Wednesday, March 3
- First council meeting to elect office bearers - Wednesday, March 31.
School Fees
We value your contributions made to Coburg North Primary School. 2021 will see us continue to grow and evolve, offering rich and diverse learning opportunities for our students. School Fees goes towards the running of the school for ‘Essential Student Learning Items’. Our Voluntary Financial contributions also go towards employing a School First Aider and Technician, and the Voluntary Tax Deductible Donations go towards our Building and our Library Fund.
Every dollar helps our school to offer the very best for our students. You can pay online using the QKR app or at our front office. Feel free to contact our admin staff for assistance.
Changes to Our Communication Frequency - Assemblies and Newsletters
Our weekly assemblies and our fortnightly newsletters will now be held monthly. CNNN (Coburg North News Network) will be replacing our Virtual Assemblies and Compass will remain to be the source of all our communication.
Our newsletter release and our school assemblies will be held on the last Friday of each month. Please see our communication process in our Parent handbook (found in Compass in the documents folder) or visit our school’s website for more information.
School Traffic
As our school grows, so does the traffic. We are working on how to minimise traffic congestion during drop off and pick up times through our Master Planning process, but in the meantime we would like to ask for all parents to respectfully abide by the traffic rules in regards to picking up and dropping off children. It is important that all cars are to be parked in the zoned areas before children can enter the car. Under no circumstance are children to be picked up in the middle of the road, or in an undesignated parking area. This an important traffic rule to protect the safety of all of our children and other pedestrians on the road.
CNNN
After the success of our Virtual Assemblies last year, we will be introducing our very first Student Led news network... CNNN - Coburg North News Network.
Student leaders from Year 6 will be presenting the news from the student's perspective once a fortnight.
Stay tuned for more information regarding our network!
That’s all from me for this month. Please read our February newsletter for an update on all the great things that will be happening in the month of February. Here is a sneak peak of what lays ahead (see February Events).
Until then, have a great one,
Monika
FEBRUARY EVENTS
- Foundation First day of School - Monday, 8
- Safer Internet Day - Tuesday, 9
- Body Safe Australia Parent Information Session - Thursday, 11
- Welcome to Country Ceremony by our Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Di - Friday 12
- Body Safe Australia Program for Foundation to Year 6 Students - begins Monday, 15
- Foundation School Photos - Headshots, Thursday, 18
- School Council, Wednesday, 24
- Clean Up Australia Day - Friday 26
eSafety News
Free eSafety webinars for parents and carers
As part of Safer Internet Day 2021, the eSafety Commissioner will be running free webinars for parents and carers.
These live webinars explore the latest research and are a great way to learn how you can help your child develop the skills to be safer online.
All sessions are delivered by eSafety's expert education and training team.
eSafety's parent guide to cyberbullying and online drama
This Safer Internet Day 2021 webinar will look at how parents and carers can support young people to have safe and respectful online relationships and what to do if things go wrong.
It will cover:
- Starting conversations with your child about their online friendships and positive ways to deal with changing relationships.
- Understanding the rights, laws and community expectations that govern social media use.
- Where to seek help if your child is involved in a cyberbullying incident.
The webinar will include case studies, research and targeted advice so you can support the young people in your life to have safe, enjoyable online experiences.
The webinar will be run at different several times.
Dates (Australian Eastern Daylight Time):
- Tuesday 9 February 7.30 to 8.30 pm
- Wednesday 10 February 12.30 to 1.30 pm
- Wednesday 10 February 7.30 to 8.30 pm
- Monday 15 February 12.30 to 1.30 pm
- Monday 22 March 12.30 to 1.30 pm
Register Here: Webinar Registration
For further information, visit: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars
Parents and Friends
Parents & Friends will be having their first meeting of the year on Monday 15 February. Please come along and join us as we will be discussing this year's community building and fundraising events. We will be meeting in the OSHC/STEM room - entry via the staff car park at 7pm. If you have any enquires please email cnps_pf@hotmail.com.
See you there!
Community News
If you would like to publish community notices, please forward to our school email address: coburg.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au