2023 TERM DATES
- Term 1: 27th January - 6th April (2:30pm finish)
- Term 2: 24th April - 23rd June (2:30pm finish)
- Term 3: 10th July - 15th September (2:30pm finish)
- Term 4: 2nd October - 20th December (1:30pm finish)
SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS Just a reminder about nominating for possible membership on the 2023 Viewbank Primary School Council. Nomination forms are available from the general office and should be submitted by 4pm on Monday, February 20.
SWIMMING TRIALS Another well-organised and implemented swimming trial day took place last Friday at WaterMarc in Greensborough. Hearty congratulations to all participants and grateful thanks to the main organisers, Lucas Prell and Patrick Walsh, and their support crew of teachers and parent volunteers.
SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING The final School Council meeting of the current group is set down for 7pm next Tuesday, February 21 in the staffroom. Documents will be emailed on Friday, and in the shared drive asap thereafter. All agenda items should be emailed to me no later than 9am on Friday morning (Feb 17).
GETTING TO KNOW YOU INTERVIEWS Things are starting to get busy! Next Tuesday (February 21) and Thursday (February 23) afford opportunity for teachers to meet parents and share information that will be important for a smooth start to the year. As always if there is ever the need to chat for other reasons, by all means contact your child’s teacher to make an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
CAPTAINS BADGE PRESENTATION We were lucky enough to be graced by the appearance of Channel 9 news reporter, Allan Raskall, on Tuesday to present the 2023 Communications Captain Badge to Taya Gualano from 6F. Students from Grades 5 and 6 were able to ask Allan questions about his career, and what it is like to be in the media spotlight as well as to learn what it means to communicate effectively. We thank Allan for giving so generously of his time and we encourage you to check out some of his more ‘fun’ news items on You Tube. Very entertaining.
PARKING AT THE END OF NEVIN PARADE At this stage, the whole community is generally navigating the situation of parking restrictions due to building works quite well and we are grateful for that. Just a note that the builders can only access their site from the northern end of Nevin Parade – please do not block off their access.
And that’s it from me this week. Have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
Get To Know You Interviews Thank you to everyone who has booked a Get To Know You Interview time. The booking system closed to further bookings on Monday 13th February at 3:00pm. If you have a change of circumstance, please contact your child’s teacher to request a change of time (if possible).
On Friday 17th February (in some cases earlier), families who have booked in a time for the Get To Know You Interviews will receive a meeting link. It is the family’s responsibility to ensure that they access the meeting at the time/s they nominated in Compass – this will be accessible to parents until after 24th February. When you log on to the meeting, you may be directed to a ‘Lobby’ or ‘Wait Room’. The teacher will be notified that you are there and will admit you to the meeting as close to the start of your meeting time as possible. In some cases, there may be a delay, we do apologise for this in advance.
Once again, I would like to thank the teachers for giving up their evenings with their families and other commitments on these nights. Our staff do this because they recognise the importance of a strong school-home relationship, and that they value your input. We are fortunate to have such committed teachers and support staff at Viewbank PS!
Communication Captain Badge Presentation A huge thank you to Allan Raskall from Channel 9 for visiting Viewbank Primary School on Tuesday morning! It was an absolute pleasure to have him present Taya in Year 6 with her Communication Captain badge. His speech on the importance of being a good communicator was truly inspiring and the enthusiasm he showed while answering questions and interacting with our Year 5 and Year 6 students afterwards was contagious.
Welcome to Foundation and Welcome Back Picnics Thank you to all the Viewbank families that came to the Welcome Back Picnic and Foundation Welcome to Viewbank Picnic! We would especially like to thank the Parents & Friends (P&F) for their hard work in making this event happen. It was great to have so many people come together to celebrate the start of the school year and to catch up with some families they may not have seen for some time. We look forward to seeing everyone again at future P&F events. If you'd like to get involved, please reach out to the P&F - there are plenty of opportunities to support your child/ren and the school!
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be completing the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in the second half of March. The schedule has not been finalised as yet, however; the tests will be conducted in the following order from left to right:
Families of students in Year 5 have been sent information regarding NAPLAN as well as a link to download the Locked Down Browser (to be completed by Tuesday 21st February). School owned devices will have had this completed already.
Further dates and times for the last three assessments will be communicated as soon as possible.
Have a great weekend.
Patrick
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) is now firmly embedded at Viewbank PS and our students are once again collecting BEEhave points by displaying our four School Values - Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Kindness.
Each class has been busy unpacking our school values, going through the school wide positive behaviour matrix and using this matrix to develop their class expectations. Through discussions, role play and school based videos, students will have explicit lessons teaching the behaviours expected in the different settings of the school.
As children demonstrate these behaviours they will be acknowledged via our individual and whole school BEEhave system. Hopefully, as the term progresses, many of you will begin to receive a Compass ‘celebration email’ alerting you to the fact that your child has collected their ten positive rewards for one of our School Values. Once students complete all four Values cards they will be presented with a certificate at assembly. As students complete their Values cards they are exchanged for a BEE sticker which is added to our whole school BEEhive in the main entry foyer.
How Families can help
SWPBS is an approach to help all students learn to self-manage behaviour.
Family involvement is a key feature and important in all aspects of SWPBS.
A strong partnership between school and family is important because when families are involved, outcomes for students are better.
You can be involved in SWPBS in many ways by:
- reading materials distributed by the school via Compass
- using the Positive Behaviour Matrix to role model positive behaviours
- verbally acknowledging and recognising when your child meets expected behaviours
- responding consistently and with meaningful consequences when problem behaviour occurs.
For further information about School Wide Positive Behaviour, please see the information presented within the 2023 Grade Level Information PowerPoints that were released on Compass last week.
Have a great week,
Gill
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ITEMS & ACTIVITIES (Enhancing and Broadening the Student Experience). The school provides camps, excursions, incursions, and other activities that enhance or broaden the schooling experience, and these are provided on a user-pays basis. Families will be invoiced for these activities via Compass and run on a user-pays basis. We have support for families facing financial hardship to attend these activities. Term 1 charges and permissions are due tomorrow.
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.
If you applied for the CSEF at your child's school in 2022, you do not need to complete an application form in 2023 unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.
You only need to complete an application form if any of the following changes have occurred:
- new student enrolments; your child has started or changed schools in 2023 or you did not apply in 2022.
- changed family circumstances; such as a change of custody, change of name, concession card number, or new siblings commencing at the school in 2023.
Funds are paid to the school and will be automatically allocated to the Extra-Curricular Items and Activities unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.
WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECK (WWCC) A ‘Working with Children Check’ is just one part of creating and maintaining a child-safe environment. It is a requirement that all parents/careers who wish to volunteer or participate in school activities have a current WWCC. https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/
Kind regards,
Lucy Addati
Business Manager
STEM NEWS
SPINEY LEAF INSECTS A very big thank you to April Harris (6G) and her family who looked after our STEM spiney leaf insects over the holidays! April also made a fantastic poster all about their adventures together with some interesting stories. It has been very exciting for other classes to read all about their adventures at your place.
WANTED If anyone has a small bar fridge (with a small frost free freezer) that they are not using any more and would be willing to donate to the STEM room, we would really appreciate it. Please email the school with the details.
Building Community Thank you to all the families that joined us on Tuesday for the whole school picnic. We know it is a busy time of year with extra curricula activities starting up and less working from home opportunities so it was lovely to see so many people enjoying the ideal weather and mingling with other families in their class, year level and wider school community.
Regards,
The P&F Committee
Lower Plenty Bakehouse will be providing the school with fundraising Lunch Orders every Thursday. These lunches have been implemented via our Parents and Friends Committee. All money raised will be used towards our major school upgrade.
Our Term 1 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates are:
- Thursday 23rd February (Orders closing on 20th February, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 2nd March (Orders closing on 27th February, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 9th March (Orders closing on 6th March, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 16th March (Orders closing on 13th March, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 23rd March (Orders closing on 20th March, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 30th March (Orders closing on 27th March, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 6th April (Orders closing on 3rd April, 3:00pm)
Orders need to be placed in advance via Compass Canteen. Ordering will close the Monday before the lunch date at 3pm. All of Term 1 lunch dates are now open for orders, and can be placed in advance for the whole term if you choose to do so.
Please see attached a Parent User Guide on how to order via Compass Canteen. Please note a 35 cents order fee will be charged at check out.
Parent assistance is required on Lunch Days from 10:30am to 12:30pm to assist with the packing of our orders. If you are available to assist in anyway can you please email the school at viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au so your name can be added to our roster.
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.
Entertainment Book 20% of the membership goes directly to support our fundraising at Viewbank Primary School. https://www.entertainment.com.au/current-promotion
Lunches must be ordered online using the CLASSROOM CUISINE website.
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WEEKLY 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 Can all students who would like to join our school instrumental music programs please inform the relevant teacher below of your expression of interest.
SINGING WITH GABRIELLA - Gabriella
- Email: favrettogab@gmail.com
- Phone: 0413 676 733
STRINGS - MR CAI
- Email: cai66@optusnet.com.au
- Phone: 0403 490 078
GUITAR/BASS GUITAR - Alec
- Email: alec.stalder@gmail.com
DRUMS/BEGINNER KEYBOARD - Michael
- Email: michaelfindlaymcnab@gmail.com
- Phone: 0451 394 540
PIANO/KEYBOARD – Tiaryn Griggs
- Email: tiaryngriggs@gmail.com
Our school has partnered with an independent provider called TheirCare to provide exceptional Outside School Hours Care services for our school community.
The program is available for all children at Viewbank Primary School from 6:30am until 9:00am in the morning and from 3:30pm until 6:15pm each school day.
During School Holidays & Pupil Free Days the service will operate from 6:30am until 6:15pm.
Families wishing to use this service can visit the TheirCare website: www.theircare.com.au
Families are eligible for a Government Rebate called the Child Care Subsidy which can reduce the cost per session by up to 85%.
More information can be obtained by contacting the school or ringing TheirCare Support Team on 1300 072 410.
TheirCare provides a stimulating and safe environment for all children. During sessions, children develop life-skills, friendships, confidence and creativity through play-based programs.
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