PUPIL FREE DAY
- Wednesday 13th July 2022
- Monday 31st October 2022
FUNDRAISING BAKERY LUNCH ORDER DATES - Lower Plenty Bakehouse
- Thursday 19th May (Orders closing on 16th May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 26th May (Orders closing on 23rd May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 2nd June (Orders closing on 30th May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 9th June (Orders closing on 6th June, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 16th June (Orders closing on 13th June, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 23rd June (Orders closing on 20th June, 3:00pm)
2022 TERM DATES
- Term 2: 26th April - 24th June (2:30pm finish)
- Term 3: 11th July - 16th September (2:30pm finish)
- Term 4: 3rd October - 20th December (1:30pm finish)
2022 SCHOOL CAMP DATES
- Year 3: Arrabri Lodge Camp - Monday 8th August to Wednesday 10th August
- Year 4: Anglesea Recreation Camp - Wednesday 18th May to Friday 20th May
- Year 5: Lady Northcote Recreation Camp - Tuesday 4th October to Friday 7th October
- Year 6: Camp Coonawarra - Monday 18th July to Friday 22nd July
OPEN DAY In celebration of Education Week, our school will be ‘Open’ on Tuesday, May 24 from 9.30am until 3.00pm for visitors (current families and future families) to attend during the day. Our student leaders will be running tours throughout the day, with some of them also helping out in this regard on Saturday, May 28 when our school is also open in the morning from 9am until 12 noon.
SCHOOL COUNCIL School Council met onsite for the first time ‘in a long time’ on Tuesday night which was a pleasant and long awaited change. Much of the business discussed was routine but necessary nonetheless, with presentation of reports from the Principal and President, and the various committees including Finance, Out Of School Hours Care, Education and Buildings and Grounds. School Council considered the risk assessments for the upcoming Anglesea Camp, the potential and possibilities for applying for grants for various ventures around and across the school and approved a common ‘professional practice day’ for all staff on Thursday, June 2. Currently, there is an ‘agreed in principle’ Enterprise Bargaining Agreement between the State Government and the Australian Principals’ Federation and The Australian Education Union. This agreement is awaiting final ratification. One of the conditions within the agreement is that all teaching staff are entitled to one day each term to be released from teaching duties to attend to professional tasks such as assessment. However, due to the ongoing difficulties faced by schools in finding replacement staff, the the Department Of Education has decreed that for Term 2 only schools can call for a common ‘professional practice day’ for all staff. And so, on Thursday, June 2nd, there will be NO classes for students to enable staff to undertake the tasks associated with their professional practice day. OSHClub is facilitating a full day care program for any parents unable to make arrangements on that day, but we hope that 3 weeks notice will be sufficient for most families.
ANGLESEA CAMP Next week’s newsletter will be coming to you from the YMCA camp in Anglesea with Grade 4s journeying down there from May 18 to 20. Hopefully, we will have lots of highlights and photos to share.
CROSS COUNTRY FOUNDATION TO 2 Congratulations to Lucas Prell our PE teacher and his team of willing supporters for a very well executed cross country day last week. We dodged any rain to ensure the Grade 3 to 6 children got to take part in their events, and whilst it was a ‘tad’ cool the conditions were actually very suitable for cross country running. We are very fortunate to have Price Park so close to school and such a lovely area to enable activities such as these each year. It is the turn of the Grade Foundation to 2 students on Friday, May 20 with their cross country event to take place on the school oval. Always a highlight!!
EDUCATION SUPPORT DAY Every day, education support staff work to keep our schools running, support our students to learn and our teachers to teach. At our school, our education support staff are the friendly faces in the office, and the support staff in classrooms and we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have such wonderful staff here at Viewbank. For me, I can absolutely guarantee that I couldn’t do my job without their support, professionalism and sheer hard work. Thank you – to Lucy, Sue and Georgeina in the office, to Thelma, Louise, Sarina, Kelli and Bree in classrooms, in the library and also on occasions in the office and to Fiona in the First Aid Room.
Education Support Day is celebrated on Monday, May 16 and the next time you see them, please let our ES know how much they are appreciated.
MOTHER’S DAY STALL Thank you to our wonderful helpers for all of their work in enabling this to take place last Friday. There were lots of lovely gifts for sale, and plenty of friendly faces to help our students make their choices. We also had our ‘Life In Doors’ entrepeneurs selling their products on the day to raise money for the school. Nam from 5T, Topaz from 5F, Lucas from 5F, Lucy from 5T, Jasper from 3T and even Lammy from year 7 came up with their business idea during lockdown and it translated to selling bags, key rings and the like at the stall on Friday. Ably supported by their parents and with a business plan to ensure they covered their costs they raised $83.50 for the school!
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
The Resilience Project For those who tuned into the parent webinar 'Discovering Resilience' presented by Martin Heppell of The Resilience Project, we hope you enjoyed it and took away some helpful hints.
Due to our participation in the program at a school level, The Resilience Project has made a recording of the session available to our parent community. You can access this here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/u_XIYTXaQBkNzlcJO5z3_hKCZ4_Wk6wJAxSIZn6Kl_KRDWR7td-FWbbmnZ-ziD8.vO4gemYaonhsjghj
Please note, this link will expire at midnight on 24th May 2022.
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy – NAPLAN We would like to congratulate our Year 3 and Year 5 students and staff for their work with NAPLAN so far. As of Thursday, three tests have been completed (Writing, Reading and Conventions of Language), with Numeracy to be completed on Friday. We have had the occasional technical issue, but nothing our students and staff couldn’t handle.
For students who have missed a test (or tests), we will attempt to provide an opportunity to make-up these tests next week – we will do what we can but cannot guarantee that all tests will be made up. We can only offer a Writing make-up test for Year 3 students until Friday 13th May. Unfortunately, the window to offer make-up Writing tests to Year 5 students has now closed.
Morning Drop-Off Issues Unfortunately, we continue to hear of parents who are not parking correctly, being aggressive towards each other, and not being considerate towards each other at drop-off time in the morning. Your children are always watching you, and your actions are likely to be repeated by them in the future. Our parking issues are only going to get worse in the coming months as our building works begin. I would like to remind you that parking inspectors do visit the school, and fines have been given. As a parent myself, I know how hard some mornings can be with school drop-off, kinder and/or childcare, and then attempting to make it to work on time. That said, can I ask you to please be considerate of each other when on the roads and to adhere to the signposted no-parking hours.
Have a great weekend!
Patrick
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School Tours We run school tours on a Tue, Wed, Thu at 9.30am for prospective families. Please call the office to make a booking.
Enrolments We are currently accepting enrolments for 2023 and are happy to assist with any queries.
Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.
If you have a valid means-tested concession card, such as a Veterans Affairs Gold Card, Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. There is also a special consideration category for asylum seeker and refugee families.
Payment amounts this year are $125 for eligible primary school students. Payments are made direct to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions and sporting activities for the benefit of your child.
It is important that funding made available in 2022 supports students to participate in school trips, camps and sporting activities this year rather than being held for future years. This funding can also be used in conjunction with any funding accrued from previous years. Please note these activities will only take place if they meet COVIDSafe requirements.
If you applied for CSEF through our school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year, unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.
If you would like to apply for the first time, please complete the attached application form and return to the office with a copy of your card.
You can also find out more about the program and eligibility, on the Department of Education and Training’s Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund web page.
Check with the school office if you are unsure, and please return completed forms to the school office as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Lucy Addati
Business Manager
Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Viewbank Primary School is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:
- access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)
- a modern user-friendly interface
- rewarding students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved
- the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review
The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 2 September 2022.
Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.
All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.
To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge
2022 Student Attitudes to School Survey
Dear Parent / Caregiver / Guardian,
This letter is to inform you about the 2022 Student Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS), that your child is invited to participate in.
About the survey
We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting a survey to find out what your child thinks of your school.
The AtoSS is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist your child’s school to gain an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. Students will be asked about their thoughts and feelings in relation to their school, their learning, peer and family relationships, resilience, bullying, mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.
This year, the AtoSS will be conducted at your school over the period Monday 23rd May – Friday 3rd June.
What are the benefits?
In our experience, young people enjoy having their say. We have been running this survey for nearly 20 years and it has been invaluable in helping schools understand student views. Your school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.
What are the risks?
While we do not anticipate many risks of participation, some students may find some of the survey questions too personal and sensitive in nature. Should you agree for your child to participate, they are still free to skip questions or to withdraw at any stage if the survey makes them upset or uncomfortable.
The survey has been approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee. The questions are selected from validated survey instruments used in Australia and around the world, are strength-based, and tailored for each year level group.
What will my child be asked to do?
Your child will be invited to complete the survey online during class time using a purpose built secure online survey tool. It is important to note that we are not in any way “testing” your child. Please note:
- Student participation in the survey is voluntary and students may withdraw at any time.
- The survey will take around 20-45 minutes to complete.
How is my child’s confidentiality protected?
Your child will be provided with a unique login to complete the survey from their teacher. The student login is an assigned identifier that may be used to link data for statistical and research purposes only. Personally identifiable data will not be recorded in the survey response file. This ensures that the confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times.
How will results be reported?
The survey results will be reported back to the school in an aggregate form throughout the survey period. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified. Data suppression rules are used for schools with low student numbers per year level.
Your school may share the results of the survey with parents, in documents such as the School Annual Report.
Options for participation
Participation in this survey is voluntary. If you do not wish for your child to do the survey, please opt out via email to your school: viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Please do so before Monday 23rd May, stating that you wish to opt out of your child’s participation, along with their name and year level.
If your school does not receive a Refusal of Consent email from yourself before the survey commencement date mentioned within this letter, it means that you give your consent for your child to participate in the 2022 Attitudes to School Survey.
A copy of the survey that we are asking your child to complete is available from your child’s school. Please contact the administration office if you would like to see the survey before making your decision about whether you would like your child to participate.
If you would like more information, please speak to your child’s teacher, or contact the Department at school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.
Yours sincerely,
The Victorian Department of Education and Training
Helping out the Community Students at Viewbank Primary often show a high level of care and empathy for others, both within our school and extending to the wider community. After hearing about the plight of people who lost their homes due to the recent floods in New South Wales and Queensland, our students were keen to do something to help.
An eager group of students gave up their recess and lunchtime to help put together care packs for children in flood affected areas. These packs were picked up and personally delivered, along with a truck load of other food donations, by Paul Rudd from the Macleod Community Pantry.
Here's Paul delivering the packs, and here are some of our lovely volunteers with a certificate of appreciation from Macleod Community Pantry.
Your help is needed for Saturday 21st May, 2022 - Election Day Sausage Sizzle & Cake Stall
Viewbank Primary School Parents and Friends Association will be having a fundraising Sausage Sizzle and Cake Stall on Saturday 21st May (Federal Election Day), at Viewbank Primary School.
We are asking for people to offer 2 hours of their time on the day between the hours of 7:00am to 6:00pm. Remember the money raised will go directly to our school upgrade.
- Click here to volunteer at our "2022 Federal Election - Sausage Sizzle"
- Click here to volunteer at our "2022 Federal Election - Cake Stall"
Could you help us by making a cake/slice or biscuits for our Election Day cake stall?
This is a very popular event for the school as many locals come to vote and know we have freshly baked goods for sale, this is also a fantastic fundraiser for the school.
All you have to do is make your favourite cake, slice, biscuits or sweet treat. Place them on a single-use plate and return them sealed in a freezer/glad snap-lock bag. Please ensure your items are baked or made as close to the drop off date as possible so they are fresh and enjoyed once sold.
Please name and list all the ingredients of your cakes/slices etc. on the sticker and attach it to the outside of the freezer bag. Seal the bag and drop off your baked goods at the school's General Office.
Please ensure that you fill in your details in the registration book when dropping your donation off, otherwise we won’t be able to sell your lovely offerings.
We will be available to accept your plate and register your details in the office from
- 8.45 am till 9.30am and 3 pm till 3.45pm on Friday 20th May
- Saturday morning between 7:30 and 8:30am (at the cake stall)
We thank you in advance.
All the children also thank you for your fantastic support we really can’t do it without you!!!
Due to parent request the Lower Plenty Bakehouse will be providing the school with fundraising Lunch Orders every Thursday during Term 2. These lunches have been implemented via our Parents and Friends Committee. All money raised will be used towards our major school upgrade.
Our Term 2 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates are:
- Thursday 19th May (Orders closing on 16th May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 26th May (Orders closing on 23rd May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 2nd June (Orders closing on 30th May, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 9th June (Orders closing on 6th June, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 16th June (Orders closing on 13th June, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 23rd June (Orders closing on 20th June, 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 2 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.
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
SINGING WITH JADE - Jade
- Email: jadefaving@gmail.com
- Phone: 0413 834 933
STRINGS - MR CAI
- Email: cai66@optusnet.com.au
- Phone: 0403 490 078
GUITAR/BASS GUITAR - Alec
- Email: alec.stalder@gmail.com
PIANO/KEYBOARD - Ella
- Email: ellac.blackburn@gmail.com
- Phone: 0410 938 840
DRUMS - Michael
- Email: michaelfindlaymcnab@gmail.com
- Phone: 0451 394 540
PHONE NUMBER: 0448 075 422
EMAIL: viewbank@oshclub.com.au
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