Thursday 25th October - ICAS English and Mathematics certificate presentation, 3pm

Friday 26th October - Viewbank Primary School Walkathon Sponsorship money due

Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th October - Vision Portrait photoshoot BOOK ONLINE NOW

Monday 29th October - Special Lunch Day Orders Due - ORDER NOW ONLINE

Friday 2nd November - Day for Daniel - Free dress day (gold coin donation)

Thursday 8th November - Special Lunch Day - ORDER NOW ONLINE

Saturday 24th November - State Election Day Fundraising BBQ

Thursday 6th December - Special Lunch Day

Tuesday 11th December - Viewbank Primary Parents & Friends end of year social dinner - Everyone welcome!! 7:30pm

Tuesday 18th December - Year 6 Graduation at Viewbank College

ANNUAL WORKING BEES — Saturday November 10 (Term 4) 9am to 5pm

PUPIL FREE DAYS — Monday December 17

TERM DATES — TERM 4: Monday 8 October - Friday 21 December

CAMP DATES — Year 3 Arrabri Lodge Camp 29 - 31 October.

EXCITING NEWS  On Monday, October 22, we were lucky enough to have some very special visitors. The Education Minister and Deputy Premier, James Merlino, the State Member for Ivanhoe, Anthony Carbines, Chris Thompson and Silvana Sena from DET North East Melbourne Area, joined with School Council President Kate Ryan, School Council Member Cosimo Graps, Assistant Principal Gill Nicholls and our school captains to tour the school before we held a special assembly in the gymnasium. It was there that the Minister pledged $3.8 million dollars to our school for a long awaited upgrade of classrooms. We are very appreciative and grateful for this pledge, and all things being equal, we will commence planning for this upgrade early in the New Year!

CAMPING PROGRAM The grade 3s head to Arrabri Lodge on Monday for their three day camp (the last school camping activity for 2018!). Arrabri Lodge is in Warburton East and offers a range of activities including mini-golf, Flying Fox, Vertical Swing, Bush Dancing, Low Ropes, Initiative Courses, Orienteering and more. We wish everyone a fun time! For more information please click on this link http://www.arrabri.com.au/

And good luck to our Grade 2 students and teachers as they prepare for their sleepover on Friday night – plenty of excitement, fun and hopefully sleep!!

CHESS FINALS Best wishes to six of our students who have qualified for State Chess Semi Finals or Finals next Tuesday at Kingswood College, Box Hill:-

Yueshan Gao and Emma Han (Girls Primary Final) and Ewan McLaughlan, Jack Yuan, Luke Whitby and Sakvith Caldera (Boys Primary Semi Finals).

INTENTION TO LEAVE Each year, we have a number of families moving into the area and enrolling students at Grade levels other than Foundation, and this seems to ‘ramp up’ around this time of the year. Similarly, and often because of circumstances relating to job transfers, moving house, defence force postings and the like we have families leaving us with students attending other primary schools in the following year. PLEASE, if you are one of these families and you know for certain, or are fairly sure, that you won’t be returning in 2019, could you let us know at your earliest convenience? Some fairly important decisions are made based on enrolment information, and the more reliable the information, the better the decisions! An email to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au or a hand written note presented at the General Office will suffice. Thank you.

PARENTAL REQUESTS Up until Cup Day, parents have the opportunity to provide in writing grade placement requests for 2019. Once again this year, we have subscribed to ‘Class Creator’ –software that generates classes for 2019 balanced by class size, gender, behavior, special needs, EAL and academic abilities, all the while taking into account recommended student separations, pairings, friendships, student sociograms, social dynamics and parent requests. It saves many hours of work for staff and retains a history of parent requests over the years of a student’s education at our school.

At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the development of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed. Having said that, we do invite your input into grade selection if there are special circumstances that we need to know about. Occasionally we may not be aware of these special circumstances which might include but are not limited to health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation.

There is no place to request a particular teacher by name, NOR to request your child does not have a particular teacher. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances.

Information requiring our consideration needs to be addressed to ‘The Principal’ and handed to the office by Monday, November 5. Please note that letters received after this date will NOT be accepted. All letters will be dealt with in the strictest confidence. Whilst each request will be given consideration, no guarantees can be given. We are planning to announce class placements by December 12 and these will be provided with your child’s 2019 reports. Finally, if you consider you have special circumstances, please make the request in writing EVEN if it has been made before –as much as we would like to think so, we can’t remember everything from years gone by!!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Kind regards,

Bill Kersing

Principal

STUDENT SOCIAL GROUPS 2019 By the end of next week, all students will have completed their friendship preferences for 2019 class groupings. Friendships are one factor that help us build classes. Each year, we ask our students to consider who they work well with and to record four names in no particular order. Students will receive at least one friend from the names they have recorded. You may wish to discuss this with your child to assist them with their choices.

YEAR 1 LATE NIGHT EXPERIENCE Congratulations to the Year 1 students and our wonderful Year 1 teaching team and assisting Viewbank staff for a great evening last Friday at the late night experience. The children had lots of fun completing the activities and everyone enjoyed the yummy pizza followed by the movie. Thank you for inviting me along.

I’m very much looking forward to sleeping over with the Year 2s tomorrow night.

Have a great week

Gill Nicholls

Staff Professional Development On Tuesday afternoon, the staff of Viewbank Primary School were introduced to the 'SAFEMinds' toolkit. The toolkit that has been developed by 'headspace' in consultation with the Department of Education and Training and the Victorian Government School Wellbeing Teams (plus a range of child and mental health professionals and organisations). It is estimated that 1 in 7 students aged between 4 and 17 require mental health support (this is higher in secondary schools).

In many cases, a teacher may be the first to notice a student's change of behaviour that may indicate that he/she is struggling to deal with what life is presenting to them at a particular point in time. And while some changes in behaviour and mood are normal, there is a 'tipping' point that may indicate more complex emotional issues.

SAFEMinds is underpinned by the NIP it in the bud! early intervention approach.

The staff will have a follow up training session later in the term. If you have any concerns about your child's mental health, and you are unsure what to do next, please have a read of the attachment or drop in and see me.

Day for Daniel On Friday, 26th October, the students who are not at swimming in Prep, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 will be participating in Australia’s largest Child Safety Lesson. The lesson will be streamed live at 10:30am and over 100,000 students across Australia are expected to tune in.

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s main purpose is to educate young children about personal safety, and wants to make sure that every local community is safe for all children.

On Friday, 2nd November, to help raise money for this worthwhile cause, we are having a ‘Wear Something Red’ Day. So, wear something red and make a gold coin donation.

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Dear Parents/Guardians

Please note the following changes attached in regards to the ordering procedure of school uniforms. My Uniforms has been taken over by A Plus Schoolwear therefore the new website is https://www.aplusschoolwear.com.au/Default.aspx

Thank you

Lucy

Special Lunch Day (Pizza, Cookie & Juice) - Order Now Please find attached a link for our Special Lunch Day to be held on Thursday 8th November, 2018. CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW Please place orders before Monday 29th October, 2018.

Parent assistance is required on this day. If you are available to assist in any way can you please email your details to viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

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.

Year 1 Late Night Experience Last Friday the Year 1 students had their Late Night Experience. The event is a highlight of the Year 1 calendar and is an introduction to Viewbank Primary Schools camping program. It was a terrific evening full of activities and laughter. Here are a few of our favourite moments from the evening:

• I liked having the fruit platters because they were yummy! - Livie (1K)
• I really liked the Scavenger Hunt because it includes lots of skills - Luke (1K)
• I enjoying having the pizza and watching Sing because I liked Johnny's singing - Logan (1D)
• I enjoyed doing the Scavenger Hunt with my friend Ziyi because we worked together as a team - Zara (1D)
• My favourite part of the Late Night Experience was playing on the playground and watching the movie with all of my friends - Emily (1R)
• I liked having the cheese pizza, I had two slices and it was delicious! I liked the movie Sing because it was funny - Will (1R)
• My favourite part was staying up with my friends later - Max (1T)
• I thought the Scavenger Hunt was fun because Asha and I found all of the things - Lucy (1T)

This October Viewbank Primary is excited to take part in the state-wide Walk to School program.

About Walk to School VicHealth’s Walk to School encourages Victorian primary school kids and their families to walk, ride or scoot to and from school everyday. Along with the health benefits it also reduces traffic congestion and parking, helps us connect with the community and saves the environment!

Part way is okay! If you can’t walk the whole way, why not try parking at your nearest meeting place and walk, ride or scoot the rest.

Safe Routes to School Map Banyule Council has provided a Safe Routes to School Map. Viewbank Primary’s has convenient meeting places highlighted where families could meet in the mornings before they start their walk. The maps are available at the front office so you can familiarise yourself with the safest way to walk to school.

For more information go to walktoschool.vic.gov.au

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

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

SCHOOL CHOIR Every Wednesdays, 8.30, in the Music room. Everyone Welcome!

RUNNING GROUP Every Thursday from 8:15am on the oval, for any students in years 4-6. All abilities welcome. Pack a spare pair of socks/shoes in case the oval is damp. Hope to see you there!

Facility Hire Viewbank Primary School provides a venue for hire with kitchen facilities. Please submit a written application to the office, outlining the details of intended use via email at viewbank.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Please note that conditions do apply. At the discretion of the school, venue costs may also be waived in some instances. All applications will be considered on a case by case basis

All Big Group Hug donations can be left in the Grade 3/4F classroom.