Wednesday March 14 - Hot Cross Bun orders Due. Hot Cross Buns will be distributed to students on Friday 23rd March.
Friday March 16 — Parents and Friends Movie Night
Thursday March 22 - Special Lunch Day - SAUSAGE IN BREAD (Orders due by Monday March 19)
Monday March 26 - Easter Raffle Drawn (Tickets due back by Friday March 23)
Thursday March 29 - End of Term 1, 2.30pm dismissal
Monday April 16 - Start of Term 2
UPCOMING TRANSITION DATES* — May Information Night: Thursday 3 May 7-8pm, Education Week Open Day: Tuesday 22 May 9.30-3pm, Education Week Open Morning: Saturday 26 May 9am-12pm *Full Transition timeline available below
Annual Working Bees — Saturday May 12 (Term 2), Saturday August 11 (Term 3), Saturday November 3 (Term 4)
PUPIL FREE DAYS — Tuesday June 12, Monday December 17
TERM DATES — TERM 1: Monday 29 January - Thursday 29 March, TERM 2: Monday 16 April - Friday 29 June, TERM 3: Monday 16 July - Friday 21 September, TERM 4: Monday 8 October - Friday 21 December
CAMP DATES — Year 6 Canberra Camp 14 - 18 May, Year 4 Anglesea Camp 30 May - 1 June, Year 5 Lady Northcote Camp 9 - 12 October, Year 3 Urban Camp 10 - 12 December.
It’s good to be back on deck, but it was fabulous to journey to the Arctic Circle these last few weeks to experience the climate, culture, life and educational system of Finland. We experienced temperatures as low as -25 Celsius during the ten days we spent in Helsinki and Rovaniemi, yet once acclimatised and with the recommended ‘layers’ of clothing, it was quite tolerable. I was with a tour group of Australians and Americans and as well as attending lectures and seminars on education there, we visited a range of different schools covering education of 2 to 18 years old pre-schoolers and students. We presented at the University of Lapland on the Curiosity and Powerful Learning initiative that is entrenched in our teaching here at Viewbank, and experienced many aspects of Finnish life that I had only ever really heard about – a first hand view of the Northern Lights, the experience of driving a husky sleigh, reindeer rides and more. It was an experience to see students gather up toboggans and skis as they headed out to play in -23 temperatures; to be part of the daily lunch routine where staff and students all ate together from the government provided lunch ‘spread’ prepared by the school chef; and to hear from Finnish Principals, staff and students about various aspects of their school life which I could compare to ours. All up, a rewarding experience.
THANK YOU…to our Assistant Principals, Suzanne Kot and Gill Nicholls, who steered the ship so capably in my absence. It could not have been in better hands.
MOVIE NIGHT Preparations are well in hand for our community social event set down for Friday, March 16 – ‘Movie Night’. I hope to see you there.
DISTRICT AND DIVISIONAL SWIMMING Our swimming team ventured to the Northcote Pool on Wednesday for the Divisional Swimming Championships. Using the motivation of the Commonwealth Games trials which were all over our TV screens in recent times, they performed extremely well and we are very proud of the achievements of all competitors. Results feature later in this newsletter.
SCHOOL COUNCIL The first meeting of our newly elected School Council will take place on Thursday, March 15 from 7pm. This is a slightly earlier start than normal to cater for the election of office bearers for 2018, and the presentation of our Annual Report. To ‘new’ Council members, the mail out of information will be on Friday and I look forward to working with everyone again this year.
I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend.
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
UNIFORM SHOP CHANGES Most things change over time and hopefully for the better. With this in mind and in order to provide a more efficient and convenient supply of student uniforms to our school community we have decided to outsource the provision of Viewbank Primary School uniforms to a company called AGS Prints trading as My Uniform. Sharon Jones has done an amazing job over the last couple of years as Coordinator of the Uniform Shop and we certainly could not have managed to provide this service for as long as we have without her expert understanding of purchasing trends and projected stock requirements. However, as our school has grown in size an ever increasing quantity of stock has needed to be available. Along with this, production times for some items currently made overseas have become quite lengthy meaning stock is sometimes unavailable. Over the past six months we have met with various uniform companies and after a presentation to School Council last year, we agreed to establish a partnership with My Uniform. My Uniform is an Australian owned, clothing manufacturer and has been in business for over 30 years. It is currently supplying more than 300 Victorian schools with uniforms. They are able to offer an efficient delivery time frame as they have complete control over the local manufacturing process from fabric production to embroidery of the school logo. All our school uniform items will now be manufactured by the same company at a consistently high quality. Our uniform range will always be available and pricing will remain consistent with our current price list. My Uniform, offers a range of ordering options including online, in store and order forms which can be left at the office. Uniform items can be delivered free to the school once a week or delivered to your home or work place for a cost of $12.00. In the coming weeks, we will communicate all the required information that families will need to begin purchasing uniform items from My Uniform at the end of March. The final day of trading for the school based uniform shop will be Tuesday 20th March. If you pop into the uniform shop in the coming weeks or see Sharon Jones around the school grounds please consider thanking her for all her hard work in recent years coordinating the school uniform shop. THANK YOU, SHARON!
Have a great week.
Gill Nicholls
The uniform shop is open every Tuesday from 9am to 10am until Tuesday 20 March. You can also leave orders anytime at the school office and uniform will be sent home with your child.
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND - Special Lunch Day - SAUSAGE IN BREAD, Thursday 22nd March, 2018. Please complete the below order form and return it to school with correct money (no change will be given) by Monday 19th March, 2018. All money raised from the sales will be going towards our major fundraising project - the resurfacing of the asphalt.
VIEWBANK PRIMARY SCHOOL MOVIE NIGHT You can now secure your tickets to Viewbank Primary School's Movie Night by visiting the TryBooking link below. This fun filled event will be running on Friday 16th March. Thanks to our wonderful PFA for their organisation. We need volunteers for chopping onion, setup, BBQ, door sales, sales of food and pack up. If you are able to help in anyway please add your name by using the link below. Thank you for your support.
2018 VIEWBANK PRIMARY SCHOOL EASTER RAFFLE $1.00 per ticket, lots of great prizes to be won!! Please return all sold tickets to school by Wednesday 23rd March, 2018. Raffle to be drawn on Monday 26th March, 2018 *Please ensure name and phone number are clearly written onto all sold tickets. All money raised will be going towards our major fundraising project - the resurfacing of the asphalt. Thank you for your support.
DIVISION SWIMMING On Wednesday 7th March, 22 Viewbank Primary School students set off to Northcote Aquatic and Recreation Centre, eagerly awaiting the fierce competition that lay ahead at the Banyule and Inner North-Moreland Division Swimming meet. Competitors were blessed with perfect swimming weather and spectators treated to thrilling races that were often decided by hundredths of seconds. All students gave their absolute best and regardless of their result can be proud of the way they represented our school. A special mention must go out to those competitors moving on to Regional Swimming next Wednesday 14th March – Jemima Drake, Thomas Vander Pal, Derik Du, Jesse McLeod and Connor Burdell.
Blair Morton
Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) The Government assisted ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ provides payments for eligible students to attend camps, sports and excursions. Applications for the Governments ‘Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund’ can be accessed by filling out the form available on Compass, at the office or via the link below. To be eligible for this funding, you need to hold a current Pension or Health Care Card. Please note: as this funding is means tested, the Parent/Guardian MUST be the card holder, no Medical Health Care Cards in the student’s name will be accepted as it will be rejected by the CSEF system. Funds will be automatically allocated to the Term Expenses unless otherwise stated by the parent at the start of the year.
TRANSITION DATES Please download the below timeline for your future reference.
HATS ON From 1st September until 30th April school hats must be worn outside during all outside activities.
COLES SPORTS FOR SCHOOLS VOUCHERS Viewbank PS is taking part again in 2018! Vouchers can be dropped into the collection bin at our school office or at Coles Warringal Mall.
BOOK CLUB Issue 2 catalogues have been sent home with the children. Orders are due by Wednesday 14th March. Every dollar you spend earns points to buy more books for the Library. Thank you for your support.
HOT CROSS BUN ORDERS A Bakers Delight envelope has now been sent home with each student. $2 from every 6-pack of Hot Cross Buns will be donated back to our school! Orders are due back by Wednesday 14th March. Hot Cross Buns will be distributed to students on Friday 23rd March.
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.
Foundation — Raymond (FM), Royce (FE), Naomi (FE), Eve (FR), Harvey (FR), Jerylia (FP)
Year 1 — Logan (F/1D), Erick (1R), Whole Class (1K)
Year 2 — Bonnie (2N), Angus (2M), Parker (2C), Sidharth (2B)
Year 3 — Tilly (3B), Elizabeth (3G), Bethany (3L), Adele (3W)
Year 4 — Emily (4N), Avah (4C), Matilda (4N), Caiden (3/4F)
Year 5 — Caitlin (5T), Whole Class (5C), Jasmine (5K), Dean (5/6B)
Year 6 — Remy (6G), Othello (6A), Faiza (6D)
ONLINE BULLYING Online bullying is bullying carried out through the internet or mobile devices. Online bullying is also sometimes called cyberbullying. It can happen to anyone, anytime, and can leave you feeling unsafe and distressed. Online bullying can be offensive and upsetting.
Types of behaviour in online bullying
Online bullying can include:
- sending insulting or threatening messages
- posting unkind messages or inappropriate images on social networking sites
- excluding others from online chats or other communication
- inappropriate image tagging
- sharing someone's personal or embarrassing information online
- creating hate sites or starting social exclusion campaigns on social networking sites
- sharing unflattering or private images, including naked or sexual images
- assuming the identity of the another person online and representing them in a negative manner or manner that may damage their relationship with others
- repeatedly, and for no strategic reason, attacking players in online gaming.
For it to be called bullying, inappropriate actions online must be between people who have ongoing contact and be part of a pattern of repeated behaviours (online or offline). Single incidents or random inappropriate actions are not bullying. One action – such as an insulting comment or an embarrassing photo – which is repeated through sharing and forwarding to others, can be called bullying if the individuals involved know each other, and have ongoing contact either on or offline. Online bullying has the potential to have social, psychological and educational impacts.
Download the Cybersafety for students fact sheet (PDF, 63KB).
How online bullying is different from bullying in person
While online bullying involves similar behaviours to bullying in person, it also differs in the following ways:
- it can be invasive and difficult to escape — it can happen at all hours and while at home
- it can involve harmful material being widely and rapidly disseminated to a large audience, for example, rumours and images can be posted on public forums or sent to many people at once
- it can provide the person doing the bullying with a sense of distance from the other person, so there is a lack of immediate feedback or consequences.
These important differences should not distract schools, parents and carers from the fact that online bullying is essentially the same as bullying in person. In fact, research suggests that many students who are bullied online are also bullied in person. If a student reports online bullying, it is important to investigate further to get the full picture.
Hi Viewbank Parents and Families,
Last week our goal was to play outside more and to enjoy the nice weather while we still have it. The children were engaged in a variety of activities when outside, they played cricket, soccer, group skipping, outside drawing and playground fun. It was a great week. This weeks focus is group play that is lead by the children. Last week I asked the children what kind of group activities they would like to do and they came up with a range of ideas. Many of these ideas were included in this weeks planner. We will be playing badminton, rounders, blob tag, creating stone art and glitter firework art. These are only a few of this weeks activities. Next week we are going to be doing a recycle challenge so could we please ask you to send old newspaper with your children. Also if you are interested in vacation care we have itineraries outlining the awesome excursions and incursions at OSHClub.
Thanks,
Viewbank OSHClub
FREE WALK/RUN PROGRAM Running Monday mornings, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons & Saturday Mornings. Anyone interested please contact: Donna Wright on 0400 543 327 for more details.