- Friday 20 June P&F Trivia Night in gym
- Tuesday 24 June - JSC Yr F-2 Movie Day in the Gym at Lunch Time
- Wednesday 25 June - JSC Yr 3-6 Movie Day in the Gym at Lunch Time
- Friday 04 July Last day of Term 2 – Assembly at 2:05pm, students dismissed at 2:30pm
PUPIL FREE DAYS (TheirCare School Holiday Program will be available on pupil-free days)
- Monday 21 July - Three-Way Conference Day
- Monday 3rd November – Report Writing Day
2025 TERM DATES
- TERM 2: 22 April - 4 July
- TERM 3: 21 July - 19 September
- TERM 4: 6 October - 19 December
2025 CAMP DATES
- Year 3 Phillip Island Camp - 27 October - 29 October
- Year 5 Lady Northcote Camp - 08 October to 10 October
- Year 6 Urban Camp - 15 September to 17 September
SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS At our meeting on Tuesday night, School Council confirmed the final two pupil free days for 2025. The first day of Term 3, July 21 has been set aside as a pupil free day to enable three-way conferences to take place. Students will come in on that day, accompanied by a parent, for a 15-minute conference with their teacher and so normal lessons will not be held. Their Care will run a program in the gymnasium for those unable to make care arrangements on that day. The other pupil free day in 2025 will be held on Monday, November 3 – the day before Cup Day – and is set aside as a report writing day for staff. Please pencil these dates in to whatever calendar/scheduling system you rely on!!
HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS AND REFURBISHMENTS You will be aware by now that an indigenous mural will further enhance our new Tiger Turf area – this has been rescheduled for the Term 3 holidays when the weather is better. Happy to remind you that we are having some asphalt and concrete work on the surrounds over the Term 2 holidays, to finish that area off and open up access to the Grade 2 classrooms and music room. We have also booked in painters to paint the Foundation classrooms over the same break, with new carpets scheduled for the Term 3 holidays. These refurbishments have been some time coming, and whilst a tad expensive will hopefully be the first steps in a staged enhancement of the Foundation/Grade 1 building, library and music rooms over the next few years.
CHESS TOURNAMENT We hosted a chess tournament for around 125 local students on Tuesday in our gymnasium, and everyone enjoyed the day. As you know playing chess has many benefits not least of which are the improvements in concentration and focus, the boosts to memory, enhancements in problem solving skills and the development of strategic thinking. Our 23 students who participated enjoyed the ‘day off’ from classroom activities and will continue to enjoy events such as these. Of the 17 schools that participated, Viewbank Primary School placed second behind Balwyn North Primary School overall. Daniel McDermott won 6 of his 7 games and took out the silver medal, whilst Chau Pham from Grade 4 won 5 of her games in open competition against all grade levels. Congratulations to all who participated.
CROSS COUNTRY Congratulations to Lizzie Rance, Jessica Martinez, Riley Cadusch, Alexander Carnovale, Ethan Woo and Melinda Tan who yesterday took part in the Regional Cross Country event at Kilmore. With a region extending all the way up to Mildura, the reason for holding the event in Kilmore becomes a little more apparent! The top 12 in each event qualify for the State Championships to be held at the Yarra Valley Racing Club on Thursday 24 July.
RESCHEDULED WORKING BEE Many thanks to those who turned up for Sunday’s working bee. We managed to schedule a morning without rain and the sun even paid us a visit! Lots of sweeping, tidying and planting occupied all of us and ensured the school is looking neat and attractive. Many thanks to Neralie Cadusch, Anna Giap, Stella, Janine, Max, Gwendolyn and Michael Parrent, Jenny Chien, Ben and Nova Bailey, Leanne Lai, Cynthia Weng, Nick Busselman, Mark and Alex Yunev, the La Rosa Family, Summer Merrie, Chris Andreou, Patrick Walsh and Gill Nicholls for all of your efforts!
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Allied health services and student programs available HealthAbility in Eltham and Box Hill are currently offering a range of Children, Youth and Family services that may be of interest to families. Please see the flyers attached for further information.
In particular, they have:
• Hobby Club - a neurodiversity affirming friendship group run by a Child & Youth Psychologist and Allied Health Assistant. The group is tailored towards children’s interests, e.g. Sonic, Minecraft, cooking and experiments. [currently running and recruiting at Box Hill site, Carrington Rd, on Thursdays 4pm – 5pm, recruiting for further participants at both sites].
• SociAbility - a group for Grade 5/6 students building friendship skills, understanding of anger and conflict, self-advocacy and neurodiversity affirming identity, run by a school teacher/Child & Youth Psychologist [currently recruiting for Term 3, Mondays 4pm - 5pm at our Eltham site on Main Rd, Eltham]
• Speech pathology and NDIS psychology services are also available as well as Parenting Support.
For further information please contact:
Venetia Su - Clinical Development & Projects Lead/Senior Speech Pathologist Children, Youth and Family Service (Working days: Mon, Wed (alternate), Thurs - Ph. 94303146 - 43 Carrington Road, Box Hill VIC 3128 | 917 Main Road, Eltham VIC 3095 | Wurundjeri land
New Preventing and Addressing Racism in Schools Policy The Education Department has recently released a Preventing and Addressing Racism in Schools policy which must be implemented into schools from the beginning of Term 3.
The new policy clearly outlines that racism is not tolerated in Victorian government schools. It consolidates advice, guidance and resources on cultural safety, inclusion and incident response into a single statewide policy. This new policy is designed to help schools take actions to prevent and address racism, religious intolerance and racial and religious vilification.
The policy covers 3 key actions:
- Preventing racism: schools must maintain culturally safe and inclusive environments.
- Responding to racism: schools must have clear, timely, safe and inclusive processes to respond to incidents of racism.
- Reporting racism: schools must report incidents of racism
A link to this Department policy can be found on our school website, along with advice on how to report incidents of racism to the school and through the Report Racism hotline.
Have a great week,
Gill
Planning Week As mentioned in a previous Viewbank Voice, our termly Planning Week is scheduled for Week 10 of this term – next week. For an overview of what happens during Planning Week, please read the summary provided in the Viewbank Voice dated 20 March 2025.
In Term 2, the timetable will be as follows:
3-Way Conferences Monday 21 July By now you would have received a notification that these are available for you to book a time. Please note that the booking system will be open until Thursday 03 July at 4:00pm.
Our Specialist and Learning Support teachers only have limited availability on this day - please only make a booking if you think it is absolutely necessary. They are more than happy to answer any questions you may have via email, phone, or at another agreed to time. If your child's Specialist and/or Learning Support Teacher do not work on a Monday, and are not listed, please contact them directly.
Classroom Teacher times are 15 minutes each, Specialist and Learning Support are 5 minutes each. Slots will be available between 10:30am and 6:30pm.
We have 3 classes that will be holding their 3-Way Conferences in Term 2 on Thursday 03 July 10am – 6pm. These are 6B (Ms Boness will be beginning her Family Leave) and 5T and 6F due to Mrs Taylor and Mrs Farley taking leave in the first few weeks of Term 3. Normal classes between 9am and 3:30pm for these grades will be running on Thursday 03 July.
Have a great weekend.
Patrick
Enrolments For Foundation/Prep 2026 Are Now Open Enrolments for the 2026 intake of Foundation/Prep students are now open. In line with the Department of Education’s Placement Policy and timeline, we will contact you in early August to advise the outcome of your child’s Foundation/Prep enrolment application.
School Saving Bonus reminder and allocation to school activities The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus (SSB) – a one-off support of $400 for eligible government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025.
The SSB can be used for uniforms and textbooks until Monday 30 June 2025.
Any funds remaining after 30 June 2025, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use on school activities. However, the credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July.
To use any remaining SSB funds to cover the cost of school activities in July, please refer to the SSB online system and allocate the funds to school activities before 30 June 2025.
To learn more about the SSB online system, download the step-by-step System guide for parents and carers (DOCX, 945KB) or watch this School Saving Bonus video. System guide translations are also available in 14 languages.
The Department of Education’s SSB contact centre will remain available until 30 June 2025. The contact centre can be reached by:
- completing the School Saving Bonus enquiry form
- calling 1800 338 663, between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm on weekdays.
After this date, please contact our administration team for any SSB related questions.
Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.
If you have a valid means-tested concession card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. Means-tested concession cards must be valid on the first day of Term 1, 2025 (Tuesday 28 January 2025) or Term 2, 2025 (Tuesday 22 April 2025).
A student aged 16 years and over who is considered a mature minor and holds a valid concession card is also eligible to apply.
Eligible families will receive a payment of $154 per year for primary school students. The funds will be paid directly to the school to be used towards camps, sports and excursion costs for the benefit of your child.
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, complete the application form and return to the school office as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Lucy Addati
STUDENT REPORTS – MATHEMATICS 2.0 We wrote to you a few weeks ago to let you know about the changes to student reporting for Mathematics in Victorian Government schools.
As explained previously, the new Mathematics Curriculum (version 2.0), requires teachers to report against the Mathematics achievement standard as a whole, providing a single, aggregated score. Previously, achievement in Mathematics was reported as three separate scores, representing three strands, as seen below.
The Mathematics score will now look like this:
All Department of Education (DET) schools are required to implement the Mathematics Curriculum version 2.0 by 2025. Mathematics Curriculum version 2.0 is a strengthened and more rigorous curriculum, which aligns content with the assessment frameworks for OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends In International Mathematics And Science Study (TIMS) and international curriculum standards.
As a school, our teachers have been working hard to adjust their planning and teaching to cater to the demands of the new Mathematics Curriculum. With changes of this magnitude, it will take a little time to adjust.
Given the changes made to curriculum content and the revisions to how Mathematics achievement is scored the achievement score your child(ren) receives in Mathematics this semester may appear lower than their previous semester’s score. It is important to understand that this should not be interpreted that your child(ren)s learning or achievement in Mathematics has ‘gone backwards’ but is attributed to resequencing and realignment of content and skills within the new curriculum as well as aggregating assessment data.
The new Mathematics Curriculum is not directly comparable with the previous Mathematics Curriculum given that skills and content have been modified and aligned to different achievement standard levels. This means that the Mathematics report you receive for your child(ren) at the end of this semester will only show their achievement, not progress. You will see their progress between Semester 1 and Semester 2 at the end of the year.
You will see a ‘dot’ that appears within a band of achievement that reflects their overall achievement for Mathematics – this takes into account their average achievement for all five (Foundation-Year 2) or six (Years 3-6) strands of Mathematics: Number, Algebra, Measurement, Statistics, Space and Probability (Years 3-6 only). In order to give you a clearer picture of your child(ren)’s achievements in those individual strands, the report will also have a checklist to give you more specific information. Each student will be reported as ‘Working Toward’; ‘Working At’ or ‘Working Beyond’ in each of these stands. Therefore you may see that your child(ren) are ‘Working Toward’ expected levels of achievement in one or more stands, ‘Working At’ expected levels of achievement in one or more stands, and ‘Working Beyond’ expected levels of achievement in one or more strands. It is feasible that students have a diverse combination of levels of achievement within the entirety Mathematics curriculum.
The ’checklist’ will look like this:
Jane McLeod - Assessment and Reporting Coordinator
Foundation Team Incursion This week, our Foundation students were thrilled for their second visit from Fire Rescue Victoria! Building on their learning about community helpers and safety, the students revised important fire safety messages, including what to do in a fire and identifying their safe meeting place.
The highlight of the visit was getting to explore inside the fire truck and each student was even able have a turn using the fire hose! It was an engaging and memorable way to reinforce vital safety knowledge. We definitely have some future firefighters among us.
Thank you to Fire Rescue Victoria for visiting. We had a wonderful time.
The Foundation Team
Junior School Council News Junior School Council has been working very hard at organising fundraising for a School Nature Garden.
To raise funds, classes took a vote which resulted in Lunch Time Movie Days. In Week 10, JSC will be hosting an F-2 Movie Lunch Day in the Gym at Lunch Time on Tuesday the 24th of June, as well as a 3-6 Movie Lunch Day in the Gym at Lunch Time on Wednesday the 25th of June. A gold coin donation is required to attend. Students are able to purchase 1 x packet of popcorn per person for $1.
In the lead up to the day, students will be able to purchase raffle tickets to win an F-2 Prize (Bluey Plush Toy) and a 3-6 Prize (Magic 8 Ball and Uno No Mercy). Raffle Tickets cost 50 cents for 5 tickets. Raffle winners will be revealed at Week 11 End of Term Assembly.
Good Luck and Happy Movie Watching! 🎬🍿🎟️
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).
Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:
- year of schooling
- category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
- level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.
This information assists schools to:
- formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
- consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
- develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.
The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.
The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).
Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).
If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.
🎉 Viewbank Primary Trivia Night 2025! 🎉 - Book your tickets now!
The Viewbank Primary School Parents & Friends Association invites you to a night of fun, laughs, and friendly competition at our annual Trivia Night – all in support of our amazing school!
- 🧠 Test your knowledge across a range of exciting categories – from pop culture and history to sports and more.
- 🎁 Win great prizes through games, raffles, and brain-teasing challenges.
- 👥 Bring a team or join one on the night – it's a great way to connect with our school community.
Whether you're a trivia pro or just in it for the fun, it's guaranteed to be a fantastic night out. Best of all, your participation helps raise vital funds for our school!
- 📅 Date: Friday 20 June 2025
- 🕕 Time: 6:45 PM – 11:00 PM
- 📍 Location: Viewbank Primary School Gymnasium, Nevin Parade, Viewbank VIC 3084
- 💵 Cost: $30 per ticket
- 👤 Tables of 12
- 🍷 BYO Alcohol & Nibbles
- 💳 Eftpos Available on the night
- 🔞 Adults only – 18+ event
- 🎟 Book your tickets now! – Don't miss out on this great community night!
Let’s come together and make this a night to remember – all for a great cause!
https://www.trybooking.com/DBXSN
Lower Plenty Bakehouse proudly partners with our school to provide fundraising lunch orders every Thursday.
This initiative, organised by our Parents and Friends Committee, serves as one of our school’s major fundraising efforts. All proceeds will go towards our significant school upgrade project.
Term 2 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates:
- Thursday 26th June (Orders close: Monday 23rd June, 3:00 PM)
Term 3 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates:
- Thursday 24th July (Orders close: Monday 21st July, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 31th July (Orders close: Monday 28th July, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 7th August (Orders close: Monday 4th August, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 14th August (Orders close: Monday 11th August, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 21st August (Orders close: Monday 18th August, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 28th August (Orders close: Monday 25th August, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 4th September (Orders close: Monday 1st September, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 11th September (Orders close: Monday 8th September, 3:00 PM)
- Thursday 18th September (Orders close: Monday 15th September, 3:00 PM)
Ordering Instructions: Orders must be placed in advance via Compass Canteen. Ordering will close at 3:00 PM on the Monday before each lunch date.
You can now place orders for all Term 3 lunch dates in advance if preferred.
A Parent User Guide on how to order through Compass Canteen is below for your convenience. Please note, a $0.35 transaction fee will apply at checkout.
All food is Halal.
Thank you for supporting our school community!
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ICY POLE FRIDAY Students can purchase icy poles over the counter every Friday at lunchtime for $1.00 each. We offer an assortment of different icy poles each week, but always have Zooper Doopers available.This serves as a school fundraiser.
If you're interested in volunteering as a parent helper to sell icy poles, please contact the school's general office.
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 3:00pm to 3:30pm, next to the music room. Jumpers with the school logo, long and short sleeve school polo tops and school dresses will be $2.00. We are currently asking for donations of any unwanted reusable school uniform items to sell at our stall.
SINGING WITH GABRIELLA - Gabriella
- Email: favrettogab@gmail.com
- Phone: 0413 676 733
STRINGS – Jack Cai
- Email: jack3bld@gmail.com
- Phone: 0426 665 044
STRINGS - MR CAI
- Email: cai66@optusnet.com.au
- Phone: 0403 490 078
PIANO/KEYBOARD/DRUMS - Daniel Tucceri
- Email: info@banyulemusicandtutoring.com
- Phone: 0405 667 908
GUITAR - Dimi Holborow
- Email: dimiholborow@outlook.com
- Phone: 0409 629 612
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
Shop Details:
- Unit 3/30 Heaths Court, Mill Park
- T: 9436 4005
- E: info@northernregionaluniforms.com.au
Opening Hours:
- Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm
- Friday 9am to 3pm
Online Ordering Please Visit: www.aplusschoolwear.com.au