PUPIL FREE DAYS 2023
- Monday 6th November - Report writing day
2023 TERM DATES
- Term 3: 10th July - 15th September (2:30pm finish)
- Term 4: 2nd October - 20th December (1:30pm finish)
WORKING BEE THANKS We had members of 15 wonderful families attend on Sunday for a beautiful sunny working bee. With everyone's hard work, we were able to assemble all the new recycled plastic outdoor settings, build a water tank base and roll over the old SAKGP water tank, lay and compact a new path from gate to gate through Jilinga Garden, tidy up the Martins Lane fenceline, relocate some raised garden beds from alongside the administration building and tidy up the Winston Rd crossing area. Many thanks to the Buildings and Grounds committee for their diligent planning and commitment and to all who attended.
STOMP DANCE PROGRAM You will be aware that our students have been undertaking weekly dance lessons with Stomp this term which have been a lot of fun. This is advance notice that on Tuesday, September 12 and Wednesday, September 13 students will be proudly showcasing their skills in our school gymnasium. On each day, Foundation students will be performing from 9.10am until 9.50am, Grades 1 and 2 from 10.00am until 10.40am, Grades 3 and 4 from 11.20am until 12 noon and our Grade 5 and 6 students from 12.10pm until 12.50pm. Further advice will follow in upcoming newsletters, but parents are most welcome to attend for part or all of each day’s performances.
MATHSLAND The second of our 2024 transition events took place yesterday with Maths Land being held from 9.30am until 10.30am. As always, this is a good opportunity for our new students to become familiar with our school and their parents to get to know other parents in a fairly relaxed setting. The final session for this term is PMP Land on Tuesday, September 5.
DOGS ON SCHOOLGROUNDS Whilst we have the lovely Oscar our therapy dog who spends the week at school, all other dogs are banned from the schoolgrounds. Whilst we understand your dog might be cute , well behaved and on a lead, there have been times where other dogs haven’t seen eye to eye with each other causing barking and skirmishes and impacting on our students. Then, of course, the issue of dog droppings. Please , if you must walk your dog to school at drop off or pick up time, tie them up outside the schoolgrounds. Thank you.
BOOK WEEK Next week is the celebration of Book Week at our school with Book Week Parades on Monday morning and an author visit on Thursday. Hope you can make the Monday morning sessions – Grades F to 2 from 9.00am-9.50am and Grades 3 to 6 from 9.50am to 10.40am in the gymnasium.
HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS AND CANCELLATION OF HOLIDAY PROGRAM Just following up some advice that was posted via Compass last week. With important preparatory works required on the Administration Building prior to demolition, the holiday period has been set aside for these. As a consequence, no staff or students are allowed on site over the holiday break. The Their Care holiday program will not operate at Viewbank PS over the September holidays, but communications will be sent out by them advising of other nearby facilities that will be open. When we return from the holiday break, the only access to the existing administration building will be via the door facing out to the shade sail area near the Grade 2 playground. This will operate in this fashion until the Melbourne Cup week when administration will operate from the STEM room for the remainder of 2023.
Sounds confusing (it probably is!), but we will provide further advice/photos/diagrams as the time draws nearer to ensure smooth operations for the remainder of 2023, with the promise of a brand new year and new facilities in 2024.
Enjoy your weekend,
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
Understanding our feelings and emotions and being able to regulate our emotions are important skills that develop throughout childhood. The following article is from the Raising Children Network.
Understanding and managing emotions: why it’s important
Understanding and managing emotions is important for development and wellbeing during childhood and adolescence.
Children and teenagers who can understand and manage their emotions are more likely to:
- express emotions by speaking calmly or in appropriate ways
- bounce back after feeling strong emotions like disappointment, frustration or excitement
- control impulses
- behave appropriately – that is, in ways that don’t hurt other people, things or themselves.
And this is good for children because it helps them learn, make friends, become independent and more.
Your child’s ability to understand and manage emotions develops over time. When your child is young, they’ll need help with understanding emotions. This mostly involves recognising and naming emotions, which lays the groundwork for managing emotions as your child gets older.
As your child grows, they’ll learn more strategies to manage their emotions without your help.
Understanding and managing emotions is also called emotional regulation. It’s an important part of your child’s self-regulation.
Children 3-8 years: learning to understand and manage emotions
Children develop their ability to recognise and name emotions through plenty of practice. It’s easier for children to practise through play, when they’re relaxed, or before their emotions get too intense.
Here are ways you can help your child practise recognising and naming emotions:
- Talk about the emotions that characters in books, TV shows or movies might be experiencing. For example, ‘Look at Bluey’s face. She looks sad’.
- Read books about emotions with your child. To start with, you could try The way I feel by Janan Cain, All about feelings from Usborne, or F is for feelings by Goldie Millar and Lisa A. Berger.
- Show your child how you recognise your emotions and help them to recognise theirs. For example, ‘When I broke that glass, I yelled really loudly. Does that happen to you when you make a mistake and feel angry?’
- Help your child work out how their body feels when they’re experiencing an emotion. For example, ‘You look nervous. Have you got butterflies in your tummy?’
- Give your child opportunities to explore emotions through play. Play ideas to develop preschooler emotions and play ideas to develop school-age emotions include messy play, drawing or painting, puppet play, dancing and music play.
- Do an emotions activity with your child. You choose an emotion like ‘excited’ and act it out with your child. You can turn this activity into a simple guessing game.
You can also start helping your child learn simple strategies to manage their emotions. For example:
- Teach your child ways to calm down from strong emotions like counting to 10 or taking 5 deep breaths.
- Suggest ways to react to strong emotions – for example, clap your hands when you’re excited, ask for a hug when you’re sad, or squeeze your cushion really hard when you’re angry.
Pre-teens and teenagers: strengthening emotional skills
Pre-teens and teenagers often feel strong and sometimes overwhelming emotions like shame and humiliation. They might know the words for these emotions but still have trouble recognising them when they’re upset. Also, because of teenage brain development, teenagers don’t always have the skills to express and manage emotions in an adult way.
That’s why pre-teens and teenagers still need help with understanding and managing emotions. With practice, your child will be able to manage their emotions without you.
Here are ideas to strengthen your child’s ability to understand and manage emotions in the teenage years:
- Step in when you can see emotions building up. The sooner your child can spot their emotional changes, the easier it will be for them to stay in control of their behaviour.
- Help your child notice early physical signs of strong emotions. For example, ‘When I was stuck in traffic yesterday, my heart was racing and I felt really hot. Does that happen to you when you’re frustrated?’
- Help your child notice early behaviour signs of strong emotions. For example, ‘You’re starting to hit that keyboard a bit hard. Do you need to stop for a minute and get some fresh air?’
- Talk with your child about what you do when you notice the signs that strong emotions are building up. For example, ‘When I start to feel really angry with myself, I focus on something I’m really proud of instead. Would that work for you?’
- Work with your child on a list of things they could do when they notice strong emotions building up, like going for a run, listening to loud music on their headphones, or meditating. Try to include plenty of options so your child can choose ones that feel right in different situations.
Remember that talking with teenagers about emotions won’t be as effective when they’re struggling with the strong emotion. You need to step in early or wait until the emotion has passed.
Signs your child might need help to manage their emotions
All children need help and support to manage strong emotions sometimes, especially younger children or children dealing with extra challenges like a death in the family or other traumatic event.
Children might need help to manage strong emotions if they:
- feel upset or miserable about how overwhelming their emotions are
- feel very strong emotions that are out of proportion to the problem or situation
- still feel strong emotions for a long time after whatever sparked the emotions
- often go from being calm to feeling an intense emotion like anger very quickly
- express emotions inappropriately – for example, laughing in response to bad news
- go very quiet, hide or push people away when they’re overwhelmed.
Also, pre-teen and teenage children might need help if they:
- seem to make poor decisions because they feel strong emotions like frustration
- find it hard to relax enough to enjoy their hobbies or be with family and friends.
Have a great week,
Gill
Term 3 Planning Week Our Term 3 Planning Week is scheduled to occur in Week 9 of this term. This is from Monday 4th September to Friday 8th September (heads up – the last day of Term 3 is Friday 15th September!).
Planning Week is where your child/ren’s specialist classes are compressed into one day and they do not have specialist classes at any other time throughout the week. All classroom teachers in a year level (e.g. Foundation) have the same day together to plan.
This day is to reflect on the past term, and to plan for Term 4. A question we sometimes have from parents is ‘Will my child have the same Specialist Teacher? e.g. Mr Prell for PE’. The answer is (like all good questions) ‘it depends’. The reason for this is that we have a number of part time staff in specialist roles and they may not be available on the allocated days. Our Specialist Teachers also receive time to reflect on the term and to plan for next term.
The timetable for Term 3, Week 9 is:
- Monday 4th September: Year 3
- Tuesday 5th September: Year 6
- Wednesday 6th September: Year 1 and Year 2
- Thursday 7th September: Foundation
- Friday 8th September: Year 5
For those of you with children in Year 4, due to various circumstances, the Year 4 staff will be having a Planning Day next week. The Year 4 students will still participate in Specialist classes in Week 9, but these will be spread across the week.
National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) We have received an update regarding the NAPLAN assessments in Term 1 – state results are now available. As reported in the Viewbank Voice earlier in Term 3, there are changes to the way results are now reported. The report will look somewhat similar, but will have clearly identified areas of achievement:
- Exceeding
- Strong
- Developing
- Needs Additional Support
The table below shows a combined percentage of students in the Strong and Exceeding category and compared to ‘similar’ schools from across Victoria, as well as Victoria as a whole for each Year Level (added 24 August):
We are immensely proud of the students and staff for their achievements. That said, NAPLAN is just one of many other success indicators we look at and celebrate – the breadth of the experiences we provided for students is something we can all be proud of as a school community.
Have a great weekend.
Patrick
FOR SALE - Everhot 260L Internal Heavy Duty N/G Hot Water System Viewbank Primary School has a second-hand hot water system available for sale. The asking price of the Everhot 260L Internal Heavy Duty N/G Hot Water System is $2,000. Those interested in purchasing this item are welcome to get in touch with the General Office through phone or email at viewbank.ps@education.vic.gov.au. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or if there's additional information you require!
EARLY LEAVERS PROCEDURES Parents are required to come to the office when collecting their child early from school. The Office Staff will ring the classroom and ask for your child to come to the office with their bag. Children are only to be collected by their parent from the front Office (not the classroom or the school yard). This will minimise disruptions to the children's learning and avoid teachers being unaware students have been collected by a parent during recess and lunch.
LATE ARRIVALS Please ensure children who arrive late go straight to the office to be marked as present. If the child does not come to the office for a late pass a text message will be sent to the parent/carer notifying that the child is absent. Late arrivals can only be time stamped at the office. When Parents/carers record the late arrival in Compass it provides us with the explanation but does not mark your child as present. When your child presents at the office, staff will record your child’s actual arrival time which updates the class roll.
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
YEAR 6 EXCURSION This week our Year 6 students attended excursions to Parliament House or the Melbourne Shrine. In the grand halls of Australia's oldest parliamentary building, the students were guided by Parliament House Outreach Officers who expertly intertwined Victorian Curriculum essentials with a tour of the stunning architecture. Meanwhile, the Shrine guides led the students on a poignant exploration of the Shrine of Remembrance, a symbol of unwavering remembrance for the sacrifices made during times of global conflict. With the passage of almost a century since its construction, the Shrine stands as a living testament to the enduring spirit of commemoration, offering a platform to delve into wartime history, celebrate the diverse lives impacted, and instill the vital significance of remembrance within the tapestry of Australian communities.
Big Group Hug For our Inquiry unit “Civics and Citizenship”, the Year 4s have decided to put together a clothing and preloved item drive for ‘Big Group Hug’. This charity helps families and children in need. https://biggrouphug.org
We are asking for items that you can drop off at the collection ‘boxes’ which will be placed in areas anyone can access.
Here are are the locations of the ‘boxes’ for certain year levels:
- Years F/1 - Top of the Stairway
- Year 2 - Office
- Years 3/4 - Jilinga kitchen
- Years 5/6 - Near the printer in Year 5/6 building
Here is a list of some items you can donate:
Rule of Thumb: Don’t donate something you wouldn’t be happy to receive yourself.
Any donations would be very much appreciated.
Thank you
The Year 4
National Day of Action Against Violence and Bullying National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence happened on Friday 18th of August. It went extremely well. Students at Viewbank Primary spread awareness about bullying and developed strategies to help prevent it. Students wore an orange accessory and participated in different activities during the day. The Year 6 Leaders came together to make an orange paper chain display. Each link of the chain had a pledge against bullying written by a student of Viewbank Primary. The Year 6 Leaders also made a video about bullying, the signs that people are being bullied and how to help the victims of bullying.
Overall the day was a massive success and we hope students learnt a lot!
Written by
Taya (Communication Captain), Zara S (Sports Captain) and Lucy (Sports Captain)
Each child who wears a costume will go into a raffle with some fantastic book prizes!
Here are some links to some simple costume ideas, if you’re in need of some additional inspiration:
- https://www.familiesmagazine.com.au/childrens-book-week-costume-ideas/
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/22/easy-book-week-costume-ideas-do-you-have-a-box-there-are-lots-of-cubes-in-childrens-books
- https://www.simplifycreateinspire.com/book-week-costume-ideas/
- https://www.bountyparents.com.au/expert-advice/easy-book-week-costumes/
Sustainability Captains Update (By Gwendolyn Parrent) Over the course of the last few weeks I collected 3 big garbage bags of rubbish found at a local park called Streamline Reserve. I have collected 16 plastic bottles, 7 aluminium cans, 3 coffee cups, 4 varieties of balls, 8 items of hard plastic, 1 small brown paper bag, a small amount of polystyrene packaging, half a pool noodle, and a whole heap of soft plastics. Streamline Reserve has a creek running through it and when it floods all the rubbish thrown onto the river banks get washed downstream and eventually ending up in the ocean which is why picking it up before that happens is so very important. We need to save our unique wildlife and ocean creatures so that they can still be thriving for generations to come. The best time to go hunting for rubbish is when there is little or no water flowing down the creek so you can wade into the water without getting it in your shoes or gum boots.
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Get a group together, purchase a table of 10 or if you are on your own grab a seat to enjoy our long awaited trivia night.
Friday 8th September, 2023 - 6:45pm.
This event is 18 years and over, BYO drinks, a great night to be enjoyed by all.
There will be a silent auction on the night with a number of great items to be won. This will be opened up to all prior to the event if you can't make the night and wish to pop a bid in for an item. More details of the items will be announced closer to the night.
We will have rounds of trivia questions and also some local knowledge questions, games through the night and also lucky seat draws and raffle prizes to be won.
Please see attached flyer with some general Q&A questions about the night.
Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased through this link
https://www.trybooking.com/CHXLA
We would love to see you all there to enjoy what plans to be a great social community event to raise money for our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen.
Parent And Friends Committee
VPS Parents and Friends Committee Father's Day Stall 2023 One week to go until we hold the VPS Father's Day Stall - Thursday 31 August 2023.
This is a great opportunity for students to grab a quality and affordable gift for their loved once - celebrate dad, grandpa, uncle or special carer.
Cash on the day up to $10, with a carry bag, is all you need to participate.
Sincere thanks for the VPS Parents and Friends Committee for all the offers of help at the Stall.
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 3 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates are:
- Thursday 31st August (Orders closing on 28th August, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 7th September (Orders closing on 4th September, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 14th September (Orders closing on 11th September, 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 3 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 $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 - Michael
- Email: michaelfindlaymcnab@gmail.com
- Phone: 0451 394 540
PIANO/KEYBOARD – Tiaryn Griggs
- Email: tiaryngriggs@gmail.com
PIANO/KEYBOARD- Daniel Tucceri
- Email: info@banyulemusicandtutoring.com
- Phone: 0405 667 907
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
- Saturday 9am to 12pm
Online Ordering Please Visit: www.aplusschoolwear.com.au