PLEASE CHECK COMPASS EVENTS REGULARLY
- Friday 20th October - Parents & Friends Fundraising Student Disco - Tickets available on Compass
- Tuesday 12th December - Statewide Transition Day
- Wednesday 13th December - Grade 6 Graduation
PUPIL FREE DAYS 2023
- Monday 6th November - Report writing day
2023 TERM DATES
- Term 4: 2nd October - 20th December (1:30pm finish)
2024 CAMP DATES
- Grade 3 Camp to Phillip Island - October 28-30
- Grade 4 Camp to Anglesea - May 15 to 17
- Grade 5 Camp to Bacchus Marsh October - 9 to 11
- Grade 6 Camp to Echuca - April 17 to 19
BUILDING WORKS UPDATE As of Wednesday, November 8 the General Office and Principal team will be relocating from our existing offices until the end of the year. All normal General Office enquiries will need to be made in the STEM room, with access via the gymnasium foyer. Principal team enquiries will need to be made in the Language room (LOTE) which is located next to the Art Room (see map below).
Our last day in our existing spaces will be Friday, November 3. We are hoping the transition will be seamless but there may be some ‘hiccups’ along the way! As mentioned previously, Monday, November 6 is a pupil free day, and there will NOT be any day care on that day nor will there be anyone on site at all. This is to allow for the final asbestos removal and preparations for demolition, but more importantly to relocate the communications room to the new administration building. As I write we are hopeful that we are around nine weeks away from the completion of the entire project and the handover – can’t wait!!
REGIONAL ATHLETICS - STOP PRESS - Congratulations again to our wonderful athletes. Everyone performed magnificently yesterday. Special congratulations to Joshua Cadusch (800m, 1,500m), Alexandra Palmer (Discus), and Blake Cameron (Triple Jump) who have qualified for the State Championship at Albert Park on November 1st.
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE MEETING The Term 4 Buildings and Grounds Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 17 to be held at school commencing at 7pm. For non-committee members who wish to be involved, feel free to contact the school and we will welcome you with open arms on that evening (as well as pointing you in the right direction for the meeting)!
STUDENT DISCO One of the highlights on a packed social calendar for our students is the upcoming student disco to be held at school on Friday, October 20. Entry is $10 per child with our Foundation to Year Two students enjoying the mayhem, sorry fun, from 6.00pm until 7.00pm closely followed by our Grade 3 to Grade 6 students from 7.15pm until 8.15pm. Volunteers are needed to make this a successful event, and further details (including how to sign up) are available on your Compass feed.
INTENTIONS TO LEAVE Thanks you to the those who have replied already, but if any other families are intending to leave our school community in 2024 because of relocation or other reason, could you please advise us as soon as possible. A phone call to the office, or an email to the school or my email account asap would be most appreciated.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATION FOR GRADE PLACEMENTS 2024 – THREE WEEKS TO GO!! Each year at this time, we seek input from families with regards to the placement of students into classes for the following year (if that is necessary). We do recognise that that there might be some limited circumstances initiating a parental grade request, but please think carefully about this and if you really do feel a need to inform us of these circumstances then do let us know.
At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year, and in fact still need to select a few teachers to fill those roles 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. We have also not settled on a grade structure for 2024, with the possibility of one or two composite classes in the junior area of the school, or even in the upper grades to keep class numbers down. Having said that, if there are special circumstances that we need to know about, you are welcome to let us know of these. Such special circumstances might include but are not limited to health, emotional or learning matters, peer or sibling relationships or changes in the home situation. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances, and if your request includes that information it will be denied. Information requiring our consideration needs to be addressed to ‘The Principal’ and emailed to the office or myself by Friday, November 3. Please title the email “CONFIDENTIAL – GRADE REQUEST’. Please note that emails received after this date will NOT be accepted. All emails will be acknowledged.
MATHLETICS UPDATE Apologies to Grade 2S! Their teacher, Darren Peters advised me some time ago of some outstanding results in online Mathletics competitions and it was remiss of me not to have included the information in this newsletter. In mid September 2S came 29th in Australia and Gabriel Arul placed 87th in Australia as well. In the following week 2S came 26th in Australia/34th in the world and Bob Zhu came 9th in the World! Students in Grade 2S really love their Maths!!
ART NEWS Congratulations to April Harris 6G. April entered the Lower Plenty art competition for under 12s (advertised in the school newsletter). April was thrilled when she was recently awarded first prize and a $100 voucher from Victorian Artists Supplies. She drew an A4 one point perspective (recently learned at school) of a street scape of the Lower Plenty shops that included cats, pedestrians and a soldier. Great job April – you should be very proud of yourself!
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Bill Kersing
Principal
Congratulations to all our wonderful students for achieving their third honey pot (equalling 900 bees) and therefore a whole school reward, for displaying positive behaviour reflecting our school values.
To celebrate, we are going to have a whole-school ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ elective afternoon on 18th October. Students in each level group (F-2, 3/4, 5/6) will choose an activity for the afternoon and form mixed-age groups. Teachers will lead the activities. Students and families do not need to do anything to prepare for this event as it will occur during class time on Wednesday afternoon.
Some of the activities students will be able to choose from include: Lego, board games, Just Dance, sports activities, origami, trivia, karaoke, Minecraft, craft activities, coding, puzzles, stop motion, drawing/art, party games, Japanese games, cooking.
I’m sure the students will have fun and hopefully they will share their experiences with you next Wednesday afternoon. We will take lots of photos.
Across the year, the students have earned almost thirteen thousand individual whole punches. This is a tremendous effort and reflects our positive school culture and climate.
Earlier this week our beehive was once again filled – YAY! so it won’t be long before we are celebrating again with a small school reward. Stay tuned.
Supporting Emotional Regulation in Young People Banyule Youth Services is offering a free online session for parents on teaching their children about emotional regulation. The session is on Tuesday 17th October from 7.00pm – 7.45pm and is aimed at pre-teens.
Parents attending the session will walk away with skills in:
- How to notice the signs and triggers of emotional distress.
- How to use supportive language to work through uncomfortable emotions.
- Practical strategies to help regulate emotions.
Have a great week
Gill
Parents and Friends On Tuesday 3rd October, the P&F had our second last meeting for the year. The primary focus was discussing the final preparations for the School Disco on the 20th October. Please see the flyer in the Parents and Friends section further down in the newsletter.
School Council We met on Tuesday evening in the Year 6 building due to not having a staffroom at the moment. As a reminder, School Council meetings are open to anyone who wishes to attend (as observers only). These are generally twice per term and in 2023, they were held on a Tuesday evening. Mr Kersing publishes these dates in the Newsletter.
Our Agenda for this meeting was:
The attached image was taken on Tuesday night of the School Council discussing a car park proposal.
In the coming weeks, a survey will be sent to our families to gather ideas for 2024 events. In 2023 these included (amongst others): Welcome Back Picnic, Colour Explosion Fun Run, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Stall, Trivia Night and Student Disco. The Parents and Friends Committee and School Council have some ideas for next year, but want your input. If you are able to suggest any events that could be reasonably organised by parent volunteers (with some school support) then please let us know through the survey.
Have a great weekend.
Patrick
TERM 4 EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITY CHARGES AND PERMISSIONS We would like to inform you that the charges for Term 4 extra-curricular activities have been uploaded on Compass. Please note that all permissions and payments are now overdue. These activities have been designed to enrich and diversify the educational experience of our students. Kindly note that these activities are offered on a user-pays basis.
For families facing financial challenges, we can arrange a flexible payment plan for extra-curricular activities to suit your needs.
Please reach out to me directly for a confidential discussion, and we will work together to explore alternative arrangements.
Kind regards,
Lucy Addati
Business Manager
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We need vegetable seeds for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden. We're interested in the following varieties:
- Cucumber
- Parsnips
- Eggplant
- Warrigal greens
- Mild chilies
- Strawberries
Thank you very much! Rest assured, we'll take good care of them. For any further communication, please reach out to Dani. Thanks again!
BOOK CLUB Issue 7 catalogues have sent home this week. All orders are due by Wednesday 18th of October. Every dollar you spend earns points to buy more books for the Library. Thank you for your support.
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 4 Fundraising Lunch Order Dates are:
- Thursday 19th October (Orders closing on 16th October, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 26th October (Orders closing on 23rd October, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 2nd November (Orders closing on 30th October, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 9th November (Orders closing on 6th November, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 16th November (Orders closing on 13th November, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 23rd November (Orders closing on 20th November, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 30th November (Orders closing on 27th November, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 7th December (Orders closing on 4th December, 3:00pm)
- Thursday 14th December (Orders closing on 11th December, 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 4 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
PIANO/KEYBOARD – Tiaryn Griggs
- Email: tiaryngriggs@gmail.com
PIANO/KEYBOARD/DRUMS - 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