10-Jun-2022
Dear Families
Parent partnership meetings
A reminder that there is an opportunity to discuss your child’s end of Semester 1 report (which will be live on COMPASS on Friday June 17), with their teacher. To book a time to meet, please head to the Conferences section in COMPASS. To help staff with the planning and organisation of these meetings, and to give us enough time to get confirmation emails out to families, we will be locking the booking system on Wednesday next week from 4pm. If there are no suitable times, our wonderful staff will work with you to identify a time that works.
Your child’s Progress Report #2 builds upon last Term’s report and can be viewed in conjunction with their student reflection and goal setting that will shortly be posted via SEESAW.
Trivia Night
The response to our Trivia Night has been incredible. Close to 120 tickets (max 150) have been sold already (as of Friday morning) and this social event looks like it will be a sell out very shortly. Our School Council team is working hard behind the scenes to make the night a great success and they would love to see you at the Mordialloc Bowling Club on Friday July 15 to share a laugh and test out your General Knowledge. If you are keen to join us, but miss out on tickets this time around – we will look to run another similar event later in the year. We are hoping that this night will be the forerunner to many more social events aimed at connecting families together after a rough couple of years.
Last day of Term
Students’ last day of Term 2 will be Thursday June 23. All staff will be participating in a whole school Professional Planning day that focuses on creating open ended maths tasks that help students develop their reasoning and understanding of maths skills and concepts.
Child safety and wellbeing at Edithvale Primary School: information for families and the school community
The Victorian Government has announced new Child Safe Standards to further strengthen child safety across organisations, including schools. The new standards recognise the critical importance of families and the broader school community in maintaining and promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Edithvale Primary school is undertaking a thorough review of all our child safety policies and procedures to ensure they meet the requirements of the new standards. These are available to view on your school’s website, under the School policy tab and at the school’s front office.
We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and wellbeing and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures and practices.
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, please contact the school via email at edithvale.ps@education.vic.gov.au or on 9772 1393.
Orton Gillingham – Ron Yoshimoto
This week a few staff have been fortunate to dive deeply into an approach to teaching literacy that complements the great work our teachers are doing in this space already. The course is designed to understand and implement scientifically based reading and writing instruction. It is a direct, explicit, structured and sequential approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling.
One of my learnings over the week is that ALL spelling rules can be succinctly summarised into a little more than a dozen dot points. The attachment (please excuse the American spelling, Ron Yoshimoto is Hawaiian) details these spelling rules that can be taught and learned from a young age. The rules help to give structure and meaning to spelling and answer ‘Why is word xxxx spelled this way?’ 100% worth a read 😊
Year 4 Camp
This week our intrepid Year 4’s ventured down to Camp Manyung to enjoy a 2 night /3 day Adventure Camp. They challenged themselves with Initiatives courses, a Giant Swing and a Flying Fox – among other activities, and despite the weather, from all reports, the students, staff and parents had a wonderful time.
We have also been proactive and booked in some additional camps for our Year 4-6 students later this year as part of the Government’s Positive Start Program. The Positive Start School Camps are offered to eligible schools to help primary and secondary students boost their physical and emotional health and wellbeing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Our Year 5 and 6 students will be heading off on 2 separate camps to ‘High Country Camp’ in the Tallangatta Valley, and our Year 4’s will head down to Lorne for a surf Camp next term. All camps are completely FREE and will build upon the students’ experiences of our Camping program this year.
Excursions
This week also saw our Year 2 and 3 students on two separate excursions. Our Year 2 students braved the elements at Chesterfield farm as they continued to explore their Inquiry Unit – From Paddock to Plate.
Our Year 3 students headed into town to visit the First Nations gallery at the Museum to consolidate their knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal perspectives. A huge thanks to all parent helpers who joined us to help make these excursions and learning opportunities possible.
Kind regards,
James Whitla
Key Dates:
- June 13 Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday
- June 17 Year 5/6 Lightning Premiership
- June 20-23 Parent Partnership meetings
- June 23 Students’ Final day of Term 2
- June 24 Student Free Day * TeamKids will be available for families who may wish to access their service
- July 11 Term 3 commences
- July 14 French Day celebrations at school
- August 8-18 Foundation – Year 2 Swimming Program *please note that Year 3s will now be at a different time
- August 22 September 1 – Year 4-6 Swimming program
- August 26 District Athletics
- September 8 School Concert