(03) 9772 1393

Week 8 Update

11-June-2021

Dear Families

Congratulations and thank you to all of our families for once again showing great determination and resilience during the past fortnight to successfully navigate another period of remote and flexible learning.

Thank you for your understanding and assistance this morning with the new drop off structures we have in place too.  Students arrived excitedly to school and helped create a great buzz and energy today. This is a wonderful reflection of the entire school community. Thank you!

It was terrific to see vast numbers of students engaging daily with the webex meetings and seesaw learning tasks. Other principals and teachers who I have spoken with over the last 2 weeks were amazed, and very impressed when I told them, at the numbers of students who committed to this learning. Thank you!

I wish to acknowledge and publicly thank our entire school staff- teachers, education support, office – who have again  effectively delivered great learning opportunities and provided outstanding support for our students.

Our very talented and eager School Council met during the week to get an update on a few key School items. A key focus for our Council, throughout the rest of the year is to strengthen connections within our school and broader communities. We’re keen provide opportunities for you to get involved with our school and eager to hear your thoughts on ACTIVITIES and  EVENTS that we might be able to hold in the second half of the year.

After the challenging times we have been through in the last 12-18 months, we’ll be seeking ideas on how we can connect with each other through these EVENTS. Please share your ideas with us via the school’s email edithvale.ps@education.vic.gov.au (and include Fundraising Team in the subject heading). Together we can help build on the great community spirit that lives here at Edithvale Primary.

Review- Our School Review will be held in Term 3.

The school review (held every 4 years) aims to create a self-sustaining cycle of continuous improvement, where all schools are supported by the system on a needs basis, to strengthen and improve student outcomes. School reviews make an evidence-based contribution to the school’s development of its new School Strategic Plan (SSP). A school review evaluates the school’s performance against its previous SSP and investigates particular areas of focus in order to inform the development of the school’s next strategic plan and determine the improvement goals for the next four years. Throughout the review, we will have the support of a School Review Panel, including core members with  a broad range of experiences and skills:

The link below will take you to a short survey that serves as a reflective analysis of the school’s performance and practices over the last 4 years, including:

  • the celebration of highlights that have led to improved student outcomes (academic, social, wellbeing)
  • a view of the school’s performance including enablers and barriers
  • suggestions on how we can continue to build on the foundations we have established since 2017

Please take this short survey to help us to keep Edithvale Primary great.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HPLGZK6

Tip of The Week – From the team at The Resilience Project

Family structures are pivotal to identity formation, understanding one’s own spiritual and cultural belonging, and assists in establishing strong links with community. The attached pdf explores the notions of connectedness and kinship and how important this is in various cultures. The focus questions that are included in the PDF have been designed to help families practise the GEM (Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness) principles within daily conversation.

Term 1 Canteen Price List   Parent & Carers – Facilitating Positive Conversations (PROJECT+)

Professional Practice Days. Over the next 2 weeks our staff will be participating in Year level planning days to help set direction for Term 3 learning and teaching. All planning will be undertaken on-site and on the one day that your child’s teacher has their planning day, there will be a replacement teacher taking the class.

Student Reports. The end of Semester 1 reports will be available online from next Friday June 18. These reports will reflect the face-to face AND remote learning and teaching that has occurred during the first half of the year.

Reports include

  • a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum F-10 taught
  • a succinct descriptive assessment of student learning achievement,
  • your child’s progress on the Victorian Curriculum F-10
  • A Personal Comment

In readiness for the Parent partnership meetings (Parent/Teacher interviews) in the final week of the term, please log on to the COMPASS portal and head to ‘Viewing Academic Reports.’ Instructions are included on our school website.

All schools are required to report student achievement on a 5-point scale. For each skill statement a student could be learning at any of the following development stages;

  • Well Above the standard expected at this time of year
  • Above the standard expected at this time of year
  • At the standard expected at this time of year
  • Below the standard expected at this time of year
  • Well Below the standard expected at this time of year

The reports can be a great starting point for discussion with your child’s teacher at our Parent Partnership meetings, and indeed at other times throughout the year about future learning goals and how the school, in partnership with our parents, can work together to help your child reach these targets.

Parent Partnership meetings (aka Parent/Teacher interviews) will be held during the last week of term- remotely.

Please use the COMPASS portal to book a 15-minute meeting with your child’s teachers. An email link will be sent to you on Monday 21 June, which will enable you to enter into a virtual meeting room at the time you have specified and you can meet with your child’s teacher from the comfort of your home or workplace.

For these meetings to run smoothly we respectfully ask that you please note the start and finish time of your meeting and be logged in and ready. Our staff will endeavour to also be prompt for each meeting and aim to be running on time too.

To access the booking system, open the ‘menu’, click ‘Conferences’ and follow the prompts. Detailed guides to help you navigate through these steps were sent yesterday and copies of these are on our school’s website EPS News .

Please look after yourself

It’s been a challenging time for many people in our community. Remember to look after yourself because to look after the people you love, you also need to look after yourself.

The following resources are also available to support your mental health and wellbeing:

Take care and Stay strong

James Whitla