09-Dec-2022
Dear Families
After tonight’s Christmas concert we have just the one full week of school for the year – and what an exciting week it promises to be. As well as our Year 6 Graduation, Waves days for our junior students, PBIL showcases and our Annual School Colour Fun Run, we have class parties and an Important smoking ceremony on Friday.
This week our students stepped up into their new Year level and can be congratulated for the manner with which they moved seamlessly into their new surrounds. It was wonderful to welcome our new staff members to our school and I am confident that they too will live our school values of RESPECT, KINDNESS and DETERMINATION.
Defibrillators have arrived
I am excited to announce that we now have two Defibrillators on site at School. This would not have been made possible without the contributions of so many.
Thank you to our Student Leaders who have worked so hard with their fund-raising efforts and to our wonderful school community who have contributed towards these events.
We are also incredibly grateful to Bendigo Bank Aspendale Gardens-Edithvale Branch, who have sponsored our initiative to acquire a new Defibrillator for the School.
A huge thank you to the Rerden family who have contributed a second Defibrillator to the school. Their generosity is hugely appreciated.
We have also been fortunate enough to be supported by Helen McGrath from Total First Aid Training, who has sponsored this project in providing the wall cabinets required to store our Defibrillators safely.
What an incredible effort from so many in our community. We are so appreciative of the efforts and generosity of everyone involved in this initiative to keep our school a safer place for our students, teachers, and our wider community.
Thank you everyone!
Student Leaders
After a very detailed and expansive process used to determine our Student Leaders for 2023 we will shortly be able to introduce these to you. This year as we have done for the last 6 years our future leaders have undertaken a process that has included:
- Preparing and delivering a speech to their peers outlining why they believe they’d be a great leader for them, and our school
- Participated in Leadership challenges at school to prove their credentials as ‘leaders in action’
- Joined our current student leaders and staff leadership to answer questions as part of an interview
- Staff observations of attitudes and student behaviours while at school.
Positions of Leadership that attract a formal badge are not determined by age, gender or length of time at our school. This year we have had great interest from our Year 4 and 5 students and I am confident that our 2023 leaders will be, like this year’s, wonderful role models and ambassadors for our school.
For students who miss out on the ‘badged’ leadership positions, we know that they will excel in other important Roles and Responsibilities throughout 2023 – such is the depth of leadership talent coming through our school.
A huge thanks to our School and broader community for the communication around the unwanted presence of foxes and their pups on school grounds, at night. We have been in contact with Kingston Council and engaged with a fox catcher and pest removal company; and continue to follow their advice. In conversation with these external organisations, we understand that foxes do not live at the school. There are 4 dens at the wetlands that cannot be accessed by pest control experts, due to the water around them. The foxes from the wetlands walk the streets at night with their young pups, who are learning to hunt.
We continue to engage with and employ experts, to help keep our school safe and are assured that there is no den on site. We have filled in any possible entry points beneath our buildings, we empty all bins each night to ensure food scraps are inaccessible; and we have regular visits from external experts who check for activity.
We’re fortunate to have so many community members working with us to address this temporary issue.
Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) for 2023.
Every year we set targets and identify key strategies and actions to try and help us achieve these. These are all tied back to the School’s 4 year Strategic Plan that was developed at the end of last year. Pleasingly, we achieved our academic and wellbeing goals in 2022 thanks to the wonderful efforts of our students, staff and families.
The 2023 Target for ALL schools in Victoria is:
In 2023 we will continue to focus on student learning – with an increased focus on numeracy – and student wellbeing through the 2023 Priorities Goal, a learning Key Improvement Strategy and a wellbeing Key Improvement Strategy.
Our School Leaders have refined our AIP further and acted upon feedback from our Department’s School Education Improvement Leader. The scope of the Plan ensures we go narrow and deep with our foci and the decisions we make on staffing, resourcing, time allocations, curriculum, support and extension programs and budgets are all made through the ‘lens of our AIP.’ In 2023 Edithvale’s plan includes:
Key Improvement Strategy #1
Learning – Support both those who need scaffolding and those who have thrived to continue to extend their learning, especially in numeracy
Three key actions:
- Build staff capability to implement our agreed instructional model consistently
- Embed science of reading approaches, emphasising use of challenging texts and morphology teaching in the upper school and targeted intervention in F-4
- Improve pedagogy and implementation of improvement strategies through the development of the PLC model and implementation of peer observation
Key Improvement Strategy #2
Wellbeing – Effectively mobilise available resources to support students’ wellbeing and mental health,
especially the most vulnerable
- Create Positive Climate Team to drive consistent approaches to student wellbeing including – the essential features of Tier 1
- Strengthen the whole school approach towards social and emotional learning through use of Zones of Regulation, Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships and SWPBS approach
- Maintain PLCs structures for Education Support staff employees to collaborate and strengthen their effectiveness in recognising and responding to student wellbeing and mental health
- Employ a Speech Pathologist and Psychologist (We have stated conversations to secure the services of a psychologist from Positive Psychology).
DET advice – Staying safe from mosquitoes
After heavy rainfall, mosquitoes can grow and spread in the pools of water left behind.
While the overall risk is low, some mosquitoes carry diseases that are spread through their bites. Mosquitoes are more active at dusk and dawn, but some will also bite during the day.
The best way to prevent mosquito-borne diseases is to avoid mosquito bites.
When mosquitoes are prevalent and cannot be avoided families can protect against mosquito bites by:
- covering up as much as possible with long, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothing
- applying insect repellent that contains picaridin or DEET on exposed skin when leaving home
- limiting outdoor activity if lots of mosquitoes are active.
Further information · Better Health Channel information about preventing mosquito-borne diseases · A handy checklist to help reduce mosquito breeding sites at home · Department of Health safety advice for flood-affected areas, in a range of languages.
Upcoming Key dates:
- December 9 – Year 5 and 6 Life Saving
- December 2 and 9 – Year 3 and 4 Life saving
- December 9 – Community Christmas Picnic 4 – 6 pm
- December 15 – Year 6 Graduation
- December 15 – End of semester reports are live on COMPASS
- December 16 – Welcome to Country and Smoking ceremony at 9:15 am Assembly
- December 16 – Class parties and School Colour Fun Run
- December 19 – Students’ final day of school and dismissal after a 1:30 pm Assembly
- December 20 – Student Free day, TeamKids in operation
2023 First day of School for Students
- Monday January 30 for ALL students
Term dates for 2023
The following dates have been set by the Department of Education and ensure that there are exactly 200 days of school for the year. First and Third Terms are each 10 weeks in duration with Term 2 covering a shorter 9 week timeframe and Term 4 running for 12 weeks. We will advise when our Student Free days will be once School Council has met to discuss these dates.
- Term 1 – January 30 – April 6
- Term 2 – April 24 – June 23
- Term 3 – July 10 – September 15
- Term 4 – October 2 – December 20
Kind regards,
James Whitla
I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of these lands – the Bunurong- members of the eastern Kulin Nations
– and pay my respects to elders past present and emerging. I wish to acknowledge all First Nations people in our
school community and pay respects to them. I note further that these lands were never ceded and are, and always
will be, Aboriginal Lands.