12-Nov-2021
Dear Families
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou.
Tomorrow is World Kindness Day. This is a global day that promotes the importance of being kind to each other, to yourself, and to the world. The purpose of this day, celebrated on November 13 of each year, is to help everyone understand that compassion for others is what binds us all together.
Kindness is closely linked to Empathy and our connection with The Resilience Project reminds us that every time you do something kind for someone else, your brain releases oxytocin. Oxytocin leads to:
- increase self esteem / confidence
- increase energy
- increase levels of happiness
- increase levels of positivity
Some kindness/empathy activities for kids, teenagers and adults are included in this link that we hope might help you to release some oxytocin and put a smile on someone’s face by making them feel good.
Empathy – Everyone – Overview — TRP@HOME (theresilienceproject.com.au)
Koorie Education
This week we engaged with our Koorie Education Support Officer and he let us know that we are on lands of the Bunurong people and that these are no longer considered contested lands.
He sent through a map that shows the boundaries of different lands of first nations people. You may wish to check it out here: Welcome Map (achris.vic.gov.au)
Financial Support for Families
We understand that some families may experience financial difficulty and that this time of the year can be stressful. There are a number of upcoming school – wide and year level activities planned over the next few weeks and we want to make all families aware that we have a range of support options to help with the associated costs of these events including:
- CSEF – Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund – paid to the School on your behalf; and can be used to cover camps, sport and excursions.
- State Schools Relief – we can apply for shoes, books and clothing for your child if you hold a Centrelink Pension card.
- Local community supporters – are sometimes available to help families suffering with financial hardship. We can source these for you if required.
2022 Parent Payment Arrangements
Our 2022 contribution amounts have been established to continue to provide the level of curriculum, support, and facilities to our students to best prepare them for future education. We understand that COVID-19 has impacted a number of families within the community; and we have consciously lowered amounts for 2022 to assist families in maintaining voluntary contributions.
Individual Booklists are not required in 2022.
In response to the financial impact of the last 2 years, we will be purchasing stationery items for ALL students in 2022 (a saving of between $65-85 per student). This includes exercise books, text books, paper, folders, document wallets, scrapbooks, clipboards, display books, magazine holders, tissues etc. We ask all families to purchase pencil
case items for their children. These include, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, glue sticks, markers, textas, crayons & scissors.
To help us plan our programs we are asking for contributions to be made prior to Friday December 10
For further information on the Department’s Parent Payments Policy please see a one-page overview attached.
Parent payments one page overview
2022 School Priorities Goal
ALL schools in Victoria will have this Priority goal in their 2022 Annual Implementation Plans and have been encouraged to keep the focus sharp and narrow.
“Some of our students have thrived in the remote learning environment, others have maintained their learning progress, and some need extra learning and wellbeing support despite the best efforts of their teachers and families. In 2022 we will continue to focus on student learning – with an increased focus on numeracy – and student wellbeing through the 2022 Priorities Goal, a learning Key Improvement Strategy and a wellbeing Key Improvement Strategy.”
For us this means that we will continue to provide learning catch up and extension options in Reading and Mathematics. We will also have a dedicated Disability Inclusion and Wellbeing leader who will support teachers to continue to make reasonable adjustments to the way we teach and support ALL students to successfully engage with the curriculum to learn.
Key dates
There are a number of events that we are hoping to run over the last 6 weeks of this term. There is an updated calendar on our school website and some of these are also listed here:
November 19- Whole school Kaboom Sports Day
November 30 – Foundation Moonlit Sanctuary Excursion
November 30- December 2 – Transition for Foundation- Year 5
December 7- Year 6 -7 Secondary School Statewide Transition day
December 6-10- Year 5 and 6 School Camp
December 13 School Fun Run
December 14- Class parties and Year 6 Graduation
December 15- Final Day of Students’ school year and final Assembly. Early dismissal at 2:00pm
Tip of the Week – Wellbeing support for students
A DET Mental Health Toolkit that we often refer to at school contains resources for students, parents and carers to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in their care. This includes:
Learning how to handle tough times and Get into Life (headspace). As the holidays approach, these may be useful to help us all bounce back from a tough period.
https://headspace.org.au/young-people/learn-how-to-handle-tough-times-to-help-your-headspace/
https://headspace.org.au/young-people/get-in-to-life-to-keep-your-headspace-healthy/
Take care and have a great weekend
James Whitla