IMPORTANT DATES!
TERM 4 2020
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Welcome back to all members of the school community as we commence another school year. The past few days has seen our students regrouping with old friends, forming new relationships and displaying excellent learning behaviours. All students have been adhering to the school values and have demonstrated great support to the various new members of staff. We also welcome many new faces and I have been lucky enough to have spent some of the first few days checking in with our many new students.
2021 starts with a sense of optimism as we navigate through the return to COVID normal phase. I can assure parents/carers that the RGLPS staff will continue to do everything possible to ensure your child/ren is working in a safe and supportive environment that values and celebrates student learning. I look forward to a very rewarding and successful year for our parents, staff and most importantly our students.
At RGLPS we truly value the partnership that parents have with the school. We consider your input to be a valuable tool that assists us to support your child with their educational and social experiences. Please be sure to communicate with your child’s classroom teacher any suggestions, supports or concerns, as together we can ensure that your child has a happy and productive school experience. Do remember that the Team Leader of your child’s Learning Area is also a great point of call to assist you and our leadership team of Luke Franklin, Thom Jackson, Cathie Sutton, Kerron Worsdell and myself are also just a phone call away.
Tutor Learning Initiative
You may have heard that the Victorian State Government have invested considerable funds in the Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI). RGLPS will be running a program that is designed to support students whose learning has been disrupted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We have already spent considerable time assessing our students to identify those who are eligible for the additional support and are now finalising recruitment with a plan to commence the program somewhere between the 22nd of February and the 7th of March. Our school will adopt a collaborative, co-teaching approach that is delivered in a manner to support and accelerate student learning. This will result in explicit and targeted small group sessions. The program is not designed to support students with a 1:1 tutoring session but rather give students the opportunity to accelerate their learning through a focused and comprehensive small group forum. We plan to utilise all of the available funding in the first semester to give our students a chance to regain the learning they may have missed last year. Further information will be available should your child/ren be eligible for the program.
Meet the Teacher Evening
Please save the date as there will be a meet the teacher evening on the 24th of February from 3.30 – 6:30. Other sessions will be available throughout the week so do keep an eye on Compass as booking will be open soon. This is an opportunity for you to have a brief chat with your Childs’ new teacher. These will be 10 minute sessions held to ensure that our classroom teachers have all the information they need to support your children.
Privacy
This is just a quick reminder that access to the Department of Education and Training (DET) Schools’ Privacy Policy is available through the following link. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/schoolsprivacypolicy.aspx#link6
This policy is updated regularly and is of great assistance as we support our students to navigate through an ever changing technological world. Please refer to the policy as needed.
I am looking forward to a really productive and hopefully uninterrupted year.
Kirrily Lamers
Principal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL’S REPORT
Welcome Back
Welcome back to school for 2021. It has been a wonderful start with our students showing great excitement and enthusiasm to be back. After an interesting 2020, it has been great to see our students and teachers slotting into the ‘old’ routines of school life. It is almost like we never had such a large disruption. I would like to thank all of our parents and teachers for your hard work in settling the students back into school life.
Our new Foundation students are finding their feet and starting to explore the school grounds at recess and lunchtime alongside their amazingly caring buddies. It was fantastic to see our senior school students developing some fun activities to do with our new students and then spend the break time showing them around and supporting them to find a place to play.
Teachers and currently getting to know their new students and develop learning routines and expectations together. This is important work that will help develop the learning environment in our classrooms and set everyone up for success.
Child Information Sharing Reforms
Phase two of the Child Information Sharing Reforms will be implemented in Term 2 this year.
The Child Information Sharing Scheme is part of reforms that aim to promote child wellbeing and safety by sharing information that assists this.
Phase two of the framework expands the number of Victorian professionals who work with children to have permission to share information with other authorised professionals.
Authorised professionals will be able to access a complete view of the children they work with, making it easier for them to identify wellbeing or safety needs earlier, and to act on them sooner.
The authorised professionals will include staff from:
- Schools
- Kindergartens
- long day care centres
- out-of-hours school care services
- education-based health wellbeing and inclusion professionals.
Under phase two, more Victorian education and care workforces will participate in:
- the Child Information Sharing Scheme
- the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme
- the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework.
External Family Violence Services and Resources
- – Safe Steps — Victoria’s state-wide family violence support service, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Live online chat is also available weekdays from 9am to 9pm.
- – 1800 Respect — provides family violence and sexual assault counselling and is available via telephone or online chat, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- – The What’s ok at home? Website — provides information on family violence to children and young people aged 10–17 years old as well as information for adult allies looking to support the safety of children and young people.
- – Kids Helpline — provides counselling support service for young people aged 5–25 years old and for parents, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- – Parentline Victoria — provides parenting counselling support service 8am to midnight, seven days a week, including support for parents experiencing family violence.
- – The Lookout website — provides statewide information on family violence and local services across Victoria.
- – headspace — provides tailored and holistic mental health support from 9am to 1am, seven days a week, to young people aged 12–25 years old. The website also provides resources and a local directory for headspace centres.
Sunsmart
I have seen several students in the yard this week without a hat. It is vitally important that we employ sunsmart behaviours at RGLPS.
Our policy can be found on our website at:
Please speak with your child about the importance of practicing sunsmart behaviours. Our uniform shop is open during office hours if you need to purchase a new hat.
Luke Franklin
Assistant Principal
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Welcome Back....!
A big welcome back to all RGLPS students and families for 2021! We are all looking forward to a great year of learning as we settle into our new straight grade structure in 2021.
Start Up Programs
All classes will teach a ‘Start Up’ program until 12th February 2021.
The ‘Start Up’ program supports students and teachers to get to know each other and learn classroom routines, expectations and the desirable behaviours for a successful year of learning. These include activities like unpacking and exploring the RGLPS school values (Kindness, Persistence and Responsibility); setting up independent reading, home reading, Writer’s Notebooks and Smart Spelling; getting to know you and conflict resolution activities; labelling classroom materials; setting up classroom libraries; and collecting baseline samples of student learning to help teachers determine student need.
Term 1 2021 Team Newsletters
Term 1 newsletters are currently being finalised by each year level and the specialist team. It is hoped these will be ready to be released to parents via Compass around 12th February 2021. Parents will receive a Compass alert when these are available to view.
Maths Olympiad 2021
The 2021 Maths Olympiad Team will start sessions in early March in preparation for the first Olympiad on March 24th 2021. Year 5/6 students who are at least 12 months above the expected level in at least one strand of Mathematics, based on their end of 2020 school report, will be invited to join the 2021 team. A select number of high achieving students from Year 4 may also be invited to join if there are still places on the team. The ideal team size is around 25 students.
I will be contacting parents of all eligible students around the middle of February to seek consent for their child to be involved in a weekly Maths Olympiad session. This session will be held during school hours.
Kerron Worsdell
Teaching and Learning Coach
CSEF – CAMPS, SPORTS AND EXCURSIONS FUND
The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund helps eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities.
If you have a valid means-tested concession card, such as a Veterans Affairs Gold Card, Centrelink Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible. There is also a special consideration category for asylum seeker and refugee families.
Payment amounts this year are $125 for eligible primary school students. Payments are made direct to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions and sporting activities for the benefit of your child.
If you applied for CSEF through our school last year, you do not need to complete an application form this year, unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.
If you would like to apply for the first time, please contact the school office on 9457 4178 and ask for an application form.
You can also download the form, and find out more about the program and eligibility, on the Department of Education and Training’s Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund web page.
Check with the school office if you are unsure, and please return completed forms to the school office as soon as possible.
PRIVACY COLLECTION STATEMENT – PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Information for Parents and Carers
During the ordinary course of your child’s attendance at our school, school staff will collect your child’s personal and health information when necessary to educate your child, or to support your child’s social and emotional wellbeing or health in the school context. Such information will also be collected when required to fulfil a legal obligation, including duty of care, anti-discrimination law and occupational health and safety law. If that information is not collected, the school may be unable to provide optimal education or support to your child, or fulfil those legal obligations.
For example, health information may be collected through the school nurse, primary welfare officer or wellbeing staff member. If your child is referred to a specific health service at school, such as a Student Support Services officer, the required consent will be obtained. Our school also collects information provided by parents and carers through the School Entrance Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) and the Early Childhood Intervention Service (ECIS) Transition Form.
Our school may use online tools, such as apps and other software, to effectively collect and manage information about your child for teaching and learning purposes, parent communication and engagement; student administration; and school management purposes. When our school uses these online tools, we take steps to ensure that your child’s information is secure. If you have any concerns about the use of these online tools, please contact us.
School staff will only share your child’s personal or health information with other staff who need to know to enable the school to educate or support your child, or fulfil a legal obligation.
When our students transfer to another Victorian government school, personal and health information about that student will be transferred to that next school. Transferring this information is in the best interests of our students and assists that next school to provide optimal education and support to students.
In some limited circumstances, information may be disclosed outside of the school (and outside of the Department of Education and Training). The school will seek your consent for such disclosures unless the disclosure is allowed or mandated by law.
Our school values the privacy of every person. When collecting and managing personal and health information, all school staff must comply with Victorian privacy law. For more information about privacy including about how to access personal and health information held by the school about you or your child, see our school’s privacy policy: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Pages/schoolsprivacypolicy.aspx
Throughout this notice, ‘staff’ includes principals, teachers, Student Support Service officers, youth workers, social workers, nurses and any other allied health practitioners and all other staff at our school. This includes employees, agents and service providers (contractors) of the Department, whether paid or unpaid.
TRAFFIC CHANGES
We have added this section to the Newsletter in an attempt to keep parents informed of the traffic changes which are occurring near RGLPS. We can only supply information that is provided to us by North East Link.
NO RIGHT TURN into Finlayson St and Newtown Rd from Greensborough Road, southbound.
SCHOOL BANKING
From Term 1, 2021 the Victorian Government has ceased school banking programs in Victorian government schools. As a result, the CommBank School Banking program will no longer operate at our school after the end of this term. If you are unsure of other methods of depositing to your child’s account, please feel free to contact the Bank’s general enquiries hotline on 13 2221 or alternatively visit your local CommBank branch.
We would like to thank you for your participation and support throughout the School Banking program.
CANTEEN
Welcome to canteen for 2021!
Lunch must be ordered via Flexischools.
The canteen is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday for lunch. Smaller items can be purchased over the counter at recess and lunch.
Regards
Margaret Groves
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Disclaimer: Rosanna Golf Links Primary School (RGLPS) does not endorse any product or service advertised in this newsletter. RGLPS takes no responsibility for the content of advertisements or the quality and reliability of products or services offered in the advertisements
