Virginia Primary School Newsletter

Issue 12, 26/7/2019

From the Principal

Welcome to Term 3

I hope you all had a wonderful school holiday period and were able to spend quality time with your children.

Having visited and spent time in classrooms, I can say it has been a very smooth start to the term. We look forward to another fantastic term of learning


Staffing

I would like to thank Mrs Elaine Grose who did an amazing job working in our front office throughout term 2. For many, it was a trip down memory lane as Elaine had been a long term Virginia Primary staff member prior to retiring at the end of 2012. We would like to thank her for 'coming out of retirement to support us whilst Mrs Wilson was on a well-deserved holiday. In saying this, we would also like to welcome back Mrs Wilson. 

I would also like to thank Ms Thuy Nguyen who back-filled Mrs Graham whilst she was on leave last term. She too did a fantastic job. It's great to have you back Mrs Graham.

Mrs Bexis is currently on leave, honeymooning in Europe, and has been replaced by Mrs Pauline Ferguson. We are sure Mrs Bexis is enjoying the sunshine and warmth. It is always fantastic to have Pauline back as we know from her many years of teaching prior to her retirement just how great an educator she is. Many of the children in Room 8 she taught as Receptions.

You may see Ms Adele Rasche who will be supporting in one of our JP classrooms, as well as Hayley Klose who will also be supporting the learning in some JP classes.

During weeks 3 - 7 this term, I will be stepping into the Education Director role for both our partnership of schools (Orion) and the Montague Partnership. I will return to Virginia in Week 8 (you may see me around during this time as Virginia will be one of the sites I will be responsible for and I also plan to be back for some key dates). Voula will be stepping up into the Principal’s role and she will be back-filled internally. We hope to be able to announce who will be in the Deputy Position role by the Friday of Week 2. I know both Voula and whoever takes on her role will do an amazing job in my absence.

Striving for Excellence at Virginia Preschool and Primary

Our vision at Virginia Primary is “Learning together, Learning for our future”. This places a huge importance on the notion of teamwork and working with one another. I have mentioned in previous newsletters that as a school we acknowledge the critical role you as parents/ families and caregivers play as the primary educators in your children’s lives. Thank you to all families who engaged in the interview process when receiving their childrens reports. We are nearly at 100% attendance. For those yet to attend for one reason or another, we are making contact now to organise these meetings ASAP so we can hand over reports. It is important that we continually strive for excellence and look for ways to refine and improve our practice to provide the highest quality of education and care for our children.

Tour De Cure - BE FIT, BE HEALTHY, BE HAPPY school visit

 

On Thursday the 25/7/2019 Geoff Coombes and some of the Tour De Cure team visited our school to run a BE FIT, BE HEALTHY, BE HAPPY presentation with our students.


He shared with us that 1 in 3 cancers are preventable, and the importance of trying to be as fit, healthy and happy as possible. Since it's beginning in 2007, Tour De Cure has raised $520 million dollars to support cancer research.


He worked with all students R-7 to come up with examples of how we can do all three;

BE FIT - ride our bikes, running, walking the dog

BE HEALTHY - eating fruits and vegetables and making sure sugary sweets are only a 'sometimes' food

BE HAPPY - sharing a joke, caring for one another and making a choice to be happy.


Every student received a BE FIT, BE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY bag. Thank you team Tour De Cure, that was really kind of you.


Geoff then met with Riley (one of our Year 2 students whom we previously shared is riding from Melbourne to Adelaide to support children's charity), his Pop and the rest of his family to share some helpful tips/ hints to support Riley with his  big ride.


You can find out more about Tour De Cure at https://www.tourdecure.com.au/

For more information about Riley's big ride, you can visit https://rileysbigride.home.blog/

Annual School Major Fundraiser - WALKATHON (Week 8, Friday 13th of September)

Information regarding our Major Annual Fundraiser, the Walkathon will be coming out shortly. We have met with groups of children to work through how we improve the event. We look forward to sharing more shortly. 

Grounds & Facilities upgrade

The holiday period here at school was busy with a great deal of work taking place outdoors. As promised, the new playground was installed. It has been a real hit with students of all ages using it at both recess and lunchtime.

We also had the cracks on the basketball/ netball court repaired. The new coating won't be applied until after August as we are waiting for dry weather and also making sure the netball club are able to access it whilst theirs undergoes significant upgrade. 

Reminder: E-Newsletter trial (taken from our edition 11 newsletter)

E-Newsletter (Term 3 trial)

I have consistently had people provide feedback over the last year or so with respect to online newsletters as well as making online payments. Whilst there isn’t anything happening with online payments just yet, I can assure you with Governing Council support, we are exploring how we can do this in an efficient, easily accessible and safe way.

 

We are trialing online newsletters this term (Term 3). There have been several reasons as to why we will be trialing this, including;

 

  • High levels of engagement with reading newsletters through the links provided on Facebook and through Skoolbag
  • The ability for newsletters to be translated into other languages
  • Significant cost savings (both in paper and photocopying). Currently, each newsletter with 3 pages costs us approximately $103. This equates to over $2000 each year or approximately 30% of what we receive in profits from our major school fundraiser
  • Saving time – each newsletter takes time to print and send to classes
  • Its functionality (creating an e-newsletter is significantly easier than working with the formatting in a paper based form)

 

We recognise that this won’t be for everyone, and the only way to find a happy middle ground is to trial it.

 

How will you access the new school E-Newsletter?

When the newsletter gets sent out, it will be available in the Skoolbag app and through  the skoolbag portal on our website as well as a link on our Facebook page. Please make sure if you haven’t downloaded Skoolbag that you do so and ensure that notifications are ‘switched on’.  The termly calendar will be available in each E-newsletter as a downloadable PDF, as well as all dates being advertised in the ‘events’ section of our Skoolbag app. The new E-newsletter will automatically scale to size on PC, mobile or tablet.

Breakfast Program

A reminder to all that our school has a breakfast program available to ALL students. Each morning there is a table set up outside the staff room with a range of different nutritious options. Even if your child has had breakfast at home but still feels peckish they are able to take a piece of fruit, toast or yoghurt.

Term 3 Calendar

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