Term 1 SWPBS Focus - Responsibility

This week, we are foccusing on being responsible regarding our listening. This means we are using whole body listening and showing the speaker we are paying attention to what is being said. Part of being a good listener is making a good choice about who we sit next to. The final aspect that we are highlighting this week is that we always raise our hand when we have something to say.

School Vision:

Our school’s vision is to prepare young people to become active, engaged and responsible citizens of the local and global community. 

• We will provide a safe, calm and welcoming learning environment where every child is treated as an individual.

• We will develop children who have a strong relationship to school and their community. The children will have a sense of self & understand how they learn.

• We will build and support an open, healthy and welcoming community that is visible in its practical support for the learning and wellbeing of each child. Children will be encouraged to embrace and celebrate difference and they will experience positive interactions with adults.

• We aim to foster a love of and for our natural environment and nurture a strong sense of stewardship within our students.  Eppalock PS prioritises environmental sustainability.

Message from the School Captains

 Hello this is Annika and Daisy speaking as we said in the newsletter last week, we desperately need volunteers for our weekly hobbies and clubs. If you have expertise in any particular area, we would love to get you in on Friday afternoons from 2:15 to around 3:05. We are sending a note out to you through your kids that we would love you to consider. On the note you can write what you want to do and when you want to do it. When you are finished you can send it back to school with your kids who will then get it to us so we can consider all of your ideas. Thank you!

Swimming Permission Notes

Please read through them thoroughly and fill them out as appropriate and return them as soon as possible. If you need support regarding payment or how to pay using the My Schools Connect App, please contact the school.

Soccer on Tuesdays

For the next 5 weeks, students will be completing some soccer activities made possible through the Sporting Schools grant we have received. Each class is allocated a different 45 minute session on the Tuesday so please consider packing a little extra fruit or healthy snack to keep energy levels up. There will be no soccer during swimming week.

MARC Van

We are very excited to welcome Sue Gentry back to begin the MARC program for 2023. Sue will be visiting EPS on Wednesdays.

School Council Positions

 Below are the important dates, outlining the nomination process for School Council positions:

• Monday 20^th February 2023 - Closing date for nominations
• Monday 27^th February 2023 - The date by which the list of candidates and nominators will be posted
• Wednesday 1^st March 2023 - The date by which ballot papers will be prepared and distributed
• Wednesday 8th March 2023 - Close of ballot
• Thursday 9^th March 2023 – Vote Count
• Friday 10^th March 2023 – Declaration of poll
• Thursday 23rd March 2023 – AGM & First council meeting to elect office bearers (the Principal will preside)

Reading at Home

An exciting day today for Mr Tonzing’s class as the home reading logs have arrived. Mr T was very happy this morning when he found out they were here and is looking forward to working with students around discussing the home reading program. For the rest of the school, it is wonderful to see consistent reading routines being established at home, keep up the great efforts!

Reminders

• If your child is displaying any flu or cold-like symptoms, please keep them home.
• EPS Broad brimmed hats are to be worn at recess and lunch.
• Adults in families are reminded to download the uEducateUs app to their mobile device.
• Please ensure longer hair is tied back each day when coming to school.
• Any changes to regular pick-up routines are best communicated via phone and speaking directly to a staff member so that it can be recorded in the after school pick up folder. We cannot always guarantee an email will be seen in time during the day.
• Staff duty of care begins at 8:45am in the morning.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website

https://www.eppalockps.vic.edu.au/page/72/Policies

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

School Council (SC) Update

As part of our goal to remain transparent and provide effective communication between SC and the school community, we will aim to write a short report after each SC meeting as well as any important updates that we can’t wait to tell you. If you have any feedback or would like to discuss anything with SC, please email Alicia Martin Alicia.Martin@education.vic.gov.au

Our last SC meeting was held Thursday 9^th February. It was exciting to introduce Mr Andrew King as our Acting Principal for Term 1 and welcome Lydia Fehring as the DET representative. We hope they enjoy their time on SC.

News from this meeting

• Election Timeline for 2023 approved as follows:

Monday 13th February 2023 - Notice of election and call for nominations.

This year, there are four positions to be nominated on our wonderful School Council. So, if you’re interested please complete a nomination form and hand in to school.

Monday 20^th February 2023 - Closing date for nominations

Monday 27^th February 2023 - The date by which the list of candidates and nominators will be posted.

Wednesday 1^st March 2023 - The date by which ballot papers will be prepared and distributed

Wednesday 8th March 2023 - Close of ballot

Thursday 9^th March 2023 – Vote Count

Friday 10^th March 2023 – Declaration of poll

Thursday 30th March 2023 – AGM & First council meeting to elect office bearers (the Principal will preside)

• SC are investigating the possible installation of a UV Filtration system.
• SC have renewed a contract for the photocopier, this includes a new model machine and cheaper rates per page!
• SC endorsed the plans to upgrade the sensory garden and approved the submission for a department grant to cover the costs.
• On the radar is road safety around our school. Mr King will continue the work from previous years to improve road safety for our kids. Plans to record vehicle numbers and driver speeds.

Thanks for reading, remember if you would like to get involved, grab a nomination form and submit it to the school, and/or you have any feedback or would like to discuss anything with SC, please email Alicia Martin Alicia.Martin@education.vic.gov.au

Cheers

Alicia Martin

School Council President

It is with regret that I write to inform you that we have made the difficult decision to cancel our School Photo Fundraiser.  

Eppalock Primary School will no longer be running the Chris Epworth Photography sessions 2023.

Unfortunately we just could not get enough bookings on either date proposed to make the event still viable. 

We have spoken with Chris Epworth, the Photographer, and he will arrange for everyone to receive their paid booking fee refunded in full. This should occur over the coming couple of weeks.

I will make contact with everyone in about 3-weeks time to make sure that you have each received your full refund money. If you have any questions though in the meantime,  please don't hesitate to email or contact me on: 0418 390 824and I'll follow up.

On behalf of the School, I want to say a HUGE thank you for supporting this fundraiser. It has been a fantastic event in planning, that branched out well into our local community, so I'm disappointed that we were not able to bring it to fruition. Thank you.

We'll stay in touch though and bring you many more wonderful Eppalock PS fundraising opportunities.

Sal Symes

This week we spent time outside on the play equipment and at the base.

We painted on canvas.

Cooking activities this week included making sausage rolls and baked potatoes.

On Tuesday, Maggie came for our fourth session of dancing.

https://www.eppalockps.vic.edu.au/source/Sunflower%20Dancers%20-%20Eppalock%20-%20Term%202%202023%20(3).pdf