313A Pakington Street, Newtown, 3220 (03) 5221 2738

chilwell.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.chilwellps.vic.edu.au

School Council Email: schoolscouncil@chilwellps.vic.edu.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChilwellFair Out of School Hours Child Care Program Coordinator (0417 014 973)

NEWSLETTER No.9 - 21st April 2020

Ongoing Wed NUDE FOOD DAY—Pack a wrapper free lunch

April 25 Sat ANZAC DAY

May 2 Sat CHILWELL FAIR - SAVE THE DATE POSTPONED

May 20 Wed Grades 3-6 Chilwell Athletics TBC

June 8 Mon Queens Birthday Public Holiday

Aug 31-Sept 2 Mon-Wed Grade 5 Camp—Sovereign Hill TBC

Sep 16 Wed School Concert TBC

Nov 2-4 Mon-Wed Grade 4 Camp—Lady Northcote, Bacchus Marsh TBC

Dear Families,

Week 2: And we are all still standing!!

I must say this newsletter is the most unique one that I have composed. The changes that have been thrown at us in the last month or so have been huge. Having said that it has been highly satisfying for all our community when we reflect on the manner in which we have taken on these challenges.

Parents: We have been asked to have our children inside most of the day. We have been asked to su-pervise their learning through the internet and electronic devices. We have been asked to work from home if possible. For those of us who run a business we have had to make drastic changes to the way we operate. We have had the extra worry of the health of loved ones both in our immediate and extended family.

Students: They have been asked to show independence in a somewhat different learning environment. Stay inside the house and not have the social interaction both at a school or with friends. Be mindful that Mum and or Dad are working from home as well as supervising school work.

Staff: Have been thrust into a full on line learning environment. Asked to deal with lack of professional and social face to face interaction. Balance the school work and the home environment with children who are also learning online. Seek on line resources. Not have the face to face interaction with the students. Deal with feedback being in a different form.

Throughout all of these challenges I believe we have acquitted ourselves very well. The students have become even more independent and adaptable in their learning. Parents have been terrific in assisting our students and it is obvious that our staff have demonstrated their commitment to our children in many ways.

I realise we are all undertaking new learning and it, at times, is frustrating, challenging and sometimes too much. Please be kind to yourself and understand that we are all trying our best and we will get through this time.

We may not respond immediately to on line questions, students may not undertake all assigned work, the stress in the house may be alleviated with going for a walk, work may be too hard or too easy, parents may get pushback from children, our staff meetings may be interrupted by a dispute between siblings in a home etc. All of these plus more will be ‘normal’ for a while.

School Council: An on line Council meeting was again very different for myself. We tried to make the meeting as ‘normal’ as usual and discussed a range of items including;

Feedback on the operation of the school so far. We had a great discussion on how we are coping and the plans going forward.

Financial reports, including the impact of the lockdown on finances.

Facility improvement plans which will come to fruition shortly. We are investigating solar panelling for the school, continuing the synthetic surfacing of the yard boundary, extra joinery in the South wing of our school and we have already re carpeted the Year 3 classrooms over the holidays.

Policy ratification was undertaken. These are available on our website.

We also discussed how we will undertake the Annual Report to the Community. Details will be given soon.

Communication: The communication between teacher and families has never been more important. At times staff will quarantine times to plan for the program for the next week. This is a time for students to undertake their specialist programs, take a break, read a book or make Mum or Dad a cup of coffee! If we can allow this time to become a no communication time with grade teacher the program will be better positioned.

Also sometimes staff will be supervising Essential Services students at school therefore they will be undertaking 2 roles at the same time. Please be patient on occasions when this slows up the learning process.

We have had a number of emails from families acknowledging the work our staff have and are doing. This is most welcomed. As I have said I too am so proud of our staff and the work that they do. I believe we are all doing a great job so congratulations back to families.

School Council: This is another conduit into the school. Our Council members do a great job of supporting us in our work. Our representatives for 2020 are:

Phil Joyce (President) David Meade

Tony Lee (Vice President) Sharon Kelly

Daniel Boddington (Treasurer) David Villarosa

India Hannam (Secretary) Lisa Harmer

Elaine Williams Sarah Jeffreys

Please see below some support contact for families which will be vital during these time. Please reach out to gain support.

Support Numbers:

Lifeline: 13 11 14 or www.lifeline.org.au

Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467 or www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au

BeyondBlue: 1300 224 636 or www.beyondblue.org.au

eheadspace: 1800 650 890 or www.eheadspace.org.au

Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 or www.kidshelpline.com.au

Reach Out: www.reachout.com.au

SANE Australia: 1800 187 263 or www.sane.org

Headspace Geelong: 5222 6690

1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732 or www.1800respect.org.au

Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre (SAFVC): 5222 4318 or www.safvcentre.org.au

Orange Door: 1800 312 820 or www.orangedoor.vic.gov.au

CAMHS: 4215 8600 or After Hours: 1300 094 187 www.barwonhealth.org.au/services-departments/community-health-services/item/camhs

Jigsaw: 4215 8300 or www.barwonhealth.org.au/services-departments/mental-health/item/jigsaw-youth-mental-health-drugs-and-alcohol-services

DET Page for Learning From Home – For Parents: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning.aspx

Gavan Welsh

Principal Chilwell Primary School.

25 Mar

Jack F

Jake R

Matisse P

0MA

5LB

6JS

26 Mar Jay V 1OD

27 Mar

Callum D

Sophie E

Charli K

4EH

6JS

6JS

28 Mar Eliza V 6NR

30 Mar Camille H 5LB

1 Apr Lou B 6JS

2 Apr Chase M 2KH

3 Apr Ian H 1OD

4 Apr Zeth W

Lylah W

2JS

2KH

5 Apr Charlie C

Nyota C

0RP

3JC

7 Apr Poppy K

Teddy M

0CB

5JM

8 Apr

Sian S

Gus M

Violet G

3LG

4EH

6NR

9 Apr Lucia H 3JC

12 Apr Calvin H

Rosie B

1OD

4SW

14 Apr Shirley R 3JC

15 Apr Jacks C

Eva K

1OD

2JS

16 Apr Olivia H 2JS

17 Apr

Nic N

Sam S

Hanna N

0CB

0MA

3JC

20 Apr

Liam K

Archie S

Clare A

1OD

3MW

6NR

21 Apr Ella M 3MW

22 Apr Mia C

Sophie B

0MA

6NR

23 Apr Wil L 6MC

24 Apr Rumana H

Sebastian G

1OD

1OD

26 Apr Lewis P

Alice H

1LC

3JC

27 Apr Amelie M

Alexandra J

0RP

6MC

30 Apr Sienna L 1OD

Kindness in our Community

Leo Fedke – Grade 1

Many mornings on the holidays, Leo Fedke from Grade 1 and his sister Willow, 3, created new “pandemic

pen pals”, sharing handwritten cards and letters with their elderly Geelong neighbours in the hope of

warding off loneliness, as the country faced months of forced social isolation and self-distancing in the

COVID-19 outbreak. What a kind gesture inspired by the ‘The Kindness Pandemic’ on social media. Their

efforts led to articles being written about them in ‘The Age’ and ‘That’s Life’ magazine as well as a feature

on 3AW! That is simply amazing and shows the kind, caring students we have in our school who will

reach out to others in the community.

Great job Leo and the Fedke family!

Milla Alstin – Grade 5

Milla wrote letters to a local aged care facility in our community

to reach out with kindness during these challenging times. Milla

received three replies to her letters and one lady asked if Milla

has knitting projects for her, as she loves to knit! Kindness is a

great quality that Milla shows every day. Well done for reaching

out to support others in our community.

Please share any great stories you have via the school email.

Students Engaging with Remote Learning at Home

Some great examples of some of our students engaging with remote learning at home. It is great to see their smiles!

If you have great examples you’d like to share, please share via our school email.

Ollie H from Prep

exploring numbers and

Art. His rainbow

handprints show that we

are all in this together.

It is amazing!

Well done Ollie!

Below: Milla (Grade 5) and Chad (Grade 3) are set up and

ready to learn.

Left: Phoebe (Grade 6) is all set up and loving her remote

learning. Great smile Phoebe!

Behind all of these smiles are parents/carers doing a remarkable job to support the remote learning. Also, of course, our

teachers who are creating and sharing the learning and providing wonderful feedback to our students.

Together we can do great things!

STEM@Home Lego Masters is back on TV!

You could watch it with your family.

This week seems the perfect week to try a Lego challenge or two – or lots!

Here’s some ideas for you, or you could make up your own.

Happy building! Have a great week!

Miss Sheridan :-) *Acknowledgement – these Lego challenges cards are a free resource from The Stem Laboratory: thestemlaboratory.com

Hello Parents and Carers of Chilwell.

Scholastic, our book club company, is going online so here is an opportunity to get something else to read or another activity to have a go at.

Below is the link to the catalogue, you still do your normal online ordering on Loop.

When you go into the link and see the catalogue, down the bottom of the page on the right is a smaller line which is a zoom bar making it much easier to read the catalogue.

https://scholastic.com.au/book-club/virtual-catalogue-1/

It is a much bigger issue with a huge range so enjoy looking through it.

Please have all your online orders on Loop done by Monday 4th May.

When the order comes in and I have it ready, I will send out a message with dates and times you can drive/walk by our back lane where I will be waiting for you to pick up your

order.

Any orders not collected will be left at the school office.

Thanks everyone

Sue

Skoolbag App – Update your Personal Details

Skoolbag App is a great way for our school to communicate

with families and share communication like our school

newsletter. We can send ‘alerts’ for important reminders,

forms or situations that can impact school and events, such

as weather.

This is an essential resource during our current challenging

times, where regular and essential information is being sent

to our community.

Please ensure you have updated your child’s/children’s year levels so you get the relevant year level specific information. It is essential that families have their app configured to current 2020 student year levels as some alerts

are year level specific. This can be controlled from your Smart Phone Skoolbag app or your desktop

Skoolbag access by clicking groups as circled in yellow in the diagram below. You can then select the year

levels you require information for.

Much of the information is shared to all year levels, however, if there is a special event, such as a camp

or excursion, it will just be shared to that year level.

Therefore, updating your groups and year levels is essential.

Just to emphasise, most will go via ‘share with all groups’. You will still

receive these alerts as well as the year level specific information.

You can select as many relevant groups/year levels that apply to your

family.

Updating the app to the most recent version is also advised to ensure

these changes can be made easily. If your screen does not match the

screen in the image then an app update is required or you will need to

log out and log back in to update your profile.

All current information related to the Coronavirus is being sent as an

‘alert’ within Skoolbag app and shared with a push notification and via

email. Please ensure both of these functions are turned on so that you

receive the relevant information as required.

A friendly reminder that the ‘absentee form’ and ‘change of details’

forms are also available via the Skoolbag app using the tab circled in

green on the image.

Absentee forms will be forwarded to your child’s teacher via the office.

For any questions or concerns regarding Skoolbag app or communication, please contact Sarah Jeffreys.

Chilwell P.S. Outside School Hours Care

All Parents/Caregivers PLEASE NOTE that BEFORE & AFTERSCHOOL CARE bookings need to be made in advance now with the winter months & wet weather coming to avoid being turned away at the door. Staff/Children must remain in Ratio's and if we aren't expecting your children we can't staff accordingly. Bookings can be made via text at anytime on 0417014973.

BEFORE SCHOOL CARE 7:30am - 9am $12 (CCSS REBATES APPLY) DAY PROGRAM 9am - 3:30pm $40 (NO REBATES) AFTERSCHOOL CARE 3:30pm - 6pm $17 (CCSS REBATES APPLY)

Regards Cheryl Minett, OSHC Coordinator, Chilwell PS

REMINDER to all families using this service if you need to cancel a booking you are required to call or text prior to the session to avoid being charged a late/cancellation fee.

Before school care to cancel TEXT or CALL before 7am

After school care to cancel TEXT or CALL before 2pm

After these times a charge will be incurred.

Term 2 – 2020

To book or cancel care please call Cheryl on 0417 014 973

Parents in order to receive your correct CCSS Rebate from Centrelink YOU need to apply for an assessment through Centrelink. After you receive the letter from them stating your percentage you will need to go onto your MyGov account and make sure you have confirmed your child's attendance with Chilwell OSHC. Once this is done you should see on your OSHC statement the rebate received and the balance owing to OSHC. Please keep your OSHC account balance in the positive by making a payment at the end of each week of attendance.

EVERY FAMILY using the OSHC service MUST complete a new 2020 Registration Form available from the School Office or OSHC. Please ensure you include all medical and custody paperwork and medications your child requires as we DO NOT have access to the school first aid room or classrooms. Any child who is Asthmatic or Anaphylactic must have medical forms and medication in OSHC to attend, failure to do so will result in you having to come and collect them immediately.

Cheryl Minett OSHC Coordinator Chilwell Primary School