No 1 10 February 2020

Dear Parents, Staff and Children,

Welcome back to the 2020 school year. We extend a warm welcome to new families who have

joined our community. We hope that your transition to Sunbury West is positive as you settle

into school routines and begin to develop new relationships with staff, students and parents.

Please contact your classroom teacher or the office if there is anything that the school can do

to further support your family.

Preps

A special welcome to all of our new Preps who started school with big smiles last Monday. It is

a very exciting time for the children as they start the first stage of their formal education. Last

Friday we were pleased to formally welcome our Preps as they joined us for their very first

assembly.

Events and Activities

As always, the year kicks off with many of our House and Interschool sporting events and

carnivals. Last Friday students in Years 3 – 6 participated in the House Swimming Carnival.

Children enjoyed a wonderful day at the pool participating in official events and fun activities.

Well done to Concorde who was the winning house. Congratulations to Harry Smith-Jones and

Anita Zambetta for being our 2020 Champion Boy and Girl.

The District Twilight Swimming Squad will be selected as a result of the day with this

interschool event being held on Thursday 20th February after school. Thank you to Mr Payton

for his coordination of the program and to all staff and parent helpers who contributed to the

success of the House Swimming Carnival this year.

Think U Know

Thankyou to the many parents who came along for our Think U Know session on Thursday

evening. Presented by Graham Higgerson, the focus of the evening was around cyber safety

and other issues pertaining to online activity. The evening was extremely informative and we

hope to offer another session in the near future. The TUK program is a partnership between

the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank and is

delivered in collaboration with Victoria Police and Neighbourhood Watch Australia.

Uniforms

We were very excited to see the wonderful response to the transition to our new Sunbury West

school uniform. The kids look absolutely fantastic and they are clearly showing their pride with

the new look. Feedback from staff, students and parents has been extremely positive.

Thankyou!

NB: The Sunbury West slouch hats are now also available at PSW.

Children in Years 1 – 6 have two years to move across to the new uniform. We have a small

amount of second hand uniforms in stock for any families that would like to take advantage of

these. We do ask that from now on we only receive donations of larger size polo shirts and

bomber jackets that bear the school logo.

A new uniform policy is being developed with a view to being endorsed by School Council at

their first meeting in February. This will be circulated to families after this date.

TIMELINE

Term 1

10th - 12th February

Parent Teacher

Interviews

20th February

Twilight Swimming

26th February

School Photos

2nd March

FOSW Meeting 2.30pm

6th March

3-6 House Athletics

9th March

Labour Day

13th March

Family Picnic Night

19th March

District Athletics

27th March

Last Day of Term 1 -

Students dismissed at

2.30pm

14th April

First Day of Term 2

ELIZABETH DRIVE, SUNBURY 3429

PHONE 9740 8666

www.sunburywestps.vic.edu.au

Specialist Programs 2020

In 2020 we are changing the way we deliver our former specialist programs. This year, the p – 2 and 3 – 6 teams

respectively will offer a number of enrichment programs. Each classroom teacher has a designated enrichment program

that they will teach to all classes in their team throughout the year. The programs are as follows:

Japanese will be delivered to all classes by Ako Sensei. We are excited to be able to offer a range of learning experiences

for children and look forward to celebrating their achievements as the year progresses.

Teacher planning and administrative time will now be provided on a Monday in a three hour block for each team

respectively. These will be am and pm sessions, changing at the mid semester break. Teachers, as Professional Learning

Communities (PLCs) use this time to collect and analyse student data and plan for differentiated programs and support.

They also conduct inquiries into student learning based on student data and surveys to scaffold learning in targeted areas.

The teams work extremely cohesively and have a solid understanding of student achievement across their team. Our

regular replacement teachers will take the classes and follow the normal teaching and learning program each Monday.

House Captains

The Swimming Sports was also the first official duty for our newly elected House Captains.

Congratulations to the following students as they take on this leadership role.

Boeing – Harry Smith Jones and Madelynn Vnucec

Concorde – Kade Payton and Hayley Hermelin

Douglas – Calvin Wallis and Ashlee Cavanagh

Hercules – Issy Delia and Alex Jacobs

Junior School Council

Last week classes in Years 3 – 6 held elections for our Junior School Council. Well done to the many students who

expressed interest in this role, preparing and presenting speeches. Congratulations to the following students who were

successful in becoming this year’s Junior School Councillors:

3 /4 P – Charlotte Nichols and Eric Smith Jones

3 /4 L – Marlie Paine and Ben Smyth

3 /4 W – Summer Walsh and Jayden Adams

5 / 6 B – Oliver Smyth and Maddison McCracken

5 /6 O – Jemma Monks Gomez and Noah Ploog

5 /6 P – Lara Jollie and Rhys Yates

Staffing

Welcome to Miss Darcy Williams who joins us in the 3 /4 team. We look forward to having Darcy on board as part of the

Sunbury West team.

We also welcome our regular teachers working in classes on Mondays. These teachers are:

Diane Todd – 3 /4W and 1 /2T

Fiona Davies – 5 /6B and P /1A

Jan Eustace – 5 /6O

Renae Warr – 3 /4P and 1 /2B

Kerrin Fellini – 5 /6P and P /1S

Ako Sueyoshi – 3 /4L

Years P – 2 (Fridays) Years 3 – 6 Thursdays + 1 session on a Wednesday)

Visual Arts

Performing Arts

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathe-

matics)

Physical Education

Visual Arts

Performing Arts

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts /

Digital Media, Mathematics)

Physical Education

Positive Places (Social and Emotional Learning

Parent / Teacher Meetings

We are looking forward to hosting our Parent / Teacher meetings over the next few days. Please take the opportunity to

make contact with your child’s teacher so that any relevant information can be passed on to the school. Please contact

the office if you need assistance with bookings, or if you need to arrange an alternative time.

Teacher Availability Before and After School

At Sunbury West we have an open door policy and are happy to arrange times to meet with parents at any time. There are

times however, when teachers have other commitments such as meetings and professional learning. These take place on

a Monday, Tuesday and for some staff, Wednesday afternoons, commencing at 3.50pm. We ask that parents arrange an

alternative meeting time if they feel that the purpose of their request to meet might extend beyond this time.

Compass

Compass is the school’s main communication platform. All notifications to families such as sick bay and behaviour notices,

student reports and regular school communications are via this portal. It is extremely important that families’ user details

are current so that you don’t miss out on any important information.

Parents In Buildings

We respectfully ask that parents wait outside school buildings during pick up times in the afternoons. Should you need to

speak with a teacher etc, we ask that you refrain from entering the building until after the children have been dismissed.

School Council Elections

We are calling for parent representative nominations for School Council. We have vacancies which span a two year term if

you choose to nominate. If you’ve previously considered becoming involved in School Council but the opportunity has

always passed you by, consider this early notice. The nomination process will be announced next week.

FOSW (Friends of Sunbury West)

Our FOSW team has already met to kick start our fundraising for 2020. We are always looking for new members to help

this dynamic team of volunteers. Please contact the office if you would like to find out more about how you can become

involved.

Absences / Late Arrivals

We remind parents of the Department guidelines regarding notification of absences. If your child is absent from school

without explanation by 9.15am, an automatic notification will be sent out via Compass asking parents to clarify whether

their children should be at school. Please remember that absences should be communicated to the school via Compass.

Similarly, if your child is late and they have not been signed in at the office, parents will also receive an SMS message.

Car Parks / Street Parking

We remind parents that for student safety, parents are not permitted to park in any of the staff car parks during drop off

and pick up times. We also ask that children and parents do not use car park entrances when entering or leaving the

school for safety reasons. Please use the pedestrian gates at all times. Please do not use the staff car park to drop

students off at before school care. There are no parking limits on Cornish street before 8.30am.

We also remind parents that between 8.30am and 9.00am Cornish St is a 2 minute parking drop off zone and that there

is no parking on Elizabeth Drive on the school side between 8.00am and 4.00pm.

Assemblies / Student of the Week

Our weekly assembly will now be held each Friday afternoon at 2.45pm. This will follow the normal format. We look

forward to as many parents / carers joining us as possible. We will continue to notify families regarding students who will

be receiving Student Of The Week awards via Compass. Notifications will be sent by 4.00pm each Wednesday.

All Students of The Week will continue to be published via Compass on a Monday.

Inga Wilson

Principal

Notices that have gone home….

Term 1

Internet Acceptable Use Agreements (must

be returned for all students)

School Photo Envelopes (Sibling envelopes

can be collected from the office)

Parent Teacher Interview Instructions

CSEF Application Forms (For eligible Heath

Care Card Holders)

Book Club (All orders must be submitted

online by 17th February)

P/1A Elsie Said & Amelia Stacy

P/1S Stevie Hamill & Mikayla-Mae Sacco

1/2B Jake Rees

1/2T Oscar Sparrey

3/4W Cara Pamintuan

5/6B Harry Smith-Jones & Chanel Phillips

5/6O Jamie Cavanagh

5/6P Peyton Patience & Ben Lorimer

Japanese Resky Brown

STUDENT OF THE WEEK TERM 1 2020 Friday 7th February

Welcome back!

Another school year is upon us and we hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing summer.

FOSW is gearing up for another exciting school year of fun activities for the Sunbury West Community and we

invite everyone – parents, carers, teachers and students to join us.

FOSW’s goal is to positively impact the lives of all our children and families in the Sunbury West Community.

We do this by supporting educational programs at school by fundraising, volunteering our time and providing

social opportunities for our school community to come together to celebrate our children’s achievements. We

believe that FOSW is a great forum for parents to obtain knowledge and to voice their opinions about what is

happening at their children’s school.

We sincerely hope you will join FOSW this year. If you would like to participate or if you have an idea, meetings

are held on the first Monday of each month at 2.30pm in the staff room with our next meeting on Monday 2nd

March. We hope to see you there!

The 2020/21 committee nomination letter will go out towards the end of term one with the new committee be-

ing announced at our AGM, the first Monday back of term 2, April 20th 2020. With the new committee taking

over from the May meeting on Monday May 4th 2020.

Our FOSW members are valued and we hope you will take the opportunity to get involved in running or volun-

teering with some of the many wonderful events for our students and parents throughout the school year.

Your participation, input and questions are always welcome and appreciated.

We have planned all of our fundraising events for the year and will be advertising them as they approach.

We will start Term 1 with our Family Picnic Night on Friday 13th March. We will also run the Easter Raffle and a

Gift Cards fundraiser, dates to be advised.

We wish you and your family a wonderful and successful school year!

Sincerely

FOSW TEAM

LUNCHBOX NEWS Welcome back for 2020!! Hope you all enjoyed your break. Just like 2019 the canteen is open for lunch orders and coun-

ter sale every Wednesday to Friday. The preferred way of ordering lunch orders is through Qkr, however lunch orders in

paper bags are also accepted. Order cut-off time through QkR! is 9.15am daily.

Over the counter we have a range of snacks for your children ranging in price from .60 cents to $2.00. We offer fruit slush-

ies for $2.00. Currently we are rotating two different flavours, ‘Berry Blast’ and ‘Lemon’ which have already proven to be

popular amongst the students.

For term one slushies can be purchased through lunch orders. The children will just need to come to the canteen with

their lunch bag to pick it up, as obviously we cannot place it in their tubs going to their classrooms.

What’s happening for term 1??

Hot cross bun day

We will have our yearly hot cross bun day. This will be held on the last Friday of the term, 28th March. This day is for Hot

Cross Bun orders only and no other lunch orders will be available on this day. Forms for this will be distributed later in the

term and they can be ordered on Qkr or cash.

Re-useable lunch wallets

In Term 1 we will be running a reusable lunch order wallet fundraiser. These wallets can be used when ordering through

Qkr!

By using reusable lunch wallets we are helping our environment. The more we can get rid of wastage from canteen and

lunch wrappings the better. Think of all the paper rubbish we could save at school by taking this green approach.

The lunch wallets are made from non-woven polypropylene (like green shopping bags) as it is durable and easy to clean.

They have a hygienic zipper pocket to separate the money from contact with food. Order forms for the lunch wallets will

be sent home shortly.

-Thank you for your continued support—Allison Canteen Manager

Our Prep students have settled in really well to school life and are looking forward to learning new things.

Some of our Grade Prep students were very eager to help spread the soft fall we had delivered last week!

On Fun Friday's the P-2's participated in their first ever STEM lesson! The student's were to first, build a tower using red cups as high as they possibly could. Secondly, the student's were challenged to build a tower without using their hands! They were given 2 straws to use instead of their hands. They all loved this activity and everyone was able to build a tower successfully. During the year in STEM each student will be encouraged to have a go and try again even when they fail. We look forward to creating, discovering and building in STEM this year!

Community News

Each week as we receive Community News items we will be adding them to the newsletter as a separate attachment. If you would like to read the community news please click here.