SSPS Bulletin 6th February 2020

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Thursday 6th February 2020

Spensley Street Primary School acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.

In this issue

Message from Bec

New staff at SSPS

Welcome to Country Assembly

Compass is here...

Important New Year Information

Parent Community News

Upcoming Events

February:

11th- Fundraising Committee Meeting & Environment Committee Meeting
12th- Tell us about your child interviews
13th- SSPS Swimming Trials Yrs 3-6
16th- Working Bee
19th- School Council
21st- Welcome Picnic

Please ensure you're checking the Compass Calendar regularly for event updates.

Dear SSPS Community,

Welcome to a brand new school year and the new Spensley Street Bulletin. We extend a very special welcome to our Preps and their families, as well as many other new students who have joined us this year. We are all looking forward to an exciting school year at Spensley Street.

I hope that all families and our hardworking staff enjoyed a restful break over the school holidays and festive season. I was lucky enough to travel to Cambodia with See Beyond Borders, a not-for-profit organisation working to improve education quality in the country. I worked as part of their ‘Teach the Teacher Program’, mentoring and supporting both teachers and Teacher mentors in rural schools within the Battambang Province. It was a wonderfully rich experience to be a part of and a fantastic way to spend the Summer break.

Thank you to the parents and carers who greeted our new families with a special Prep picnic before school started and thanks to the older students (especially the Year 1s and 2s) for being terrific buddies and helping the Preps to settle in at school.

In 2020 the Bulletin will be published fortnightly on a Thursday. Other important and smaller communication updates will be posted on the Compass News Feed in between.

The first parent teacher interviews are known as 'Tell Us About Your Child' meetings and they will be held next Wednesday, 12th February. Teachers will be available for a ten minute discussion with parents, at an arranged time, between 1.30pm and 6.45pm. Bookings are now open and can be made on Compass.

There will be a welcome picnic on Friday 21st of February. This year we will begin the picnic with a short meet and greet for parents with myself and Andrew in the multipurpose room. This will be a great opportunity to learn a little more about us and why we have chosen to work at Spensley Street. We will also share some of our thoughts and plans for continuing to develop and build on the wonderful learning culture at SSPS. This short discussion will begin at 6pm followed by the picnic at 6:30pm. This is a relaxed “bring-your-own- everything” event - food, drinks, chairs or rugs - where families congregate on the (newly upgraded) grassed area. It’s a great opportunity for children to play together and for families to make new friends and to catch up with old ones. We look forward to seeing you there!

There is always lots of information to be shared at the beginning of the school year! As a result this edition of the Bulletin is a long one! Please take your time to read through all of the information to help our staff and yourselves transition well into the new year.

Wishing all of our community a happy 2020, I am looking forward to a wonderful year at Spensley Street with you all.

Kind regards,

Bec Spink,
Principal

New Staff at SSPS...

A big warm Spensley Street welcome to our new staff members Emily, Tanaya, Erica, Toby and Andrew. They are settling in well to our school. If you see them out and about, please introduce yourself and make them feel welcome.

Hi Spensley Street – I’m Emily Fintelman, a 3/4 teacher this year. I am just returning to Melbourne after teaching in the UK and I’m really excited to become part of the SSPS community and get to know you all this year. I am looking forward to working with students on their way to becoming active, empathetic community members who inquire into the world around them, have a voice, create new ideas and rise to challenges! If you see me around, feel free to say hi and chat to me about some of my favourite things: singing, travel, gaming and (of course) teaching!

Hello! My name is Tanaya Boag and I am teaching Prep- Year 2 this year. I enjoy the creative arts, swimming, cooking and Mexican food. I love the outdoors and I have travelled to and adventured through many countries. One of my favourite countries I have been to is Costa Rica for its lovely people and rich diversity of flora and fauna. I am forever interested in finding more ways to live sustainably and am passionate about social and environmental justice issues in my local and extended community. I am delighted and extremely grateful to be joining the SSPS community and am very excited for the year ahead.

Hi, I’m Erica! I am super excited to be starting as a full-time classroom teacher at Spensley Street. Some of you might have seen me around school over the last 2 years as a student teacher, an integration aide or an emergency teacher. Before I was a teacher, I worked for the federal government for 8 years in the Health and Immigration Departments, and at La Trobe University. I also played for the Victorian Roller Derby League. I love science, especially physics, overseas travel, getting out into nature, going to musicals and movies, playing Playstation, rock climbing, watching basketball, riding bikes and my cat, Albert Einstein. My fiancée Anna Grace (Area 1) is pretty great too. It is my dream to eventually visit every one of the 62 national parks in the USA!

Hi! I'm Toby Russo a Grade 5/6 teacher in Area 1 (class sharing with Georgia) and I'll also be working in the role of Learning Specialist - Progressive Pedagogies. Most recently I was working at Bell Primary in Preston as a Grade 4-6 teacher and Numeracy Leader, and I've also taught at international schools in Asia. I am passionate about designing maths games and activities and have published several research articles, including exploring mathematical inquiry. I had a glimpse into the wonderful Spensley Street Primary culture back in 2018 when I worked with the staff as part of a school partnership program, and I'm very excited to be joining the school this year!

Hello, Spensley Street community. My name is Andrew Williamson and I am the new Assistant Principal at SSPS. Firstly thank you so much for the warm welcome. It’s only been a couple of weeks since I started, but I already feel at home. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a mad Richmond Tigers supporter #gotiges! I love to cycle and also have become obsessed with a card game called Magic The Gathering. In a previous life, I use to teach music but fell in love with generalist classroom teaching. My wife Nicola and I met many years ago in Clifton Hill, and I have two son’s Otis and Remy.

Welcome to Country Assembly

On Monday 3rd February we acknowledged the start of the school year with a very special Welcome to Country ceremony at our first Assembly on Monday morning this week. Wurundjeri elder, Uncle Perry Wandin, performed a smoking ceremony and spoke to us about the significance of this cleansing celebration. The students and the adults who attended were very attentive – it was a beautiful and special way to start our year. Thank you to Pam Westwood for organising this important annual event.

Assemblies are held each Monday at 9:05am - in the courtyard this term and we move indoors when the weather is cold or wet.

Compass is here...

Compass, a web-based school management system that is accessible on any modern web browser or through the Compass iOS and Android apps. Compass will be pivotal in streamlining all school communications this year, event and excursion organisation, parent payments, calendars, booking parent teacher interviews, accessing student reports and canteen ordering (coming soon).

Click here to download the Compass Parent Guide

Click here to log into Compass online

Click here to download the Compass iPhone App

Click here to download the Compass Android App

Artwork by Malachy and Arlo - Harry’s homegroup

Thank you to all the wonderful parents and carers that volunteered to water Chuck's Garden over the summer holidays. After what was a pretty crazy summer weather wise it was incredible to return to school and have the garden looking so amazing. The children have had great fun picking and eating summer salad vegetables and there was even a very large zucchini that went off to Mary and Harry’s classes to be weighed in a maths session. Brilliant! We are so fortunate at Spensley Street to have such fantastic volunteers.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
From Reba in Chuck's Garden

Consent Forms
The annual local excursion consent form is now available in Compass. Local excursions are excursions to locations within walking distance of the school. It is a DET requirement that we get consent for this annually.

If you have a Prep child or have recently enrolled at Spensley Street, a Photo Permission form is also available. The school needs parental permission to publish children’s photographs. No child’s photograph will knowingly be published without parent permission.

You will see these highlighted at the top of your 'News Feed' or can be accessed in the 'Course Confirmation/Payments' section. Please ensure these are filled out ASAP.

Upcoming Working Bee
An important “start of the school year” working bee will take place on Sunday, 16 February from 10am. There is always a lot of tidying up of the grounds to do and a huge pile of soft fall to spread under the play equipment. Our garden is looking a bit ragged and needs some TLC. Please come armed with your gardening gloves, wheelbarrows, rakes and spades and we’d love you to bring some food to share for morning tea.

Working Bees are a great way to meet other families and it can be enjoyable to work together to make the school more attractive. Children come along and help (or play) and we all enjoy morning tea together. It’s so good to see the school clean and tidy to start the year and the tanbark makes the playground so much safer.

School Council Elections
The beginning of the year is when we elect our School Council. School Council is the governing body of the school. It plays a very important role, participating in the development and monitoring of the school strategic plan, overseeing policy development and review along with overseeing the development of the school’s annual budget. School council elections will be taking place this month. More information and associated forms will be posted to Compass soon.

Attendance & Absences
At Spensley Street, we expect that children will attend school every day unless they are unwell or there are other exceptional circumstances (birthdays are not exceptional circumstances).

We also expect that children will arrive in time to be ready for class at 9am. Children who miss school days miss out on very important learning and social opportunities. They don't get to complete work and there can be significant gaps in their learning. Arriving even ten minutes late for school regularly is a problem, for students and teachers.

All student absences can be recorded on Compass.

The perfect time to arrive at school is 8:50am! This allows your child a few minutes before school to speak to the teacher, to organise belongings and to chat to friends.

If students do arrive late, it is a parent / carer responsibility to sign them in using the Compass Kiosk located in the foyer of the front office. This is not the responsibility of students or office staff. Students should not be dropped off late without a parent or carer signing them in.

After School Arrangements
We ask you to make sure that you organise your child’s after school arrangements before they come to school. The office staff are able to respond to emergency situations but they are often not able to leave the office at the end of the day to deliver messages.

Towards the end of the school day teachers are too busy to answer phone calls so we ask you to call only if you have an emergency. Please remind your children when they are going to “Afters” and, if necessary, send a note to the class teacher. The After Care staff locate children who are booked in but do not sign in, so please remember to let them know on the After Care number, 9481 4365, if your child is not attending on that day.

Out of School Hours Care
Welcome back to all families! We are planning an exciting first term in 2020. Already we have made balloon animals, hackey sacs and gone home wearing the most gorgeous face jewels. Inside, jenga towers have been the go and some children have made them half their height!

Cricket clinic starts on 20th Feb with the official Cricket Australia Cricket Blast coaching team. They will be running the clinic for 6 weeks every Wednesday straight after school for an hour, it is fantastic value at $15 dollars for the entire 6 weeks. This includes a big blast cricket pack. If you are interested in registering your child, please email me for details.

Waitlists: Aftercare is running at capacity on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. I am trying to place as many of the children on the waiting lists as I can. If you have a day booked that you really don’t need please contact me so I can offer the place to a family that really needs it.

Preps begin on the week beginning 17th Feb. I will email each family with the details.

- Lisa and the OSHC Team (aftercare@ssps.vic.edu.au)

Canteen
The Spensley Street Canteen is the thriving hub of our school. Under Jane’s friendly supervision, it delivers hundreds of delicious, nutritious snacks and lunches to our school community every week. The Canteen is also an important meeting place for parents, carers, siblings, teachers and staff and is an excellent place to source a morning caffeine hit.

One of the best ways to experience this warm and welcoming Canteen is to volunteer to assist Jane. You are most welcome to volunteer regularly (once a week or once a month) or whenever your schedule permits. Help is most appreciated between the busy hours of 9.30am and 1.30pm, but shorter shifts can be arranged. If you are interested in helping out, please let Jane know.

Trish in the office is currently working with Jane to set up the online ordering through Compass to replace Flexischools. We will let families know when this is expected to be completed and ready for use.

Pick Up / Drop Off Zone
We want the area surrounding the school to be a safe environment for students and their families so we wish to avoid traffic congestion.

Please observe the parking signs managing the pick up zone at the front of the school, in Spensley Street. Vehicles may only stop there for a maximum of one minute – you must not get out of your car if you are parked here. Remind your children to go directly to the pick up zone at the end of the school day.

We ask you to keep our children safe by never parking on or close to the school crossing. If there are no sapces close by, we recommend that you park on The Esplanade or further up Spensley Street and walk back to school. Better still, if you can manage it, walk, scoot or cycle to and from
school!

No Wheels in the Yard
For safety reasons it is important that no bikes, scooters, skateboards or other wheeled modes of transport be ridden in the yard. Please walk these through the school grounds at all times.

Lost Property
Lost property is a huge and frustrating problem at Spensley Street. Unclaimed items of clothing and lunch boxes collect at an alarming rate. For a school that cares about sustainability, it is very wasteful – and embarrassing!

Please write your child’s name on everything that he or she is likely to take off or put down – hat, jackets, jumpers, drink bottles, lunch boxes – so that things have a better chance of being reunited with their owners – and actively encourage your child (and yourself) to look for their lost belongings.

Found clothing is displayed on racks for several weeks. It’s cleared away and donated to a charity each term. Lunch boxes are another matter – they are usually filled with mouldy food remains and are almost never claimed so have to be thrown away. Please check, and check again the next day, for your child’s lost belongings.

Dogs at School
City of Yarra and Education Department regulations make it clear that dogs must not be brought onto the school grounds. Some children are afraid of dogs and not everyone loves them as much as you! Please do not leave dogs tied up unattended near the front or back of the school.

Privacy Reminder

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 remind yourself of the school’s collection statement, found on our website https://www.ssps.vic.edu.au/privacy.

For more information about privacy, see: Schools’ Privacy Policy – information for parents. This information also available in nine community languages.

SSPS Environment Committee
The role of the school’s Environment Committee is to monitor, and assist in the development and maintenance of, the built and natural environment of the school and the school campsite at Glen Forbes. This is a very active group of parents, carers and teachers, and they do a great job.

Our first committee meeting for the year is an Environment Committee meeting. The meetings this year will take place on Tuesday evenings (rather than the usual school meeting day of Wednesday). The first meeting will be held next Tuesday, 11 February at 7.30pm. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, please email the school at ssps@ssps.vic.edu.au and we will let you know the meeting details. We would be delighted to see some new faces at our first meeting. Come and help us plan our year of enhancements to the school’s environment for 2020.

The Fundraising Committee needs you!
The Fundraising Committee is looking for new members. At the end of 2019 we bid farewell to several members of our committee so it's time to regroup.

This committee is responsible for hosting several events throughout the school year that raise essential funds for Spensley Street. It's a lot of fun and is a great way to meet other parents and help support our wonderful school! Even if you only have a bit of time to spare, you can get involved.

Please stop by our first meeting of the year - Tuesday, February 11th at 7pm in the Staff Room to learn more. You can also reach out directly to Rachelle Madden if you are interested or want to learn more: rachellermadden@gmail.com Thanks!

Spensley Street Out Of Hours Music Program
WOODWIND VACANCIES- For grades 3 to 6

Welcome back! I look forward to lots of student fun with performances this year. There are two woodwind vacancies in the OOHMP (Out Of Hours Music Program) at the moment with our wonderful teacher Belinda Woods. The instruments offered are saxophone, flute and clarinet and classes are for students from grade 3 upwards.

You are not required to own your own instrument, they can be hired. The cost is $40 per lesson, invoiced by the term. The times available are:
Wednesday 4 – 4.30pm
Wednesday 5.30 – 6.00pm.

If you are interested, please email me as soon as possible at
westwood.pam.p@edumail.vic.gov.au
Thanks,
Pam

Expression of interest Yoga for year's 5 + 6’s in 2020
A holistic practice of movement, self-connection, creativity, reflection + breath awareness.

60-minute class, straight after school at 3.30pm in the library. Start date TBC.

Benefits of yoga in children include

Improved physical balance and strength
Mind and body connection
Increased focus in learning
Overall calmness within one's self
Increased resilience through stress management
Improved emotional control and self-regulation
Skilful response to difficult emotions
Increased empathy and understanding of others
Improved self-worth and self-confidence

Please email, call or message to express your interest or if you have any questions.

Lori Curran (Henry Q’s mum) info@thehumblenook.com 0432337383

Chess Club 2020
Chess is one of the most powerful educational tools available to strengthen a child’s mind. Most 6-7 year olds can follow the basic rules and some children as young as 4 or 5 can play. Whatever a child’s age, chess can enhance concentration, patience, and perseverance, as well as develop creativity, intuition, and memory. Most importantly, children can develop the ability to analyse and deduce from a set of general principles, to make tough decisions and to solve problems flexibly.

The coach, Nick Speck tied for 1st place in the 2002 Australian Chess Championships and has been teaching chess in schools across Melbourne for the past 21 years. The chess classes will take the children through a structured chess course with the dual aim of achieving the maximal educational benefits the game offers and providing an enjoyable learning environment.

Classes begin in Week 2 and run until the last week of term on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

We have set up a new website to facilitate enrolments and payments. You can register and pay for your child online at https://www.chesseducation.com.au or you can return the form linked below to the office with payment before the first class.

Click here to download the Chess form

Babysitter Available
Hi, I am an ex Spensley Street student available for day and evening babysitting. I am 18 years old, I have my working with children check and my first aid certificate. I am having a gap year from educational studies at ACU as a pathway course into primary teaching. Please contact Sophia Tozer 0456 100 984.