DRAGON TALES

Principal: Mrs Andrea Taylor T: 5594 3298 Fax: 55943333

Email: simpson.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.simpsonps.vic.edu.au

SCHOOL COUNCILLORS W Van Eck (President), A Whiting, S Clark, T Robb, J Bowman, N Booley & R Vogels

SCHOOL MISSION Provide high quality education in a positive, supportive environment,

enabling all students to achieve their potential.

Thursday 30th January 2020

As the 2019 school year begins I would like to welcome back

all our families with a particular mention to our families who

are just beginning their connection to our school with the As

the 2019 school year begins I would like to welcome back all

our families with a particular mention to our families who are

just beginning their connection to our school with the

enrolment of their first child in prep.

“Enriching learning through opportunity” is a phrase we use to

drive our daily work. A new school year presents us all with

the opportunity to consider just what goals we will challenge

ourselves with over the learning cycle. For us as a school it is

about giving every student every opportunity to thrive.

Our vision is strong: At Simpson Primary School, we will

develop a caring school environment that provides an

inclusive, respectful learning experience where every individual

engages to be the best version of themselves.

Our values underpin a little school with a big heart:

“At Simpson we C.A.R.E.”

Considerate- We consider

Accepting- We accept

Respectful- We respect

FROM OUR PRINCIPAL

Welcome to the 2020 school year. This year we welcome 7

new prep students, one year 2 student and two new staff

members. Miss Maddison McInnes, begins her teaching career

with us, in the upper department and Mrs Paula Newcombe

who will work supporting learning right across the school. We

also welcome back the new ‘bionic woman’ Mrs Murray with

her fancy new knees.

Our office hours will remain the same as 2019 with parents

once again being asked to please make enquiries at times

when the office is open.

Monday 9:00am- 3:30 pm

Tuesday 9:00am- 3:30 pm

Wednesday CLOSED

Thursday 9:00am- 3:30 pm

Friday 8:30am- 10:30am

Our grade structures are P/1M with 17 students, 2/3 G with 20

students and 4/5/6M with 19 students. Our new preps

Luciana, Avannah, Ayla, Ollie, Logan, Cooper and Patrick have

all happily joined the Simpson Primary School family.

Already our school is buzzing with excitement about the

wonderful opportunities that will be available to our students

during the course of the year. With small grade groups each

child will receive quality instruction at their exact point of

need. We have an exciting collaboration with Creative Arts

Victoria beginning in term 2 with the creation on our digital

history animation. Our school will be a trial school for a social

& emotional support program known as ‘Second Step’ which

is aimed to help children build skills for learning, empathy,

emotional management and problem solving strategies. Our

selection in this program is due to the success of our School

Wide Positive Behaviour Program and is fully funded by

THE FORTNIGHT AHEAD

FEBRUARY 3 Monday School Assembly 10.45am 5 Wednesday Bushfire Safety Drill No School Prep Students 7 Thursday Meet & Greet Session P/1 11am 11 Tuesday Meet & Greet Session 4/5/6 11am 12 Wednesday No School Prep Students 13 Thursday Meet & Greet Session 2/3 11am 14 Friday Finance Sub Committee Meeting 9.30am Grounds Sub Committee Meeting 10.30am Education Sub Committee Meeting 12.30pm 18 Tuesday School Council Meeting 7pm 19 Wednesday No School Prep Students 26 Wednesday No School Prep Students MARCH 4 Wednesday No School Prep Students 5 Thursday Student Leaders Congress 9 Monday Labour Day Holiday No Students 12 Thursday Finance Sub Committee Meeting 9.30am Grounds Sub Committee Meeting 10.30am Education Sub Committee Meeting 13 Friday House Sports Day 17 Tuesday AGM School Council Meeting 7pm 20 Friday Parent Teacher Interviews 26 Thursday District Aths Sports 27 Friday Last Day Term 1

Thank you to the Beecher Family for spreading the mulch in

the school yard during the school holidays.

Annual Reminders:

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. For more information about privacy, see: Schools’ Privacy Policy – information for parents. We ask all families to download the skoolbag app and connect to Simpson Primary School as our first line of communication. If you are having trouble with this please pop in and Tabatha can help set it up for you. Families are required to provide all booklist items for student use if they are electing not to pay for essential education supply items ($125 on parent payment list) Our yard supervision begins each day at 8:45am. Students can arrive at school anytime after. The school day finishes at 3:15pm with all families asked to meet their child at the bus shelter gate. Any changes to travel arrangements must be given to the office prior to 10am. Bus change notes or a skoolbag message are required. Long term notes for changes KAOS or sport are now due at the office. All families are invited to our ‘Meet & Greet’ classroom information sessions will be held during weeks 2-3 notes will go home with children with details for each grade. BOOK CLUB

Book Club order forms went home today please return any orders and payment by Thursday 13th February.

You can also order using the Scholastic Loop Online. Visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the app.

MUSIC LESSONS

Music lessons with Eileen McKenzie will commence on

Monday 10th February. If you wish your child/children

to learn an instrument or if you are wanting to re- enrol

please contact Eileen as soon as possible to ensure a

placement. Lessons taught are Piano/Keyboard, Vocal

and Guitar. Phone or text 0400 486948 for any enquiries

NAMED CLOTHING

Parents are asked to check that clothing is clearly named. If you have 2nd hand clothes please check that the name has been changed. If clothes are correctly named we have some hope of returning items to the correct owners.

by Brophy Family & Youth Services.

Our 2019 senior award winners were formally celebrated on graduation night last December but I would like to acknowledge these achievements here in our newsletter. There are four scholarships that are made available through very generous donations from our community: the Lion’s Club, the Emma McVilly Memorial and the Friends of James Guy Memorial. These scholarships go towards education costs as our students move into sec-ondary school. Our winners for 2019 were: Lion’s club Awards- Krystal Blain, Jake Tournier, Emma McVilly Memorial- Imogen Eddy & the James Guy Award- Oliver Rial. It has been a pleasure to watch these young people grow and develop into wonderful individuals.