Our School Values:

RESPECT, RESILIENCE, TEAMWORK & COLLABORATION and COMMUNITY

Dear Parents,

COVID-19 Update Please be reassured as I am being updated by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services with information regarding the Coronavirus, which impacts our school, I will pass this information on to you. I am forwarding updated messages through Compass which is our main form of digital communication. If for some reason you do not have the Compass app I would ask you to download the app and if required speak to the school office if you need assistance setting up Compass. I will forward a hardcopy of ‘update’ letters as deemed necessary.

In relation to absences, if you choose to keep your child home as a precautionary measure, the absence when placed on Compass should be coded as ‘Parent Choice’ and include the word ‘COVID-19’ in the absence comments. Once we are aware your child will not be returning this term the class teachers will forward you a ‘Learning’ document via Compass that will allow your child to remain engaged in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

At this stage there are no known cases of Coronavirus in a school community so everything we put in place is precautionary and we continue to follow Department of Education & the Department of Health and Human Services directions. Please be aware of the following changes: No Monday afternoon assembly. School Cross Country postponed until a date to be determined in term 2. No Breakfast Club National day of action against bullying- postponed Donut Day postponed until term 2 School Photos (scheduled early next term) are postponed until later in the year Grade 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp (scheduled for early June) cancelled - we hope to have a major excursion at a

more suitable time. See newsletter article.

Additionally we have ensured sufficient supplies of liquid soap for the toilets and hand sanitizer in every classroom. Students are being reminded regularly to wash their hands and ensure appropriate interaction with peers and staff. Students presenting with flu like symptoms should not attend school (this is the same for school staff). Most common symptoms reported include fever, breathing difficulties, cough, sore throat and fatigue or tiredness. If you are concerned that you may have COVID-19 symptoms, or you have been in close contact with a confirmed case, please seek medical advice from your GP or call the dedicated Hotline on 1800 675 398.

I appreciate your understanding and assistance with all of the above matters.

The Department of Health and Human Services has information for the public about coronavirus. If you have any questions or would like to seek more information please refer to the link provided: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus

Familiarise yourself with infection prevention information. It includes a number of topics regarding how to protect yourself and others and managing stress and anxiety https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fabout%2Fprevention-treatment.html

Please find attached to the newsletter a guide to identifying the symptoms of COVID-19.

As I have mentioned previously it is a changing landscape and I will update you with the latest information as it comes to hand.

18TH MARCH, 2020.

101 BRUNEL STREET

HUNTLY VIC 3551

PHONE (03) 5448 8866

Email: huntly.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au

PRINCIPAL MR JASON LEE

Jason Lee, PRINCIPAL

DIARY DATES

Wednesday 18th March Junior School Excursion to “The Gruffalo’s Child” POSTPONED to September Thursday 19th March Supported Playgroup - POSTPONED until further notice Thursday 19th March Cultural Day CANCELLED Friday 20th March Easter Raffle Tickets due back Friday 20th March Young Leaders Day - CANCELLED Monday 23rd March Gymnastics Program for Senior Students - CANCELLED Monday 23rd March School Assembly - CANCELLED Easter Raffle will be drawn at alternative time. Tuesday 24th March Gymnastics Program for Junior Students - CANCELLED Tuesday 24th March “Bullying No Way” National Day - POSTPONED Wednesday 25th March Breakfast Program - POSTPONED until further notice Wednesday 25th March Food Share Program - from 3.00pm at MPR Canteen every Wednesday Wednesday 25th March Donut Day orders and money due back Thursday 26th March Donut Day - POSTPONED until next term Thursday 26th March School Cross Country - POSTPONED until next term Friday 27th March End of Term 1 - students dismissed at 2.30pm

WEEKLY STUDENT AWARDS

These awards reflect our school values of Respect, Resilience, Community and Collaboration.

Congratulations to the following students who will be presented with their Student Recognition Award in their classroom (as assembly is cancelled).

FL - Zander B: for putting in his best effort during maths when forming numbers 0-10. FM - Brock Mc: for always including others in the games he plays (collaboration). 1/2M - Ellie B: for working independently and completing all tasks. 1/2CB - Arlee L: for being a positive model in the classroom. Always following class expectations and being respectful to her teachers and peers. 1/2H - Sophie V: for being attentive and listening to the teacher and her peers. 3/4D - Athena J: for always being a respectful member of the classroom. 3/4L - Chace P: for showing resilience and persistence to make an outstanding improvement in Maths. 3/4B - Emmie F: for being a supportive team member when creating a skeleton in Health & PE. 5/6G - Jethro O: for the effective choices he makes which help ensure success with his learning tasks. 5/6M - Caleb V: for always making sure he is ready to learn (respect). 5/6OT - to be announced

Physical Education - Sahri: for her good listening skills and doing her best in hockey. Performing Arts - Landon A: for a fantastic “mix” for his song writing project using Incredibox. Visual Arts - Heidi C: for sharing her great knowledge of primary and secondary colours.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

The annual EASTER RAFFLE is underway and tickets have been sent home. Tickets are due back this Friday 20th March. The raffle will be drawn next week but as there is no assembly on Monday, alternative arrangements for the draw will be made. Please keep an eye on Compass and Facebook for further information. DONATIONS for the raffle will be gratefully excepted and can be left at the school office.

DONUT DAY will be postponed until next term. Orders that have been received will be kept until a date is confirmed.

NEXT MEETING Friday 17th Apr il 9.00am ALL WELCOME!!! To be confirmed next term.

GRADE 5/6 SOVEREIGN HILL CAMP 9TH TO 11TH JUNE

Today it was confirmed that this years Grade 5/6 Sovereign Hill Camp is cancelled. We hope we will be

able to have a special excursion for Grade 5/6 later in the year. Those families who have made payments can receive a refund or leave these funds

on their account for any events later in the year. Please contact the school office if you have any questions.

F/1/2 EXCURSION THE GRUFFALO’S CHILD

Grade foundation, 1 and 2 were due to go on an excursion today to see the picture story book ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ come to life on stage. This event has now been postponed until September 2020. Payments for this excursion will be held over until this date. If you have any questions please see the school office.

Laura, Alicia, Lisa, Ashlea, Marijke and Shelley .

CANCELLED PAID EXCURSIONS/CAMPS

As per other articles in today’s newsletter a number of paid school activities have been cancelled or postponed. Payments made for events that have been postponed will not be refunded as monies will be left on your ac-count until the new date of the excursion. For the ac-tivities that have been cancelled but paid for please see Pam at the school office.

SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE - MARCH 2020

In our first meeting of our new school council for 2020 we welcomed five new parent members – Kassia Ritchie, Alycia McDonald, Em Kean, Beau Martin and Ann Archer, and one new teacher Marijke Harrison. It really great to have some new people along to bring new ideas and skills to the group. On-going parent members include Sharon Marriott, Cindy Taylor, Jason Scott and myself – Kathryn Stanislawski, and teachers Morgan Bamford, Bek Magee and Alan Gillies. Also part of school council is of course our Principal, Jason Lee.

As school councillors, we’ll do our best to be known around the school and to be approachable friendly faces – though most of the meetings we attend are out of hours. So, as the year progresses, we will all share some information about ourselves – not as great as a conversation, but a way to enable you to know us a little bit more.

We conducted our Annual General Meeting and elected the following office bearers:

President: Kathryn Stanislawski

Vice President: Alycia McDonald

Treasurer: Ann Archer

Vice Treasurer: Sharon Marriott

As part of our induction to school council we undertook Child Safe training. This is because school councillors have a key role in making sure that our school has in place, the right policies to ensure we are meeting Child Safe Standards. As examples, this includes a Child Safe Policy and a Code of Conduct for school staff, contractors and volunteers. These must be publicly accessible and can be located on our website if you wish to view them. We also have a Child Safety Risk Assessment Register that is reviewed annually by staff – this register includes information such as out of bounds areas and procedures for school excursions.

We also learnt about our Annual Implementation Plan for 2020 which describes the areas our teachers will be focussing on throughout the year, and how this will happen across the school throughout the grade levels. Throughout the year School Council will continue to monitor progress toward the targets that have been set. Targets relate to improvements in literacy and numeracy results, and student engagement and wellbeing such as the on-going implementation of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework.

Each school council member joined sub-committees, and I remind all parents and carers that the education, facilities and community relations sub-committees are open meetings and we welcome you to come along. Further details with dates and times will be shared with you soon.

And finally, the Coronavirus, which was not on our agenda but I know is on everyone’s mind. This issue significantly escalated in between our former school council of 2019 and new school council of 2020 but has still been addressed by school council as part of our role in bringing forward community concerns. I can assure you that our Principal is acting in accordance with advice provided by the Department of Education, and sharing this regularly with the parent community via Compass. We have also ramped up measures to ensure our washroom facilities and sanitiser dispensers in classrooms are fully stocked and operational, and our teachers are reminding students to practice good hygiene and modelling this behaviour themselves – and I strongly encourage you to do the same in your home to reiterate the importance of these measures where ever we are.

Kathryn Stanislawski School Council President.

Your School Councillors of 2020

Name: Kathryn Stanislawski Role: President

What is your connection to HPS and the Huntly community? I’ve got three children who are all Huntly Primary. The eldest, William, is now in grade 6 and I have Ryan in grade 4 and Lachlan in grade 3. Though my husband and I are not originally from Bendigo – I grew up in Frankston and Mark in Echuca – we settled here around 15 years ago, so our children have all grown up in Huntly and also attended Huntly Kinder. We’ve wandered these streets with prams, trikes, balance bikes, and training wheels through to now where they independently come and go from home on their bikes to get to school and visit their friends.

Why did you join school council? I think it’s my project management skills that I’ve developed during my career that gave me the confidence to join school council, and also that I am keen to jump in and see how things work and find ways that I can assist in making our school the best place it can be for our kids. I bring with me my passion for the environment and sustainability, and I am also very keen to maintain our safe and vibrant community feel.

Outside of school and kids I… am like a prematurely old lady and I love just pottering in my garden – walking around with a pair of secateurs or just sitting with a cup of tea looking at the garden makes me happy. I also work 4 days a week for Parks Victoria, where I have a role that takes me around the state to manage our amazing wetland environments.

Some Grade 5/6 Students received letter from their pen pals in NSW

The Foundation students measured their

teddies. They investigated which

were longer or shorter, they even ordered them

from longest to shortest.

Grade 1/2’s celebrating 25 nights of home reading. Congratulations to all the students who

have read for 25 nights Yesterday, the Grade 3/4 students had fund exploring the skeletal system with our new friend Billy Bones! Students colour coded the different bones based on what type they were.