Issue 9 - 09/06/2023

Today we had the Federal Department of Education, Australian Government and Mark Huxley, Executive Group Manager, School Improvement for the ACT Education Directorate visit Evatt Primary School. They reached out requesting a visit to learn about how we embed our inclusive practices in our school community. They were very impressed with what they saw during their time here and are very excited about our vision moving forward. It's a credit to our great team and wonderful school community to know that our great work is being shared broadly both throughout the ACT and Federally.

Special Lunch Order Day

Thank you to our P&C for a wonderful Special Lunch Order day yesterday. Our students greatly enjoyed their wraps and drinks. Ity was nice to see that a local Evatt business was able to support the day. Thanks again to our P&C for providing this for our students and staff.

Semester 1 Reports and Parent/Teacher Discussions

As we draw closer to the end of Semester 1, you will be soon receiving information about our upcoming parent/teacher future-focused discussions and our Semester 1 reports. This is an important time where we discuss the progress of your child and look forward to focus areas for semester two. An online booking form will be shared out over the next week for you to book a time in with your child's teacher and Semester 1 reports will be emailed out during Week 10.

Evatt Mathamagician’s

The students at Evatt Primary School have greatly enjoyed meeting ‘Mika’ and ‘Mario’ , our resident Mathamagician’s who have appeared over the last few weeks at morning lines. They have shared the new maths challenges that are available for students to participate in during their own time. These puzzles appear on the screens in our front office and library. The students can ‘have a go’ by solving the puzzle and placing their answers in the Mathamagician box in the front office. Students with a correct answer go into the draw for a fortnightly prize. Congratulations to the students who won a prize for this fortnight. We have included the puzzles from the last fortnight below. See if you can solve them and you might like to ask your child or children for some help!

Flu and Gastro

You will have seen a number of messages from the school and ACT Education Directorate over the past week or so relating to flu and gastro. It is that time of the year where we are seeing a spike in children and staff being sick and we kindly ask that you work with the school in the best interests of everyone's health. If your child is sick please keep them at home. If we contact you during the day because your child is unwell please support us in coming and picking your child up and taking them to a GP if needed.

We absolutely want what you want, healthy kids learning at school. Sending sick kids to school is not good for anyone. Let's work together to keep our school as healthy as possible.

Family Connect

A big reminder that if you have not yet registered to Family Connect you are missing out! There are some great things happening around the school for families and our community with more on the way. Check out our ‘happenings’ calendar below plus make sure you register!

https://bit.ly/familyconnect-calendar

https://bit.ly/familyconnect-registration

MindUP Parent Session

Friday 12th June, after morning assembly, there will be a MindUP for families session in The Nest. Join us if you’d like to learn more about how mental fitness strategies can lead to a more balanced family, with resources and strategies for finding optimism, building resilience, and creating solutions the entire family can use. Our students have been learning evidence-based social and emotional learning strategies to help them:

• Better engage in learning

• Learn to self-regulate

• Improve their attention skills and well-being.

Please register at: https://tockify.com/evattfamilyconnect/detail/7/1686870900000

Student Learning Resources

A friendly reminder for families that have not yet paid their Voluntary Contributions or Bookpack funds that part payment options or payment plans are more than welcome. This can be arranged confidentially through the front office.

Student Learning Resources payment information

Direct Debit payment:

Account Name: Evatt Primary School Management Account

BSB: 032777

Account number: 001244

Reference: <your child’s surname> <1510BP>

Please note the reference code is not the same for Student Learning Resources and Voluntary Contributions.

Voluntary Contributions payment information

Direct Debit payment:

Account Name: Evatt Primary School Management Account

BSB: 032777

Account number: 001244

Reference: <your child’s surname> <1410>

Please note the reference code is not the same for Student Learning Resources and Voluntary Contributions.

From the Education Directorate

COVID Smart reminder

As you may be aware, there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases across ACT public schools in recent weeks.

To help stop the further spread of COVID-19 in our school, we are encouraging and implementing the following measures:

Students who are COVID-19 positive or displaying symptoms (including a runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever) should test and must not attend school while unwell.
Parents and carers must inform schools if their child is COVID-positive.
Keep up to date with vaccinations.
Families can access a free rapid antigen test (RAT) from the front office of their school. Nasal and saliva tests are available. Test when symptomatic or as a precaution.
Practise good hand and respiratory hygiene.
Distance where possible.

For the latest COVID-19 advice please visit the ACT’s COVID-19 website.

2024 school year enrolment reminder

Have you remembered to enrol for the 2024 school year? If you apply by midnight 2 June you will receive an offer from 24 July 2023. Applications received after 2 June may receive an offer later in the year. Enrolments are open for students from preschool through to year 6. Going local leads to great things – apply online at https://bit.ly/3Zqhoj9

Need help or have a question? Call the Enrolments Helpline on 6205 5429 or email education.enrolment@act.gov.au.

Stranger awareness safety message

This is a reminder to ensure your children and young people understand the importance of stranger awareness safety and information has been included on how to report an incident.

Please support us to keep our children safe by having conversations about moving safely around the community. You may wish to visit the Australian Federal Police website section on Child Safety for tips. In addition, the Safety4Kids is a non-government website that has useful information and links. The Constable Kenny website also has a number of tips for parents for younger children.

If you become aware of an incident or notice anyone acting suspiciously around a school or student, contact police immediately on 131 444 or in the case of an emergency call 000. If you witness an incident or if you have any information that could assist police, contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Information can be provided anonymously. We would also ask that you notify the school so we can also support the wider school community to be aware of incidents.

From our P&C

Upcoming dates:

13 June 2023 - P&C general meeting (6pm - The Nest)
Week 9/10 - Special Lunch Day

Volunteers needed!

The Evatt P&C desperately need volunteers. If you can help with fundraising activities or helping with the special lunches, please let us know. You don’t need any particular skills. Roles include buying food and delivering it to the school serving food on lunch days and tiding up afterwards. We also need people for other fundraising activities such as Father’s Day stall, school discos, second-hand uniform stalls and much more.

Without the help of our community, these events cannot go ahead. So if you think you can spare an hour or two here in there, please reach out to the P&C as we are committed to supporting our kids as best we can. Thank you.

If you would like to volunteer or get more information on what is involved, please email Paula Parker at: ianparker21@hotmail.com

Banking:

Please note the P&C bank details have changed. If you have old bank details saved, please delete them. If you need to transfer money to the P&C directly, please contact evattpspc@gmail.com.

School Psychologist Corner

Making connections and building resilience

This week’s resource and discussion points come from ParentTV. You can follow them on FB or Instagram, and access free video clips on YouTube, for loads of tips to support the kids in your home. You’ll find research-based information on specialised topics such as Autism, Technology, Mindset and Behaviour, Tantrums, Building Resilience, Bullying and so much more. One of Sam Jockel’s recent blog posts is on Resilience – the ability to bounce back from difficult or challenging situations. Research is showing that there is growing concern around the declining resilience of children. This can make it more difficult for children to navigate the challenges of life. Sam shares that some of the reasons include technology (changing the way children interact with the world), reduced social connections and lack of unstructured play. If this is a topic of interest, you can read more here: https://parenttv.com/blog/5-key-reasons-why-our-kids-no-longer-have-resilience

Another blog post is on one of the biggest fears shared by many parents: feeling disconnected from their kids. “Fun and humour are great tools to help us feel super connected to each other. When children have incredible fun with us it anchors deep memories in their brain which they carry with them throughout the rest of their life.”

If you’d like a resource to support connections, engaging in conversations, and having some fun family time, you may be interested in the free 50+ conversations starters from ParentTV: https://learning.parenttv.com/p/free-downloadable-conversation-starters

Enjoy the journey 😊.

Cheryl Edward
School Psychologist

STUDENT LEARNING RESOURCES

Thank you to all Parents/Carers who have already paid for their Student Learning Resources and donated a Voluntary Contribution.

Your continued support is essential in providing learning supplies to classrooms. Some of the supplies we have already sourced include: workbooks, pencils, pens, textas, glue sticks, scissors, rubbers, sharpeners, rulers, scissors, tissues, handwriting books (selected year levels) + a large number of specific resources required for Art, Science, Technology, Mathematics, Sustainability and Literacy.

Payment information below for those wishing to make payments/ contributions.

Payment Information

Student Learning Resources payment information

The Student Learning Resources payment has been set at $70 per year.

1 Student = $70
2 Students = $140
3 Students = $210
4 Students = $280

Direct Debit payment:

Account Name: Evatt Primary School Management Account

BSB: 032777

Account number: 001244

Reference: <your child’s surname> <1510BP>

Voluntary Contributions payment information

As we did last year in consultation with our School Board, we are not going to put an expected dollar amount on the voluntary contributions. Previously the contribution was $120 for one child, $220 for two children or $290 for three or more children.

Direct Debit payment:

Account Name: Evatt Primary School Management Account

BSB: 032777

Account number: 001244

Reference: <your child’s surname> <1410>

Please note the reference code is not the same for Student Learning Resources and Voluntary Contributions.

COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS

Woden Community Services Evatt Preschool - Now Enrolling

Woden Community Services Evatt Preschool program offers a safe, secure, and supportive environment for your child. We have built a nurturing, child focused environment in which all children are welcomed and are supported to thrive. Our friendly and qualified educators guide the program with a focus on educational outcomes and school reediness in a small group environment with a high educator to child ratio.

We offer a range of programs at Evatt Preschool to suit your individual care needs,

Before school care: 7am to 9am – from $25.40 per session
Whole day preschool: 7am to 6pm - $124.60 per session
School hours preschool: 9am to 3pm - $83.00 per session
After school care: 3pm to 6pm – from $35.20 per session

All fees attract the child care subsidy

If you would like to enroll, know more about our program, or discuss your individual needs please get in contact with our friendly staff on 02 6147 3318 or email enrolments@wcs.org.au

Holiday Happenings

50 Years of IMP (Instrumental Music Program)

To celebrate 50 years of IMP 1973-2023 the program will be holding a reunion band event and concert on Sunday June 18 at Llewellyn Hall, ANU School of Music

Reunion band rehearsal 10.00-11.30am and concert 2.00-4.30pm

Former SCB – Senior Concert Band – students and staff are invited to join the band for the day

Families, friends and colleagues of the program are invited to attend the free concert

Follow our facebook page – “50 years of IMP”

Link to register for reunion band as a player Link to access free concert tickets

https://forms.gle/YHSBSrDEJw91DUtd7 https://www.trybooking.com/CGAJE