I would like to thank the school community for their understanding in response to changes made over this last weekend to school activities in response to the daily advice we have received from the Department of Education. I would also like to acknowledge the work done by the Department throughout the weekend in collating this advice and to acknowledge the availability of the most senior members of the Department to school principals.  Please read the different sections below that detail Drysdale Primary School’s response in the light of the advice we have received.

Changes to planned events this week and next week

In response to advice received the school is cancelling the following events:

·         Swimming for children in Years 3 to 6

·         Division Tennis for selected children today

·         The Bellarine Train Excursion on Wednesday for Year 2

·         Whole School Assembly on Monday 23rd March

·         Student Led Conferences on Monday and Tuesday 23rd and 24th March

·         House Cross Country for children in Years 3 to 6 on Wednesday March 25th

·         Inquiry Afternoon for children in Year 4 on Tuesday 24th March

·         Mini Mudder on Friday 27th March

Where practical we will reschedule these events for later in the year.  However there are some that we will not be able to reschedule.

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A number of parents have asked about paying the non-refundable deposit for school camps.  Although the camps are scheduled for Term 4, at this stage there is no definitive knowledge about whether it will be possible for these to go ahead or not. Deposits are not due until the end of April.  Between now and then, we will check with the camp providers’ terms and conditions and advise the school community of our preferred course of action. Pending clarification all money already paid will be held at the school. In the meantime, I would encourage parents who are yet to pay the deposit put the money to one side either as a lump sum or as weekly savings, so that this can be paid by the due date if necessary.

 

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You will, I hope, have read the letter published yesterday from the Victorian Chief Health Officer indicating that this is not the correct time to be enforcing a widespread closure of schools.  A few families have contacted the school following their individual decisions to self-isolate asking that the school provides work for their children.  The Drysdale Primary School teachers work incredibly hard providing a differentiated work program to meet the wide range of learning needs within each class.  We do not have the capacity to produce online resources while continuing to prepare and teach a full learning program in school.  Children who are at home can work on a range of activities to which they already have access including readers, Learning@Home tasks, the Literacy Planet and Essential Assessment online resources.  All children also have learning goals in Reading, Writing and Number which will help parents guide their children’s learning while they are playing board games or completing other play based activities.  Children will have a range of rote learning to complete such as sight words, times tables, letter sounds, and / or friends of ten facts.  In the event of a whole school closure the teachers will be working from home and be better able to provide some online resources.  We are currently discussing the best platform and format in which to produce this work.

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Please can I encourage all parents to sign up for the school’s FlexiBuzz App. This is the most efficient method of communication between school and home.  It can be tailored to send appropriate messages to different groups e.g. all of the Year 4s or all parents of children participating in a specific event.

To join our FlexiBuzz community, go to the app store (available on both Apple and Android), search for FlexiBuzz and download the app.  Once it is downloaded, search for Drysdale Primary School and register. Then select which group (class) you would like to join.

It would be great if everyone had jumped on board by the end of this week.  Please make this a priority.

 

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At Drysdale Primary we have had a strong focus on well-being for many years and care deeply about the safety of the children. This commitment was backed in 2015 by the appointment of a second Assistant Principal to lead and manage the number of programs which together offer a comprehensive response to children’s well-being needs. These include being part of the Kids Matter program, now called Be You, as well as School Wide Positive Behaviour, Respectful Relationships and Bounce Back. Our team supports many children, not just those who receive extra funding for a defined additional need. The team also provides active support for any children who are having difficulty in the yard, are concerned that they are being bullied or are in any way having a negative experience at school.  If anyone has concerns and wishes to talk to someone, please contact any of the School’s Principal Team directly or via the office.

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The learning and fun has certainly continued across all year levels over the past couple of weeks!

RDA began on March 6th with 5 students from DPS thoroughly enjoying their time and building self-confidence.

Mia from Year 4 shared her writing using strong persuasive language for why Drysdale should have a pool.

Indonesian Club is new this year and Rani and Piper came in to share their learning and in depth connections between school and home life here and in Indonesia. Piper was dressed up as an Indonesian Mother and Rani was dressed as her ‘child’ in Indonesian school uniform.

Tom from Year 3 spent some time in his Writers Workshop writing a Narrative about a flood where an Echidna and Koala were the characters. Tom used amazing adjectives to describe the animals and the flood.

Jorjia in Year 6 created a text linking characters experiencing at school and how they have been overcoming these challenges.

Please see more for photos of our RDA riders.

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Congratulations to this week’s Principal Award winners. Click read more for the details of the winners.

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This excursion was part of our Term 1 big idea, “Living things have observable features and provide us with products. They depend on each other for survival.”

We went to Ecolinc at 8:30am. We went on a big bus. When we got there we did lots of activities. My favourite part was the animals. I liked the blue tongue lizard because it was big and its tongue was very blue. We then drove back home. It was the best day of the week. – Harry

First, we went on the bus at 8:30am and drove to Ecolinc. My favourite activity of all was when we cut a meat-eating plant in half and found remains of bugs. We also looked at the features of different animals. – Nil

The first thing we did was get on the bus at 8:30am. We all got off the bus and went inside and learned about plants and animals. My favourite activity was the spider web activity and we did other activities. After a while, we went on the bus again and went back home. – Penny

We caught the bus at 8:30am. We did lots of activities. My favourite one was when we got to pat the turtle. My second favourite was when we looked at the animals. When we went home we jumped on the bus and said goodbye to Ecolinc. It was a long trip back. – Piper

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Last Wednesday 17 students represented Drysdale at the Bellarine Division Swimming Championships. It was a great day to be poolside at Kardinia Pool. Special mention to Ava who came 1st in Freestyle and Backstroke and Heidi who came 5th in Breaststroke. Also a huge thank you to Julie for volunteering as a marshall on the day.

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Music tuition with Tim from Sonic Boom have been postponed for the time being. Please see below for more information from Tim.

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Please read on for all of our community notices.

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