Dear All

Can I extend a warm welcome to everyone to our new school year, especially to our new students, families, and staff as we prepare to throw open the classroom doors this week. Next week we will publish our first full newsletter, but I wanted to reach out this week to the school community and pass on a few key messages.

This week, we have conducted our important assessment days. These important assessment days contribute heavily to our teaching and learning programmes, so we thank families for organising for their children to attend.  Already, I have been impressed with the way the teachers have started to act on the assessment data that they collected this week, while also collating this against the assessment data we had collected at the end of last year.

Our first day tomorrow will place everyone across a wide emotional spectrum. As I drafted this newsletter earlier in the week, my heart is already racing with excitement, but I'm also nervously triple-checking details. As a family, we also have our eldest granddaughter starting primary school so I will probably need more reassurance than our Foundation parents on Thursday morning when we gather for a cuppa and biscuits when the bell rings at 9am. I invite all parents, new and old, Foundation to Year 6 to hang about in the courtyard for a chat. Our school leadership team and well-being staff will be around to connect with you and possibly console you!

Last year we moved up our transition day to enable students earlier access to the information about their 2024 staff and class. The start of a new year naturally comes with change but I have faith that as a community we can support each other to re-adjust to the social and emotional demands of school. Across these assessment days it has great to witness young friends reaching out to each other after a few weeks apart.

If you are reading this bulletin it means you know how to access our communications via the Schoolzine platform. Apart from newsletters etc., this on-line platform is very important as it is the primary communication tool and will be the way we communicate with families in an emergency. If you interact with a new family can you please check in with them to make sure they know to register via our Schoolzine website for newsletters and alerts. (Did you know that Schoolzine has a feature that allows our newsletter to be translated into a growing number of languages?)

https://stvmorwell.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Wishing you and your family a successful and positive year with us at St.Vincent's. I personally look forward to sharing the year with all our wonderful students.

Yours,

Dave

P.S. Please remember as a Sun-Smart school all students and staff must wear a hat when outside. After a mixed bag of school holiday weather we can probably expect a heatwave of some hot days and humid nights, so remember to stay hydrated as well!

8.30am OUTSIDE SUPERVISION STARTS

Students enter the school yard via the car park ramp to the Student Entry Doors

8.45am CLASSROOMS OPEN

9.00am SCHOOL DAY STARTS

On Thursday, to provide a more relaxed and less stressful environment for our Foundation Class, we will welcome our excited new recruits into the classroom at 8.30am.

The other classrooms will open as per our normal routine at 8.45am

A few reminders.....

- Students are able to exit the yard via the main student entry as well as pedestrian gates on both Rowell and Barry Street. 

- Safe crossing points: Please model and rehearse good habits with your children.  We know primary school children have poor peripheral vision so we would hate to have anyone harmed due to avoidable, risky behaviours.

- Parking By-laws: Can drivers please abide with the local parking laws around the school neighbourhood. Do not park in No Standing Zones, the Bus Zone, across driveways or on nature strips.  This ensures pedestrian safety, keeps the neighbours happy and probably saves you a fine from a local by-laws officer from Latrobe City.

3.00pm ROWELL STREET & BARRY STREET PEDESTRIAN GATES ARE UNLOCKED

Parents are welcome to wait for their children in the courtyard area.

3.15pm STUDENT ENTRY DOORS OPEN

3.15pm OUR PATCH After School Care students are collected by OP Staff

3.25pm (approx) ROWELL STREET & BARRY STREET GATES are locked by Duty Teachers

At the start of this year we will be trialling this adjusted routine to boost community engagement, improve pedestrian safety, reduce car park congestion and importantly, create a less stressful dismissal routine for our children.

We would love to hear feedback from families, children and staff so we can make any further adjustments.

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

PRINCIPAL: Dave Cooper

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: Rosie Van Den Broek

LEARNER DIVERSITY: Vanessa COULING

LEARNING ADJUSTMENT: Kathy MONACELLA

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Cameron GREENSLADE

ADMIN TEAM

Alison ANSWER

Sonia MARINO

Nicole SALMELA

JUNIOR TEAM

MIDDLE TEAM

SENIOR TEAM

SPECIALIST TEAM

20^th November 2023

Dear Families and Guardians,

Re: Our Patch OSHC Program at St Vincent de Paul PS Morwell

We are thrilled to be introducing Our Patch to St Vincent de Paul PS Morwell. Our Patch is a fresh provider in the Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) space, sprouting from a dream to create entirely unique spaces that gives children voice and offers them a safe place of wonder in which to GROW.

We will be operating Before and After School Care and Pupil Free Days.

Our first day of operation will be Thursday 1^st February 2024. 

Our Before School Care program will include fun activities and a nutritious breakfast to set the children up for the day. After School Care will include a healthy afternoon snack, engaging indoor and outdoor activities and exciting new Specialist Offerings!

Enrolments are open NOW!

Children must be enrolled to attend, so we strongly recommend enrolling as soon as possible. For enrolments or more information, please visit our website via the link:  https://www.owna.com.au/enrol.aspx?c=ourpatchmorwell

We have attached a short guide about our OWNA booking system.  Casual bookings can be made via the OWNA App and for all permanent bookings please email our Customer Care Team at info@ourpatch.education.

All our sessions are covered by the Childcare Subsidy (CCS) which can reduce your childcare costs. To find out more about CCS entitlements, please visit https://www.education.gov.au/child-care-subsidy-campaign.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our team om 1300 018 310 or at info@ourpatch.education with any questions or if you require any assistance.

We are looking forward to connecting with you all and together creating a patch for every child to GROW!

Warm regards,

Our Patch Team

PAM is our online platform for Medical Profiles, Permission Notes and our School Calendar.  Each family needs to have account created so that they can provide permission for school activities and provide instant updates on their child's Medical Profile and Emergency Contacts.

If you need assistance please speak to the team in the Office.

As we welcome you to a new school year, we will also welcome back a number of students to our school who are anaphylactic to tree nuts (peanut/pistachio/cashew etc). These students range from foundation to grade 6. We are also welcoming a new Foundation student who is at a very high risk of anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is a potentially life threatening severe allergic reaction which requires immediate medical attention. Anaphylaxis occurs after an exposure to an allergen, of which the person is allergic. This can be through ingestion or through skin contact.

Our role as a school community is to help keep all children safe, to the best of our ability. Although nuts will not be banned, we do ask that you take the safety of this child into consideration when making food choices. We will be educating students on the importance of hand washing after eating and how we can help to minimize the cross contamination of foods containing peanuts. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to me.