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Dear Parents and Carers, It’s been fantastic weather for the swimming program and so good to see so many students participating. I would like to thank all of our parent helpers and volunteers who make it possible to provide 1:1 support to develop water safety skills. School Council Elections: Ballot 2017 Welcome the newly elected school councillors who have been elected for a two-year term. To Danielle Barclay, Elaine Quinn, Anthony Heffernan and Dehlia Dawson who fill the DET vacancies, thank you for your commitment. The parent vacancies were keenly contested and as a result of a ballot, I would like to congratulate Rebecca Cross, Maree Triffett, Clare Johnstone, Nicole Rosen, Darren Underwood and Lynda Stevenson. We look forward to your contribution on School Council to make a difference to the lives of the students, staff and parents. To those parents who were unsuccessful we hope that they consider renominating for School Council in 2018. The Annual General Meeting of Warringa Park School will be held before the first school council meeting of the new council in the staffroom on Monday March 20th at 6:30pm. Reports from the President, Principal and Treasurer will be presented and there will be an election of office bearers prior to the meeting of the new school. The Annual Report will be posted on the school’s web site and there will be a number of hard copies available at the office for those parents who like to have access to a hard copy.

The Annual report will also be available via the school’s app. Student Support Groups These meetings have been taking place this week following draft Individual Learning Plans being sent home. If you have not yet made a time to attend one of these meetings I would strongly encourage you to do so. It is

important for parents to gain an understanding of the learning goals being made for their child for the year and for teachers to gain understanding of the expectations of parents. Student Representative Council The student leaders have been elected and they will receive their badges at the Whole School Assembly on the last day of term. The school highly values the

student voice and Therese Bourke and Joan Kurtis do an excellent job of providing leadership opportunities. I’m proud of the work our young leaders undertake. Harmony Day On Thursday March 30th we will again be celebrating Harmony Day. The theme is ‘Everybody Belongs’ and it’s a

wonderful opportunity to celebrate our cultural diversity. iPads If you have not yet signed your iPad agreement I would encourage you to do so. Please make sure that if your child brings his or her iPad home the cover remains on at all times. End of Term The end of the term is approaching quickly. School will

break up on Friday 31st March at 2:30pm and resume on Tuesday April 18th. You are also invited to the end of term assembly on Friday 31st March at 9:30am where there will be performances and awards presented. Finally I would like to remember Zach Cannon a past student of our school who died recently and who will be sadly missed by the staff and students who knew him. A truly great young man. Marie Hayes, Principal

Principal’s Newsletter 17th March 2017

Last day Term 1 31st March. Early dismissal at 2:30pm

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From the Assistant Principal…. At Warringa Park School we aim to build strong partnerships with parents to achieve excellent learning outcomes our students. In the coming weeks, parents are invited to attend and participate in Student Support Group (SSG) meetings. A draft Individual Learning Plan (Early and Middle Years) or Career Action Plan (Later Years) which sets the priority goals for your child for the year has been sent home last week. The teachers have written these draft goals after having consulted with previous teachers and the Allied Health staff. The data from last year shows that 100% of students demonstrated learning growth against their ILP goals and 61% of students achieved above and well above their expected progress levels in English and Mathematics. At the Student Support Group meeting parents have an opportunity to have input into the educational program that is being planned for your child during 2017. It is extremely important that you attend these meetings as they are an opportunity for those who know the student best to share their knowledge, identify student needs and establish shared educational goals. I would ask you to take a few minutes prior to the meeting to read through the Individual Learning Plan or Career Action Plan so that you are familiar with its content and feel comfortable to raise any issues or concerns you may have. Parents are welcome to bring along an advocate to these meetings if they wish. Allied Health staff will also be attending some of the meetings and parents are free to request any of the Allied Health or Leadership Team to attend the SSG meeting. The SSG meetings will conclude on Friday the 24th of March. Over the past few years, we have seen a huge increase in the amount of parents being actively involved in working with our teachers

in discussing the goals for their child. We hope this trend continuous and we see even more parents attend the SSG’s over the next two weeks. We had an increase of 16 % more parents attending the SSG meetings over the past two years. Individual Learning Plans for prep students will not be completed until the end of Term 1 but prep Student Support Group meetings will take place in these two weeks. A Student Support Group meeting can be convened at any time at the request of the parent or the school. Marie Hayes, Caitriona Harkin and Dehlia Dawson are always available to attend meetings if required. We look forward to your input into the Student Support Group process. Dehlia Dawson Assistant Principal

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Going on Camp?

If your student is going on a school camp (how exciting!) please ensure the following: 1. Let your bus chaperone know the dates

when your student will NOT be going on the bus so that the bus doesn’t wait for a student that is away on camp and

2. Check with the chaperone if your student’s camp baggage can go on the bus as many of our buses are NOT ABLE to accommodate the additional baggage that students need to take to camp. You will probably have to arrange to both drop off and pick up your student from school. This is an important safety issue for the buses.

PARENT GROUP Session: Toilet Training for children with special needs. Who: Victorian Continence Foundation Date: Tuesday 21st March 2017 Time: 1pm to 2:30pm Where: Warringa Park School, Café 11 You may have put off toilet training or believe that it is not possible to train your child with special needs. But given the right kind of help, children with special needs can learn to manage going to the toilet with assistance or independently. Come along and listen to the 5 step process in moving your child from using nappies to using the toilet. Please register you attendance with reception

Telephone: 9749 5774. Numbers are limited to 15.

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Compass – Parent Portal Over the next couple of weeks, we will have a short how to guide on how to use the Compass Information Portal. If you do not yet have a username / password for Compass, please contact the school or via our internal helpdesk http://helpdesk.warringapark.vic.edu.au

Adding a Note or Approval

If your child is absent you can now notify the school via Compass along with the reason why they are absent. To do this, log into Compass https://warringapark-vic.compass.education Log in and click Profile, Attendance, Unexplained.

To add a note or approval, they can select one or more of the absences listed, then select the "Explain with Note/Approval" button.

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Adding a Note/Approval for a future absence You can also add approval for absences in the future To do this from the Profile/Attendance page, they can click on the 'Add Attendance Note/Approval' link listed underneath the name of you student.

This will take you to the Attendance screen, with a pop-up window to enter details of the note or approval. You can then select the applicable date range - in the future if required. Please ensure that the dates are correct. If you make any mistakes, you will need to con-tact Reception to get this sorted out.

Help If you need any assistance, please either advise the reception office via phone, IT via our internal helpdesk http://helpdesk.warringapark.vic.edu.au or feel free to come in and we will attempt to help you further. Due to privacy information, we will only give out passwords if we can verify your details.

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Warringa updates! Dates for the diary: Term 1: 31st January-31st March 2017 23rd March: Harmony Day 29th March: Easter Egg Raffle drawn 31 March: last day assembly and 2:30pm early dismissal Term 2: 18th April—30th June 2017 Term 3: 17th July to 22nd September 2017 Term 4: 9th October to 22nd December 2017

Parent Tours 2017: These are the dates for school tours from 9:30-11am 20th April 25th May 22nd June 27th July 24th August 14th Sept 19th Oct 16th November

2017 Curriculum Days: 30th January 17th February 26th May 6th November