Principal: Leanne Miller PO Box 38, Golden Square Vic 3555 Phone: 5443 6877 Fax: 5441 3345 Internet Homepage address: http:www.gsquareps.vic.edu.au

WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2021

SCHOOL COUNCIL Adam Goodes - President Adam Webb - Vice President Katalin Devecseri- Treasurer Marita Eddy - Secretary Leanne Miller - Executive Officer Brett Chamberlain Karen Donnelly Kerrieanne Hocking Stormy Jacobs Tim Jenkyn Stacee Kingdon Fern Noske Erin Salm Katherine Stephens

We would like to pay our respect to the Dja Dja Wurrung people, the Traditional Custodians of this Land on which we gather today and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.

AWARDS The following children are recipients of values awards and have been nominated by their classroom teacher.

Lisa Marie J for being respectful and for being a learner – Lisa-Marie completed her learning while at home maintaining a cheerful attitude throughout the lockdown.

Oliver H (1/2 Fry) for being respectful and for being a learner – Oliver was always on time and ready to learn during the Webex sessions. He was respectful of others while online and offered valuable thoughts and ideas in discussions.

Makayla S (1/2 Armitage) for being respectful and for being a learner – Makayla was on each daily Webex session and showed great respect for her teacher and others while online. She contributed to discussions and listened to others.

Georgia R (3/4 Salm) for being a learner – Georgia participates enthusiastically and actively contributes to the Guided Group conferences that help develop her reading comprehension.

Hunter T (3/4 Williamson) for being a learner – Hunter takes great pride in his work and has been writing creative and funny poems.

Sienna B (5/6 Resta) for being a learner – Sienna’s dedication to learning from home is outstanding and she displays a high level of independence organising herself for her learning each week.

Respect, Resilience, Achievement & Community

WELCOMING BACK THE PREP TO GRADE 2 CHILDREN It has been wonderful to have the younger children back with us this week. They have settled in remarkably well and we have provided lots of support to assist them in doing so. The tiredness that is a sign of the end of every term is there coupled with the weariness we are all experiencing at this time though and we are understanding of this. The smiles, laughter and chatter shows they are happy to be back with us and their friends. The children are required to enter the school grounds independently and they have shown they are very capable of doing so. This is due to the School Operation Guidelines stating that only essential visitors are allowed on school grounds at this time. We have staff on each of the gates and we will assist the children if needed. For many of the Prep children, they are only travelling a very short distance on their own and all within an environment they are now familiar with. Thank you for supporting us with this requirement while allowing your child to develop independence and resilience. ‘FOOTY COLOURS’ DAY This Friday will be a day for us to show support for our football team – or any other sporting team that we barrack for. We encourage everyone to dress up in their colours on this day regardless of whether you are learning from home or on-site. It is exciting for those supporters of the Demons who have waited 21 years to compete in a grand final and have not been premiers since 1964, while the Western Bulldogs have only ever won two premierships including when they were Footscray. EARLY FINISH ON FRIDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER (THIS FRIDAY) A reminder that this Friday is the final day of Term 3 and therefore we will finish school at 2:30pm. This includes the children who are here for on-site supervision. If you were requiring care for your child after this time, we do have Camp Australia offering before and after school care. You can click here to register and/or book. Camp Australia also offer a special school holiday program. TERM 4 Unfortunately at this stage we are unable to provide any further clarity around what school will be like in Term 4. It has been reported that Premier Andrews will be providing details around a roadmap for Victoria this coming Sunday. Our hope is that we are all able to return, however, if this is not the case, we will ensure that we continue with remote and flexible learning that focuses on learning, wellbeing and engagement. The first day of Term 4 is Monday October 4th, 2021. If we are to remain in remote learning and on-site supervision remains in place, communication with a new form will be sent out so that bookings can be made and staffing can be organised. Please keep your eye out for this during the holiday period. You can also check our website under the article ‘Remote and Flexible Learning’ and a link to the booking form will be found there, too. VICTORIA NATURE FESTIVAL – repeat notice that is relevant throughout some of the holiday period. The upcoming Victoria Nature Festival will offer Victoria’s students the opportunity to tune into nature while learning from home.

The Victoria Nature Festival begins on Saturday 11 September and will run until Sunday 26 September, offering a great range of engaging digital resources and events for students of all ages.

The festival offers content such as videos, virtual excursions and webinars sourced from festival partners including Traditional Owners, Parks Victoria, Zoos Victoria, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Phillip Island Nature Parks.   

Highlights of the online program include: Phillip Island virtual penguin parade Virtual meditation in the Royal Botanic Gardens Digital resources that support year three to six teachers to embed nature-based learning in the classroom An online nature seminar Zoos Victoria’s Animals at Home

Victoria Nature Festival videos

Refer to the list below to access the range of videos available on the festival website:

Meet one of our Cultural Ambassadors for the Victoria Nature Festival, Tammy Gilson Once thought to be extinct, watch the recovery of the Mountain Pygmy-possum Be immersed in the splendour that is nature Learn about a Wadawurrung-led cultural burn, with many organisations working together to improve the

grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plains See how expert teams from Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are working to salvage and

protect threatened plants after the 2019-20 bushfires Learn more about frogs and how they play an important part in our eco-system and find out about how to

participate in an important citizen science program.

About Victoria Nature Festival

Victoria Nature Festival is delivered by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning with partners Parks Victoria, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Zoos Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, Vic Catchments, EPA Victoria, Trust for Nature, Sustainability Victoria, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability and Remember the Wild.

Find out more

For more information, refer to the Victoria Nature Festival website to access the full list of resources and events available.

For further enquiries, contact the Victoria Nature Festival team by email: vicnaturefestival@delwp.vic.gov.au

Leanne Miller (Principal) and Marita Eddy (Assistant Principal)

“The blue sky above the dark clouds never leaves.”

Golden Square Primary School has a zero tolerance to child abuse

Bailey W

Brynne M

Jasper G

Spencer A

Jensen A

Jett M

Ava G

Paw Eh M

Lisa-Marie J

Tahlia B

Brayden G

Maysie H

William H

Jacoby N

Riley P

Charlie S

Leibron S

Scotiah K

Lillian W

SCHOOL STRATEGIC PLAN OVERVIEW

Goal 1 To improve the learning growth and achievement of all students with a rigorous focus on literacy.

Key Improvement Strategies 1.1 To develop, document and implement a

guaranteed and viable curriculum. 1.2 To develop the pedagogical practices of staff and

leaders using an embedded PLC approach. 1.3 To develop staff capabilities in understanding

data and consistent collection, use and evaluation of data to inform student learning growth and achievement.

Goal 2 All students are engaged and connected to their learning. Key Improvement Strategies 2.1 To develop and implement student agency in their learning. 2.2 To develop and implement a distributed leadership model in the school to ensure engagement, wellbeing and achievement goals are addressed and enacted. Goal 3 To improve student health, wellbeing and inclusion. Key Improvement Strategies

3.1 Establish and implement with fidelity the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework and Respectful Relationships throughout the school community.

3.2 Further develop and strengthen authentic, collaborative and inclusive partnerships between the school and its stakeholders.

to the following students

Looking after your Mental Health at GSPS

Over the next few newsletters we are going to look at the 6 key elements important for wellbeing.

Last week we looked at understanding emotions, this week we will look at

personal strengths and ways to help our children recognise their own.

Personal strengths Help to build your child’s ability to recognise and understand positive qualities in themselves and

others. This will help to build your child’s self-confidence and the capacity to face and manage challenges.

Foundation

Goal: Recognise our strengths by talking about things we are good at.

Activity: With your child, take turns at drawing a portrait of each other. Around the portrait write all the things you think each other is good at.

Grade 1&2 Goal: Describe how we use our strengths to be a good family member.

Activity: With your child, discuss what each of your character strengths are. Draw a picture of yourselves using one of these strengths at home.

Goal: Describe how we use our strengths in daily life.

Activity: With your child, watch a TV show or read a story book together and identify how a character showed any of these strengths (honesty, fairness, patience). What would the opposite of these look like?

Grade 3&4

Goal: Recognise our personal strengths.

Activity: Personal strengths are our positive qualities. Ask your child: What are your personal strengths? What do you think are my personal strengths? Swap!

Goal: Identify how you can use personal strengths in daily life.

Activity: Kindness is a personal strength. Being kind means you do things for others without ex-pecting anything in return. Encourage your child to do something helpful for a family member. Ask them to share their acts of kindness with your family.

Grade 5&6

Goal: Demonstrate character strengths.

Activity: Encourage your child do something to make life easier for someone else at home.

Goal: Demonstrate character strengths.

Activity: With your child, plan to do something kind for a neighbour, friend or family member. HINT: You might like to: • Check to see if an elderly neighbour needs help with grocery shopping. • Call a family member you don’t live with such as an uncle, aunt or grandparents to say hello. • Write a letter or send an email to a friend and post it to them.

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORTS

On Monday 13th September, our SWPBS coach, Karen Thomson met with Leanne and myself to conduct our

annual Tiered Fidelity Inventory. “The purpose of the TFI is to provide a valid, reliable and efficient measure of

the extent to which school staff are applying the core features of school-wide positive behavioural

interventions and supports”. (SWPBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory version 2.1)

We scored 50% which is an improvement compared to 2019 (17%) and 2020 (33%) results. In our Annual

Implementation Plan (AIP) we were aiming for 70%. We are close to achieving this target and considering that

we’ve had a second year of a roller coaster ride in terms of COVID interruptions, we are at least heading in

the right direction for the rest of this year and beyond.

The results of the TFI will direct us on our journey as we write our Action Plan for Term 4 2021. Later in Term 4, the

SWPBS Tier 1 Team will spend time reflecting on the year and the work we’ve accomplished and then write

the 2022 Action Plan.

The mascot competition has been extended until this Friday 17th September. I encourage all students to get

their entries in by then. Our new matrix, which has been included in the newsletter again this week and over

the last few weeks, will have the winning mascot added to it and then posted around the school for all to see!

The Tier 1 team are still polishing off the written procedures for various activities that take place around the

school and staff have been introduced to the writing of lesson plans to teach the expected behaviours

written in our matrix. This is an area that we will continue working on in term 4.

We have had 28 expressions of interests from students in Grades 4 and 5 who would like to be involved in our

SWPBS Student Leadership Team. I have included a graph in today’s newsletter that shows the reasons why

these students would like to be involved. I will begin working with this core group of enthusiastic students at

the start of term 4. These are very exciting times indeed ahead for us as we keep moving forward on our

SWPBS journey.

Kerrieanne Hocking

SWPBS Team Leader

MASCOT COMPETITION EXTENDED UNTIL THIS FRIDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER

SWPBS We are running a competition for students and teachers to design a mascot and accompanying slogan for our School Wide Positive Behaviour Supports matrix. In this week’s newsletter, you will find examples of matrixes from other schools and their mascots. The competition is open to all students and teachers with entries being due in by Friday 17th September. Time will be allocated in classes for students to work on their designs.