Infectious Disease

COVIDSafe measures have changed but all Victorian government schools are required to continue to implement important practices to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. We continue to take the important steps of ensuring air purifiers are in use, external ventilation is maximised, good personal hygiene is encouraged and face masks continue to be made available for staff, students and visitors who wish to wear them.

If your child does test positive for COVID-19 we ask you contact the school via email Ivanhoe.east.ps@education.vic.gov.au and it is recommended that they isolate for a minimum of 5 days and not attend school until their symptoms have resolved.

It is recommended that rapid antigen tests (RATs) are used by students and staff:

• If you have symptoms of COVID-19 infection, no matter how mild
• If you are a household or close contact of someone who has COVID-19
• If you are a social contact of someone who has COVID-19.

Rapid Antigen Tests are also available from the front office, please don’t hesitate to come in and collect as needed.

Open Afternoon/Welcome Picnic Postponed

Our Open Afternoon/Welcome Picnic that was scheduled for this Friday the 17^th of February has been postponed due to an expected temperature of 36 degrees at 3pm on Friday. It will be rescheduled to Friday 3^rd of March.

Communication With School Staff – Contact with IEPS Staff

With healthy relationships at the core of our school success we share our staff contact details, these are accessible via the Compass app where you contact your child’s teacher directly. Should you need to contact your child/ren’s teacher, an email via their email address and/or a message via the Compass app is the suggested starting point. When emailing, we ask parents to respectfully give staff sufficient time to respond or to take action as requested, as during school hours we concentrate our efforts on the students.

It is very important that teaching staff devote full attention and ‘duty of care’ to our school’s students throughout each school day (noting that some staff are not full time, therefore may need a longer response timeframe depending on working hours and days). As per our communication’s policy you will receive a response to your email within 2 business days. We’re sure you appreciate that staff responses to emails cannot be expected outside of ‘business hours’, during holidays or on weekends.

Emails are best used when you have a message that does not require a lot of detail and is not urgent. We ask that you email prior to 8.30 am should you require to provide your child’s classroom teacher with a message for that day.

If a message is urgent, please call the school office on 9499 2171.

Furthermore, our friendly administration team including Toni Kearney & Carmel Sitilidis can be contacted via the school office account (ivanhoe.east.ps@education.vic.gov.au) and are best positioned to forward electronic communications to the relevant Department of Education staff if you are unable to access them via email or the Compass app.

Cyber Safety

This year, our school is partnering with the Cyber Safety Project team to work with our staff, students, and their families. Their mission is to EMPOWER every young Australian to self-manage their own cyber safety and digital wellbeing through proactive education. Their whole community approach also aims to EQUIP educators with the latest resources and ENGAGE parents to create safe digital environments at home.

Our Year 3-6 student workshops have been rescheduled due to the presenters falling ill. They will now occur on Monday 27th of February and these sessions align to the Cyber Safety Project Curriculum Framework values of Responsibility, Integrity, Strength, and Empathy with a focus on either Cyber Safety or Digital Wellbeing.

The first of four Online Parent Webinars is still on tomorrow, Thursday 16^th of February starting at 7.30 pm. We strongly encourage all parents, especially our Year 3-6 parents to sign up to these webinars via www.cybersafetyproject.com.au/webinars 

Getting to Know You Interviews

Our ‘getting to know you’ interviews are an opportunity for you to meet your child’s 2023 classroom teacher and discuss anything that you would like your child’s classroom teacher to know related to your child’s social, emotional and academic learning.

These interviews have a 10-minute time slot and will be held over two Wednesday evenings on the 1^st of March and the 8^th of March from 4pm – 7pm. The booking for these interviews is now open, please refer to the Compass event notification that was sent to you earlier today. Bookings will be open today and close on Monday 27^th of February at 5pm.

Fair/Colour Run Fundraiser Update

Our 2022 Fair and Colour Fun Run fundraising objective was aimed at improving the school’s ‘Physical Environment.’ Over the course of December and January we have been busy engaging with a range of companies who will be working with us to enhance the physical environment of IEPS. Our proposals of works were shared with and voted on by our 2022 School Council.

Over the coming weeks we will be sharing in our bulletin what projects we have finalised to commence in Term 1/Term 2. The second project which has just been finalised are new backboards, rings and nets for our outside basketball and netball courts. We expect the completion of this project on March 6th. Photos are attached below.

Our first two projects are featured below, and we look forward to sharing our third in next week’s bulletin.

Outdoor Basketball & Netball Courts – Backboards-Rings-Nets

Sensory Inclusive Interactive Path for Junior Playground

PTFA – Class Contact Details & Class Representatives

A Compass message was sent out yesterday regarding class contact details and class representatives. We ask that you please complete the form below if you would like to be included in the class contact list for each of your children. Please include information you wish to share with other families in your child's class. Do not complete this form if you do not wish to be included in the class contact list.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRCK90hnK6k4TJ6hQeP6_Akg_A3o0jTcFy4ZSft55LzA1qMQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Even though you may have already indicated this in the previous Google Form, please also use this form to let us know if you are interested in being a Class Representative in 2023.

Reminders From Last Week’s Bulletin

Entry into School Buildings

All parents and visitors must sign in at the school office when entering school buildings during the day. At the beginning and end of the school day, all parents are asked not to enter the school buildings. This reduces congestion, prevents distractions to our students and is essential to our Child Safety practices.

School Houses – Renaming process

In consultation with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage, we are renaming our IEPS School Houses. We are involving all members of our community to vote on the best names that will represent our 4 houses. Students will vote in the coming weeks. If you would like to vote, please click the following link:

https://forms.gle/FueBSDjjHFdGgp3X8

Principal Advisory Group

For 2023 the Principal Advisory Group leadership positions will be available for Year 4 – 6 students. There will be 2x PAG representatives for each grade. The PAG representatives will work collaboratively throughout the year, however they will each participate in a semester’s worth of meetings. The PAG representative selection process will occur throughout week 5.

Lunchtime Clubs

Lunchtime Clubs will be finalised at our first PAG meeting in week 6. Therefore, our first week of lunchtime clubs will, be in week 7.

Student Pick up’s

We ask that you inform your child’s classroom teacher via compass/email by 8.30 am if they are going to picked up early and specify what time of the day this will be. If your child is going to be picked up between 11.00 – 11.30am or 1.30 – 2.30pm, they will be required to bring their bag to the office prior to heading out for playtime.

For Your Diaries

We would like to acknowledge the following days that have already occurred this year:-

January 24^th – International Day of Education

February 7^th – Safer Internet Day

February 11^th – International Day of Women & Girls in Science

Sports Diary for Term 1 – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vJkXVbjAZnkcPsgpBou4GGNeP9crYsqI_R4ydkw-FOw/edit?usp=sharing

February 16^th – Parent Cyber Safety Webinar

February 17^th  – POSTPONED Open Afternoon – Welcome Picnic

February 21^st – 24^th – Year 6 Camp @ Lorne

February 27th - Cyber Safety Student Workshops (Years 3-6)

March 1^st – Getting To Know You Interviews 4 – 7pm

March 2^nd - IDSSA District Swimming Championship @ Watermarc
March 3^rd – Open Afternoon – Welcome Picnic
March 6^th – New Truline Basketball & Netball Backboards-Rings-Nets installed
March 8^th - Getting to Know You Interviews 4 – 7pm
March 8^th - IDSSA Girls AFL Chelsworth
March 10^th – Professional Practice Day (Pupil Free Day)
March 14^th - Division Swimming Carnival - Oak Park Aquatic Centre
March 15^th – 22^nd – NAPLAN
March 30^th - NMR Swimming Carnival @ Watermarc

Follow Us

A reminder that we now have a community Instagram account, this account is used to connect with our wider community, promote school events and give an insight into our facilities, incursions, excursions, and all of the wonderful teaching & learning that is happening at IEPS. You can follow our movements by networking with us @ivanhoeeastprimaryschool on Instagram.

Regards,

____________________________________________________________

Dear IEPS Community,

This year I will be overseeing Numeracy with Alex Silvestro (6S) and Jo King (PK) as the Numeracy Leaders for 2023. Alex and Jo will lead the Numeracy AIP (Annual Improvement Team), working towards achieving our school literacy goals.

A friendly reminder about Numeracy at IEPS:

Our Numeracy program aims to develop students who understand and use numbers confidently in a variety of contexts. We want our students to make connections between the big mathematical ideas and to be able to explain their thinking. Our program provides opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real life situations and persist in trying different ways to solve something. Most of all, we want our students to enjoy mathematics.

How you can help at home:

All of IEPS students have an at home Mathletics account that they will receive login details from their teacher. The students can go online anytime and utilise this engaging platform.

Learning Mathematics through applying and real-world scenarios is fun and beneficial for all students and we encourage you to view these links below to help with this at home.

There are also a range of fun activities that you can try together based on your child’s interests and experiences:

• Birth to Level 2 suggestions for children up to about 8 years of age, including activities for cooking, travelling, reading, shopping, and exploring.
• Levels 3 - 8 suggestions for children and early adolescents including numeracy in the kitchen, travelling, reading, shopping, our neighbourhood, games, and sports.

Ben Phillips

Assistant Principal

IEPS Second Hand Uniforms is located upstairs in the gym!!

The Second Hand Uniform shop will be open each Friday morning from 8.30am - 9.15am (45 minutes) for you to purchase any items you might need.

Items are $5 each and payment is strictly card only.

We can also accept any clothing donations at this time - our only ask is that donated uniform items are clean and in good condition (i.e. no tears, holes, animal hair etc!).

As we have been inundated, we are not accepting school bags at the moment.

Please use the stairs next to the entrance to the Hall/Gym. 

Prace is an established, not-for-profit, community education provider.  

Prace courses may be relevant to jobseekers and parents considering returning to the workforce.

Courses include:-

Introduction to Bookkeeping & MYOB, Civil Construction Labourer, Food Processing, Barista & Cafe Operations.

If you are interested in finding out more information, please refer to the website www.prace.vic.edu.au or email office@prace.vic.edu.au, or you can pick up a flyer from the brochure board at the front office at the school.