Infectious Disease

If your child does test positive for COVID-19 and/or any other infectious disease 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.

In relation to Covid-19 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.

Cyber Safety

As you may be aware 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.

I would strongly encourage you to sign up to their monthly newsletter which is accessible via their website  https://cybersafetyproject.com.au/

School Council @ IEPS

We are now calling for nominations for 2023 School Council.  School Council meets twice each term (Wednesdays at 7.30pm) to discuss and make decisions regarding many issues relevant to school life.  These discussions include teaching and learning, finances, buildings, promotion of the school, policies, uniform, grounds and much more.  All School Council members are asked to attend each meeting and in addition be involved in one sub-committee. The first School Council meeting for the newly elected council will be on Wednesday 29^th March 2023. Nominations will close on Monday 27th February 2023

If you would like more information please don’t hesitate to contact me via email tom.boyle@education.vic.gov.au  alternatively you can collect a nomination form from the front office.

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 starting next week on the 1^st of March and then a second session on the 8^th of March from 4pm – 7pm. The booking for these interviews is now open, please refer to the Compass event notification for further details. Bookings will 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 third project which has just been finalised is the addition of a GaGa Ball Pit. Raph Cleveland (2022 IEPS Year 6 school captain) spent last year campaigning for this, he even presented his pitch to School Council towards the end of last year where it was unanimously approved.

Gaga is a fast paced, high energy sport played in an octagonal pit. The more players the better! Dubbed a kinder, gentler version of dodge ball, the game is played with a soft foam ball, and combines the skills of dodging, running, and jumping, while trying to hit opponents with a ball below the knees. Players need to keep moving to avoid getting hit by the ball. Fun and easy, everyone gets a serious workout.

https://www.castleandcubby.com.au/pages/gaga-ball-pits

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

Outdoor and Indoor Basketball & Outdoor Netball Rings

Sensory Inclusive Interactive Path for Junior Playground

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

Voting will close at the end of this week (Friday the 24^th) and we will be sharing our new House names with you in the near future.

PTFA – Class Contact Details & Class Representatives

A Compass message was sent out last week 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 that 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.

Student of the Week

Student of the week is back this week, and will continue to feature regularly in our bulletin prior to assembly.

There are some minor amendments that have occurred:

• Students will be acknowledged in assembly where their name will be called out. They will however, stand up where they are seated, and all students will be acknowledged in front of their peers in this format.
• Their certificate will be presented to them back in their classroom. They will then be celebrated in front of their peers and a photo will be taken and placed onto SeeSaw prior to COB on Friday.
• If you would like a photo of your child with their classroom teacher/member of leadership, please contact them directly and this can be arranged upon pick up on Friday afternoon.

We look forward to acknowledging our student of the week award winners once again tomorrow in assembly.

Reminders From Last Week’s Bulletin

Open Afternoon/Welcome Picnic Postponed

Our Open Afternoon/Welcome Picnic has been 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 8.30am should you need 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 of 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.

For Your Diaries

*School Assembly takes place on Fridays at 9.05am at the school gym

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

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

February 27^th – Closing of School Council Nominations & Getting To Know You Interviews

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 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,

We hope all of our students have had a great start to the year and are settling in well into their new classes.

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce and welcome our new school psychologist to the IEPS team.

Amanda Dwyer

Assistant Principal

My name is Zoe Bloore. I am the parent of a tween and a registered psychologist working as the Mental Health Practitioner at IEPS.

I enjoy working with children and have experience across a number of Education Department primary schools and a community high school.

In my role at IEPS I will be working though the school’s administration and leadership, communicating with parents, and teachers, and supporting students in achieving their optimal educational outcomes.

My work will include delivering professional learning to teachers and the community, enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing at IEPS.

Kind regards,

Zoe.

With the school year well and truly underway, there is no better time to start looking ahead to our sport program for 2023. The IEPS sporting calendar officially kicked off on Friday February 10^th with the IEPS Swimming Try Outs at Fitzroy Swimming Pool. We were fortunate to have perfect swimming weather and all students displayed great competitive spirit and sportsmanship throughout the event. A big thank you to all the parents that assisted on the day.  

Looking ahead, swimming will be a big part of term 1 with District, Division, and Region swimming still to take place over the coming weeks. All the best to all swimmers involved! In addition, we have two District tournaments coming up for our year 6 students with a girls AFL Gala day (8/3) and a Boys and Girls soccer tournament (31/3) taking place later in this term.  

More broadly, House Captain nominations are currently open to our year 5’s and 6’s and we are looking forward to hearing some fantastic speeches from our Nominees on Tuesday February 28^th. House captains have a great opportunity to assist with both select sporting events and house specific events over the course of the year and we are excited to work with the captains to further bolster our House Spirit program.   

Finally, to ensure our sporting events run smoothly over the course of the year, please keep in mind it is imperative to be across both the information that goes out on Compass and in the Weekly Bulletin. Furthermore, it is paramount that consent is made for given sporting events on Compass at least one day prior to the event date at the very latest. Please keep an eye out for Compass reminders to give consent in the lead up to sporting events requiring consent, otherwise your child will not be able to participate.

Thank you.

We are looking forward to another successful year of sport at IEPS!  

Sport and Buses:  

Booking buses for sporting events has become more challenging since students returned to school in 2022 (mainly due to bus companies being short staffed). While we have managed to navigate these challenges effectively so far, we would like to inform you that we may encounter issues throughout the year. 

For example, it may be difficult to book a bus for a sporting event that starts at 9:30am, which may require some parents to drive small groups of students. To pro-actively address this issue, we have adjusted the schedules of most of our district sporting events to start later in the day. 

Furthermore, there is a possibility that buses may cancel at the last minute. While this occurred once last year, we were able to find an alternative solution. 

Finally, it is possible that bus companies will increase their prices during the year. We have had some bus companies reach out to inform us of price increases already. This will slightly increase the costs associated with sporting events that need bus transport. 

Despite these challenges, we will make every effort to ensure that we organise buses for sporting events and make it as convenient and hassle-free as possible for our students.  

However, we kindly ask that you maintain a flexible mindset if unforeseen circumstances arise.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. 

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.