The Dogs Connect Core Group has been established. The Core Group is: Fiona, Helen, Tina, AnneMaree, Karen B and Suzanne. We are working our way through the learning modules to ensure our school is ready for Sunny to commence safely.

All staff will participate in module training and students will be well prepared for his arrival. You will see from the attached PDF that our biggest challenge is to help Sunny feel relaxed at school.

The youtube clip below features Dogs Connect founder Grant Shannon and his Sonny – a mentor dog in the program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrVq2D-Io1E

The Dogs Connect program will support us in implementing this very gradually, thoroughly, and considerately. At this stage we encourage anyone who would like to know more about this program to look through the website link: https://dogsconnect.net.au

.

Attitudes to School Survey – AtoSS 2024

Students from Year 4 -6 have can participate in this online survey from 28^th May – 11^th June. It provides excellent feedback (good and bad) about how Winters Flat is performing in the opinion of our senior students. There is a letter for parents explaining the survey in more detail attached to this newsletter.

 .

SORRY DAY AND RECONCILIATION WEEK

Castlemaine schools’ Sorry Day gathering is at 10:00am this Friday 24^th May at the Western Oval. Students in Year 4-6 will attend. Our school captains will speak on behalf of Winters Flat. Parents are welcome to attend.

On Friday the 31st students in Year 5 and Year 6 are attending the Chewton Primary School Reconciliation Walk along Forest Creek to Me-Mandook Galk (the Grandmother Tree). Families are welcome to attend the community session - see flyer in Reconciliation Week section below.

On Monday 3^rd students in Year 3 and Year 4 are attending a session with Cath Coff at the Boorp Boorp Boondyil (passing knowledge to our children) exhibition at the Castlemaine Market building.  Boorp Boorp Boondyil is a name gifted to the project by local Dja Dja Wurrung senior Elder, Uncle Rick Nelson who was instrumental in the exhibition’s creation. It is pronounced ‘Boorp’ as in ‘torpedo’ and ‘Boondyil’ as in ‘book’.

.

REGIONAL CROSS COUNTRY

Following the Goldfields Division Cross Country on Friday 17^th May, we congratulate Atti who came 1st – 12 Boys. He will be running at St Arnaud next Tuesday and we hope he can continue his amazing winning streak.

.

VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers are welcome in every classroom as well as the Kitchen/Garden and specialist areas.

If you have the time and inclination, please let us know. Volunteers at school must have a Working with Children Check.

.

BIRTHDAYS

Tristan – last week

Abel – 12 next week

Kaelyn - 11 next week

Brodie - next week

Katie - next week

Melissa - next week

. 

Hip Hip: Hooray

Hip Hip: Hooray

Hooray: Hip Hip

 .

COVID SCHOOL PROCEDURES

Victoria is currently experiencing an increase in COVID-19 activity in the community, resulting in an increase in people being hospitalised with COVID-19.

We are hearing anecdotally that COVID is active in Castlemaine and have had families report cases.

High numbers of students have been absent due to illness in recent weeks. Please ensure your child does not come to school if symptomatic.

Schools will make sure your child is as safe as possible and will focus on:

• washing hands
• physical distancing
• rapid antigen testing
• Outdoors when practical
• Air purifiers indoors
• mask wearing – recommended but not mandatory

Free rapid antigen tests

Free rapid antigen tests are still available from the office.

Testing is strongly recommended for students and staff who are symptomatic.

After doing the tests at home, if it is positive, you are advised to:

• let the school know
• keep your child at home for 7 days
• contact the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

Suzanne Kinnersly
Principal.

Friday 24th May 

• Sorry Day Excursion - Years 4/5/6 - see XUNO

Friday 31st May

• Reconciliation Walk Excursion - Years 5/6 - see XUNO

Monday 3rd June

• Reconciliation Week Excursion - Years 3/4 - see XUNO

Monday 10th June

• Kings Birthday Public Holidy - no school

Saturday 22nd June

• Newsagent BBQ Stall

Thursday 27th June

• Pot Luck soup & Lantern Walk Family Evening

Friday 28th June

• Last day of Term 2

Monday 15th July

• First day of Term 3

Late arrival at school

When students are late to school, they MUST come to the office to sign in otherwise we don’t know that they have arrived at school and will be marked absent for the day.  This is a safety issue so please let your child know that they must come to the office sign in.

.

Year 6 to Year 7 Placement Information and Application Forms 

Year 7 placement forms for 2025 are now overdue. Please return these asap! If you have any queries, please contact the office. 

.

Prep uniform package for eligible students reminder

Please return forms for the uniform package to be processed.

Students eligible to receive the 2024 Prep Uniform Package must be a Camps, Sports and Excursion Fund (CSEF) recipient.

What’s in the package?
The 2024 Prep package contains the following items:

Outerwear x 1 pce (i.e., jacket / parka / puffer)
Tops x 2 pcs (i.e., windcheater / polo shirt / rugby top)
Pants x 2 pcs (i.e., track pants / leggings)
Socks x 2 packs
Pair of Shoes x 1
Please note:
a) PE items are not included as part of this package
b) Shoes must be requested in UK sizes (please see our shoe size conversion chart)

Cost to families
Where State Schools’ Relief is unable to provide a uniform item directly that contains a logo (due to contractual agreements with uniform retailers) the student will receive a voucher for $85 that subsidises the cost of these items. The voucher can be redeemed at Beleza our uniform shop situated in Barker Street, Castlemaine (Across the road from the Post office)Please note: vouchers do have an expiry date and must be used before this date.

.

Hats

Our requirements for when hats are to be worn have changed this year. Students are required to wear hats when outside at school on days when the UV index is 3 or above. You can check the predicted UV each day on our website, using the free SunSmart app – or download it to your phone!

.

Food

Please ensure that students have enough food for the day. During the colder months, we often see kids needing more food to get them through the day. We are experiencing many students seeking extra food at the moment, and, while we will never let students go hungry, we only have limited supplies of spare food.

.

Karen Mahoney & Kitty Ward 

Office

Mark these dates in your calendar!

BBQ Fundraiser - Saturday 22nd June

The Community Engagement Committee have booked a BBQ out the front of the newsagents on Mostyn St on the morning of the 22nd of June. We are also looking to run a cake stall and hopefully a raffle too. 

We will be putting the word out for donations of baked goods and raffle hamper items in the coming weeks.

Lantern Walk Family Evening - Thursday 27th June

The Community Engagement Committee are organising a family get together evening with a pot-luck soup dinner and a lantern walk down to the oval.

Children will be making lanterns in Art class with Bron and families are welcome to bring their own for other family members.

Our junior students studied the work of Australian artist, John Olsen, who had a fascination with frogs! We discussed his influences, analysed features of his work, and looked at some videos and images of frogs ourselves. We then created backgrounds with ink and drew our own Olsen-style frogs on top! 

Currently on display in the JLC. 

P/1J

• Hank - Care for Self
• Milly - Care for Others

.

P/1R

• Velvet - Care for Others
• Raphy - Care for Others

.

2/3H

• Harriet - Care for Self & Care for Others
• Hunter Care for Self & Care for Others & Care for the Environment

.

4/5/6C

• Pez - Care for Self & Care for Others
• Rex- Care for Self & Care for Others

.

4/5/6B

• Aurora - Care for Self
• Fran - Care for Self

.

This week in the Kitchen and Garden..........

.

What we're cooking in the kitchen this fortnight...

.

Kitchen volunteers:

We would love some kitchen helpers in our cooking classes!

They are held fortnightly on Mondays (even weeks - 4/5/6C), and every Wednesday (even weeks - 4/5/6B; odd weeks - 2/3H), between 11:25am & 1:25pm.

The Prep/1 classes will have a special cooking class each term.

P/1R's Term 2 cooking class is Monday May 27th.

Kitchen helpers for these classes would be particularly helpful - please let the office know if you'd like to volunteer!

What you can expect from a class:

Students work in groups to make seasonal dishes, using produce from our garden. Once a group finishes preparing their dish, they clean up their bench, do dishes, and set the tables. Around 1:00pm, we all sit down together and share the meal.

Volunteers will need to sign in via the visitors log in the office and show their WWCC. Please contact the office if you have any questions or would like to volunteer! 

.

In the Garden:

Cath & Terry
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden