School preparedness and pre-emptive actions for the bushfire season

Fire danger ratings indicate how dangerous a fire would be if one started in those conditions and provide clear direction on the safest options for preserving life. They can be a trigger for action in community and for school and household level fire plans.

Schools and children’s services listed on the Department of Education and Training’s Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR) and those at some lower risk of bushfire or grassfire on the Category 4 list will be closed when a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast in their Bureau of Meteorology district. 

Schools and early childhood services listed on the Department of Education and Training’s Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR) and those at lower risk of bushfire or grassfire on the Category 4 list take pre-emptive actions on elevated fire danger days to minimise the risk of being caught in a fire in these conditions. The category of risk (per the BARR or Category 4 list) determines the actions that the school or early childhood service will need to take on days of elevated fire danger.

Our school has been identified as being one of these schools at high bushfire or grassfire risk, and is listed on the Bushfire at Risk Register (BARR) / a category 3 school.

Our school will close on a day forecasted as Catastrophic fire danger rating in North Central – Murrindindi fire district.

The department will advise our school of the potential for a Catastrophic fire danger rating as information becomes available, however the pre-emptive closure will be confirmed by 1pm the day prior to Catastrophic fire danger day. 

Fire danger ratings are forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology up to four days in advance. Should a Catastrophic day be forecast, we will notify you of the potential closure by an email or hard copy letter and Compass Push Notification.  Closure of the school due to a forecast Catastrophic day will be confirmed on the day prior and we will provide you with advice before the end of the school day.

Once confirmed, the decision to close will not change, regardless of improvements in the weather forecast.  This is to avoid confusion and help your family plan alternative care arrangements for your child.  It is also important to note that:

1. No staff will be on site on days where the school is closed due to a forecast Catastrophic day.
2. Out-of-school-hours care will also be cancelled on these days.
3. School camps will be cancelled if a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast for the Bureau of Meteorology district in which the camp is located, or if the travel involves passing through areas that have Catastrophic fire danger.
4. All bus routes that travel through the Catastrophic area will be cancelled.
5. Depending on which fire weather district is impacted, bus route cancellations may affect our school.

Families are encouraged to enact their Bushfire Survival Plan on Catastrophic fire danger rating days. On such days, children should never be left at home alone or in the care of older children.

For those of us living in a bushfire prone area, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) advises that when Catastrophic days are forecast, the safest option is to leave the night before or early on the morning of the Catastrophic day.

As part of preparing our school for potential hazards such as fire, we have updated and completed our Emergency Management Plan and i.e. reprioritised any maintenance works that may assist in preparing for the threat of fire and cleared our facility’s grounds and gutters].

What can parents do?

1. Make sure your family’s bushfire survival plan is up-to-date and includes alternative care arrangements in the event that our school is relocated / undertaking remote and flexible learning and/or closed due to elevated fire danger or a Catastrophic fire forecast. Further information can be found on the CFA’s website.
2. Ensure we have your current contact details, including your mobile phone numbers.  Keep in touch with us by reading our newsletters, by talking to your child’s teacher or any other member of the teaching staff about our emergency management plan.
3. Most importantly at this time of year, if you’re planning a holiday or short stay in the bush or in a coastal area, you should check warnings in advance of travel and remain vigilant during your stay.
4. If your child is old enough, talk to them about bushfires and your family’s Bushfire Survival Plan.
5. You can access current information about school and early childhood services closures, including those due to elevated fire danger, on the Department of Education and Training’s website – see

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/health/pages/closures.aspx

Multiple sources that offer information on emergencies are listed below:

1. VicEmergency app – that can be downloaded on your android and iOS mobile devices
2. VicEmergency Hotline (1800 226 226)
3. Website https://emergency.vic.gov.au
4. Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/vicemergency)
5. Twitter (https://twitter.com/vicemergency)
6. ABC local radio, Sky News and other emergency broadcasters

Grade Placement and Parent Requests

As outlined in our newsletter many weeks ago, parents had the opportunity to provide in writing grade placement requests for 2025 and these were due no later than the end of last term. We subscribe to an online tool called ‘Class Creator’ – this software generates classes, balanced by class size, gender, behaviour, special needs and academic abilities, all the while taking into account recommended student separations, pairings, friendships, student sociograms, social dynamics and parent requests. This software saves many, MANY hours and days of work for staff.

At this stage, we have not assigned teachers to grade levels for next year. There are no guarantees that teachers currently teaching at certain grade levels will be teaching there next year, as leadership needs to take into consideration a range of factors including the development of our teaching staff and teacher preferences before this allocation is completed.

There is no place to request a particular teacher by name, NOR to request your child does not have a particular teacher. Selecting a particular teacher does not fit within the realm of special circumstances.

At this stage staff have worked through these lists and ensured they are all balanced. The leadership team will finalise these over the coming weeks. Once our grades are finalised there is no negotiation and no changes will be made unless there has been an error in our process. Any changes made after we have finalised grades triggers a great number of issues- and the hard truth about accommodating all requests is that helping one, often comes at the expense of someone else’s child.

Remembrance Day – Monday 11^th November

Remembrance Day in Australia is dedicated to Australians who died as a result of war, particularly from World War I onwards. A minute of silence is dedicated to the deceased, especially for soldiers who died fighting to protect the nation.

On Monday the 11^th all students, staff and visitors will honour the people who died in wars to protect our ancestors and us. We respect people who fought in battles such as Waterloo or Gallipoli. The one-minute silence is our way to show we respect them.

Professional Practice Day – Student Free Reminder Monday December 2^nd

Monday December 2^nd all staff will be knee deep in moderating our students work – Moderation is the key to consistent teacher judgements.

Our teachers are currently assessing student learning growth and achievement to inform their Semester Two reports.

Those who don’t teach or know/live with a teacher, often wonder what teachers use their time for outside of ‘face-to-face’ teaching. We spend a great deal of time planning, preparing lessons, doing professional learning and currently, our teachers are working hard to ensure accurate and consistent judgment of student achievement for their end of year reports. All teachers are attending several ‘moderation’ sessions in their own teams and across level teams.

Student learning achievement is not always clear cut. Students may be strong at one skill, such as developing their writing ideas, but be a weaker speller and inconsistent at punctuating their writing. Another child may be a strong speller, but play it safe and use basic words, rather than experiment with interesting and engaging nouns, verbs and adjectives. Some students write pages and pages of writing without revisions or editing, making it hard to follow and another student may write much less but write high-quality, engaging sentences. Reaching agreement in what constitutes achievement at each progression point can be highly subjective. Moderation tries to ensure we are as consistent and accurate as possible in the assessment of student work against the expectations outlined in the Standards. This moderation work is also valuable in that it helps teachers deeply understand each child’s strengths and areas for growth, as well as more thoroughly understand the Victorian Curriculum.

If your child requires care on this day, please book in asap at https://theircare.com.au

Semester Two Reports will be made available to parents on Thursday 19^th December via Compass.

Online Safety Basics – REMINDER

We live in a world where children have and use devices daily. There is now a tremendous amount of research available on the effects of online addiction and this starts when children are very young. It is important to set parameters and rules around their use when at home. Often, as teachers, we confront issues at school which have spilled over from home when children are online. Some excellent advice from the safety commissioner

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/online-safety-basics

Set some rules

• Set age-appropriate rules for devices and online access, with consequences for breaking them.
• Seek your child’s input — this will help them understand risks. As they get older you can review your rules. 
• Consider creating a family online safety contract as a way to help you agree on the rules, and renegotiate it as required. 
• The contract could cover the type of websites that can be visited, time spent online and acceptable online behaviour. This example from ThinkUKnow Australia can be a good starting point.
• The consequences for breaking the rules should be clear and should mean something to your child. Raising Children Network has some useful tips and advice.
• Consider making some ‘rules for parents’ too — and stick to them! Model behaviour that you would like to see.