Latest Newsletter – 11 June 2020

Dear Team Bayview

It has been a highlight being able to welcome parents and visitors back onto the school grounds now we are in alert level 1. Welcome back!

One of the successes we had during the different alert levels was getting most people on Seesaw to engage their children with learning. As part of this we have received some great feedback from parents. Alongside this we have tried to gather your voice around moving forward as a school. We have received 251 responses from our last survey around school donations, camp and early finish times for Year 0/1. Within this some parents have asked some great questions which I will try to address here.

School Donation scheme

This year we opted into the school donation school offered by the government. This gives us $150 per student according to what our roll was on the 1st July the previous year. This money is to replace any school donation we asked for and any costs for school trips or activities that were based around the curriculum. Normally we received about 50% of our parents who pay a school donation and around 98% who pay for trips and activities. For 2020 we were due to benefit from this scheme but then Covid-19 hit and all trips and activities that we had planned were put on hold. We do not have a true indication of whether us opting into this scheme  is of benefit for us in normal circumstances as a result.

96.8% of parents have opted for us to resubscribe to this donation scheme. This is what will be taken to the Board of Trustees for a final decision as we must opt in or out on the 1st July.

Year 0/1 early pick up time

We have found that by having a staggered pick up time that it has reduced the pedestrian and traffic congestion a lot! We asked our parents of Year 0 / 1 if they would like to continue with an early pick up time and 65.2% of parents have said yes.

Some parents  said no as they have more than one child at the school and this would become difficult. As a result, if parents of Year 0/1 students would like to pick them up at 2.50pm they will be able to do so from outside the classroom. We can also arrange to have any other children meet at the youngest siblings class as well at 2.50pm. This is your decision to make. For parents who would like to continue with the 3pm pick up they will be able to do this as well (handy for the after school care children in particular). If you have a child in Year 0 or 1 your child's teacher will check with you as to what time you would like to do pick up.

Please note if there is no adult to pick a child up they will not be released from class until 3pm.

Camp 2021

Every second year we take our Year 5/6 students on an outdoor education camp. We find that camp is an excellent way for students to challenge themselves physically and emotionally. They get to live alongside their peers and really empathise with each other's differences and similarities. Often this is the first time many children spend away from their parents. Most students find this is the most memorable thing they do at primary school. Camp is voluntary.

We would normally have booked camp already but with Covid-19 we were interrupted! Now we are in the situation where we recognise that many parents may feel anxious about sending their child on camp.

Camp is every second year. We normally go for 4 days/3 nights. We tend to go to established camps and hire qualified instructors to run many of the activities for us. We take a ratio of 1 adult for every 4 children for health and safety reasons. All parent helpers are police checked. Our last camp cost $300 and this is not included in the government donation scheme so parents need to pay the cost of camp. The camp fee pays for the bus to and from camp, the cost of accommodation, meals, cost of professional instructors, and extra costs such as tea, coffee, milk etc for the parent helpers, prizes for activities and other miscellaneous costs. Children need to take with them bedding (normally a sleeping bag), clothing to get them through, toiletries such as toothbrush, towel, soap, etc. They sleep in bunk rooms with their peers, with boys and girls separated.

Due to the cost of camp we do offer a fundraising opportunity the year before camp so students can reduce their camp fee. This is normally chocolates as this is the product that has the highest uptake and thus makes the most money for the kids. We believe that children should help earn the camp fee as this is good financial literacy. We have had students in the past fully pay for their camp simply by selling chocolates! Please note this fundraising is totally voluntary and parents do not have to opt in to this. One of our parents has asked if we could sell Whittakers chocolates instead. (I prefer Whittakers as well) but they do not have the same $$$ return as our current supplier, we also have a long standing relationship with our supplier and he always gives us extra stock to sell which then becomes pure profit and which helps pay the costs for all our parent helpers (as we are charged for their food and accommodation as well).

89.1% of parents want us to proceed with booking a camp for 2021 and 66.3% would like us to proceed with a chocolate fundraiser. As a result we will proceed with booking a camp and I will do some more investigations around chocolates 🙂                                              

Di and Team Bayview Staff