Dear families,

This week we welcomed the parents of our 2026 Preps to school for an information night. It’s a highlight of my school calendar and it’s always great to see new friendships forming over a shared milestone.

This week, we welcomed Mrs Nicole Grech, mum of Evie, to our staff. Nicole will be working alongside Mrs Richards in the coming weeks as she prepares to take over the rings as our Auslan teacher.

Our SAC welcomed Daniela Ciciulla, mum of Leo, as our new Chair this week. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.

Our Year 3/4s head off to Camp this Monday and Tuesday. There has been lots of excitement and some understandable nerves leading up to the event. A huge thank you to the teachers who have spent countless hours preparing for the event and to our committed staff who will attend.  The year level and their teachers and support staff will certainly deserve the Wednesday to recuperate. 

I am thrilled to present images of our brand-new Ninja playground, which will be installed early in 2026. Our wonderful friends at Emmanuel College have once again come to our aid and will help keep costs down by providing the edging and softfall for the project.

There is, however, some good and bad news for our Junior students, in light of this new addition. The bad news is that the Ninja course is for students in Years 3-6. The good news is that, with some advice from our playground specialist, we have determined that the current senior playground is suitable for Junior students. Therefore, once the Ninja playground is ready, our Juniors will also have a ‘new’ playground for themselves.

And our current Year 6s?  Don’t worry, we will arrange an after-school gathering in Term 1 next year so you can enjoy something your family has contributed towards.

We envisage that all of our current funds, along with fundraising efforts for most of next year, will contribute towards its cost. Therefore, we encourage families to keep up their amazing efforts, especially for our fun run, as the sooner our ninja course is paid off, the faster we can redistribute funds to other great causes for our school.

I will be on leave for the next three weeks. I leave our beautiful school in Mr Hein’s capable hands.

Looking forward to an incredible last month of the year upon my return!

Until then,

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Dear Families,

This week's community news we have some information about the Altona Gators and Church Bulletin.

Have a nice weekend Altona Gators- 8 week Program for Term 4.

Church Bulletin

 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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WEAR a SPLASH of RED on Friday the 31st of October to show your support for highlighting the importance of Child Safety.

We will be learning about the importance of safety in our classes and highlighting some of the following message. 

We ask that you reinforce these with your children.

• We have rules to protect us, our homes, our friends and our community. 
• When playing sports, visiting friends or going to the beach or shops, it's important to remember personal safety. Remember to tell someone, where you are going, who you are with & more
• Be alert for the clues that warn us when something is unsafe. These clues can be as simple as smelling smoke which warns us there is a fire or a lock down alarm at school
• If you feel scared, confused, sad or upset you need to REACT. This could even mean breaking a rule, like smashing a window to escape a fire or screaming “NO” to an adult.
• Tell an adult in your life who cares about your safety when there is a problem. It’s adults who can keep you safe from harm and who can make a situation safe again for you.
• Most children and teenagers have or will soon have access to social media and staying safe online has never been more important

Remember also to remind your children/teenagers that they can access the Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800 if they need an extra helping hand.

Regards
Marg Masseni
Mental Health & Wellbeing Leader 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Recently, the school has been advised by Operoo, that they will not be operating in Australia as of January 2026.

Therefore as a school we will be preparing to transition away from the Operoo platform during term 4 2025, so that we are ready to start the school year in 2026 on the nForma platform. 

There are new features in the nForma platform that allow us to move to one platform for many functions including excursion permissions, student medical details and first aid, currently on Operoo, as well as Reporting and attendance, which we currently utilise.

The first step for our school is to support you to ensure you have access to the nForma Parent Portal, then check the medical section and update as required, which we are told, will link to the first aid and permission section for excursion and camp.

We have sent an email from the nForma package to all parents, so that you are aware of the email account registered with the package via the school office system. In the interim, you can :

1. DOWNLOAD THE APP

Go to App store (Apple) or Play Store (Android) and download the nForma for parents. 

2. LOG IN using the username and password you used for accessing student reports in semester 1. 

Alternatively, choose ‘forgot password’ using the email address you registered with the office for fee statements, and set a password once the reset email arrives.

3. If you do not receive a reset email or get a message that the email address does not exist in the package, contact Tony Freeman or Kristy Talty, who can check which email address you have registered for the nForma package.

If you have issues with this process, do not hesitate to contact the school to get this process underway.

Regards
Tony Freeman
IT Leader

 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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Our next Fun Run prize event will be a Class Pizza Party! Every class that has raised $1000 or more by the end of next week will go into the draw to win a CLASS PIZZA PARTY!
Help your class for the chance to win. Every class that has raised $1000 or more by Monday 10th November, will go into the draw to win a CLASS PIZZA PARTY!

Help your class for the chance to win. 

We will announce the winner at Assembly. 

 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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Term 4 has kicked off brilliantly, and as the weather begins to warm up, students can look forward to cooling down with a refreshing icy pole. Our senior student leaders will be selling icy poles for $1 each lunchtime from Monday to Thursday. 

 

All proceeds will go towards supporting the development of our exciting new ninja playground.

Please note our canteen will operate as usual on Fridays.

Thank you for your support in helping us make this fundraiser a success and for giving our students a fun way to stay cool this term!

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

 

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We are still collecting eligible containers to raise money for our enviromental projects. 

How can you help?

There are two simple ways to support our school through the scheme:

Option 1: Donate Your Refund at Collection Points

• When you visit a CDS Vic return point, you’ll be asked if you want to donate your refund.
  
  
• Simply download the app and enter our donation code or search for our school name on the app.
  
  
• All your refunds will be transferred directly to our school account!
  
  

Our donation code is: C2000063591

You can find your nearest return point at: https://cdsvic.org.au/locations 

Option 2: Send Eligible Containers to School

• We will be setting up a collection bin at school next to 3/4W so students and families can bring in eligible containers.
  
  
• Please make sure containers are:
  
  
• Empty and not crushed
  
  
• Have the 10c eligible label
  
  
• Not broken or overly dirty
  
  

We’ll return them in bulk, and the refunds will go straight to our school for our ‘Recycle and Grow’ fundraiser. All funds raised through container deposits will go directly towards keeping our outdoor environment thriving.

Thank you for supporting our school and the environment. Let’s turn trash into treasure and make this initiative a big success!

 

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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We have been contacted by Nicole Bryson, Events coordinator and My Time facilitator, who has let us know about an exciting initiative in our local area. MyTime is a place to socialise, to discuss, to get information, and to support and be supported by other parents and carers. It’s a world away from appointments and therapy.

Members get to plan the group sessions around their specific needs as carers. You might choose to have a guest speaker, do self-care or craft activities, or just relax with a coffee and talk with people who understand.
Preschool-age children are welcome to attend. A play leader will be on hand to engage children in play.

Click here to find out more about the Term 4 meetings.
For further information contact Nicole Bryson - nicoleb@dsav.asn.au

Regards
Marg Masseni
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

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Respect • Responsibility • Resilience • Courage

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This is a another friendly reminder to please return any money collected from chocolate sales, along with any unsold chocolates, to the front office.

The office will be ticking family names off on their return.

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