School commences on Thursday January 30th for all students.

Students start the day in their classes at 9.00am and are dismissed at 3.30pm. All students should be at school by 8.45am in order to allow them time to unpack their bags and get themselves organized for the school day.

The school office is staffed from 8.30am until 4.00pm on school days.

• Term 1 … January 30th to March 27th
• Term 2 …. April 14th to June 26th
• Term 3 … July 13th to September 18th
• Term 4 … October 5th to December 18th

* Please note that the last day of each term the children are dismissed at 2.30pm.

Student lost property is located in the sick bay in the administration area of the school. All misplaced clothing is stored in a large wooden box. Parents and students can access lost property at any stage to try to locate their lost items.

To assist with items being returned when misplaced, we encourage all clothing and containers be labelled with your child’s first and last names.

Dana Street Primary School is a Sun Smart school and requires all students to wear an approved broad-brimmed hat from September 1st to April 30th. Students without hats will not be able to take part in any activity in the sun including physical education and sports lessons. Hats can be purchased at the Beleza Uniform Store in Doveton Street, Ballarat. Sunscreen is also available in classrooms during this time for students to apply themselves if required.

Whole school assemblies are held every Friday in the Spielvogel Learning Centre ( building on Dawson Street side of the school ). Our school assemblies are led by our Grade 6 student leaders and include Student of the Week, School Values Award, Positive Behaviours Acknowledgements, announcements, celebrations and Show Case. All assemblies begin with our National Anthem and conclude with our school song Good Old Dana. Parents, families and other community members are welcome to attend these assemblies.

Before and after school care is provided through the City of Ballarat and the YMCA. Students are dropped off at a designated local primary school before school by their parents and then travel by mini bus to Dana Street by 9.00am by a YMCA staff member. Students attending after school care are collected by a YMCA staff member and travel back to the designated primary school. Call 53 292 800 for more information.

Kelly Sports is a private sports company that runs a Tuesday night after school sports program from 3.30pm-4.30pm at Dana Street Primary School. Information packs are available at the front office for parents wanting further details.

Please refer to our 2018 homework policy.

Demonstrate a positive, interested attitude towards your child’s school. Monitor your child’s television, video games and internet use. Talk to your child – talking and listening play a major role in your child’s success at school. Encourage your child to use the Ballarat libraries. Encourage your child to be responsible and work independently. Taking responsibility and working independently are important qualities for life not just school.

Background:

• Head lice (pediculosis) are tiny insects that live on the human scalp where they feed and breed. While they do not carry or transmit disease, they are a cause of head itch and scratching, which may lead to infection and swollen lymph glands; therefore, they need to be controlled.
• Anyone can catch head lice. Head lice cannot fly, hop or jump. They spread from person to person by head to head contact.

Rationale:

• To respond to reports of head lice quickly and effectively.
• To ensure that parents and guardians are well informed about head lice treatment.

Implementation:

• While it is parents who have the primary responsibility for the detection and treatment of head lice on their children, the school will assist by offering up-to-date information on the treatment of head lice and by alerting parents of head lice when detected.
• The school will ask parents to sign a permission form allowing their child to be checked thoroughly for head lice if a teacher suspects their child has head lice. An appropriately trained staff member will undertake this task.
• Consistent with Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations, the school will ensure that the parents of any child found to have live lice are informed that their child is to be excluded from attending school until appropriate treatment has commenced.
• The school will also provide parents of children found to have live head lice with information about head lice treatment and prevention.
• Parents may only return their child to school when appropriate treatment is applied.

The school will ensure that information relating to the prevention and eradication of head lice appears throughout the year in the school newsletter, particularly at times of heavy outbreaks.

Our school is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all students. All students have the right to feel safe and well, and know that they will be attended to with due care when in need of first aid.

The Department of Education, Victoria policy states that staff must observe their duty of care to students by providing first aid treatment within the limits of their skill, expertise, training and responsibilities.

To this end:

• the school has a sufficient number of staff trained in First Aid Level 2
• the school has a designated First Aid room that is resourced in accordance with Department policy
• action plans are developed for students with particular severe medical conditions ( e.g. anaphylaxis, asthma, etc. )
• staff members are regularly reminded they should only provide first aid within the limits of their competency and skills and in accordance with their training.

If your child is away from school you must contact the office on tel. 53 321 301 and let the school know. It is Education Department policy that a written note be provided by parents/guardians with the dates and reason(s) for their child’s absence

Being located in the Ballarat central business district parking around our school can often be problematic.We encourage our parents to follow all parking rules ( e.g. no double parking or blocking other cars ) to ensure the safety of all our students. The staff car park is a private carpark and for staff only.

* There is free 2 hour parking across the road at the Central Square carpark.

In 2011 our school commenced what has become a highly successful school-based netbook computer leasing scheme for students in Grades 3 to 6. This has involved parents being able to lease a netbook computer through the school over a number of years and purchase the netbook at the end of the lease period ( the school offers a number of lease payment options ).

The school has a preferred supplier and orders the same model of netbook for each child in every leasing round. This is done so that our teachers and students are working from the same digital platform. It also enables our technician to deal more effectively with issues such as networking.

All netbooks are leased so that Department of Education licensed software may be installed. It is illegal to install this software on privately owned computers, thus students are not to bring their own devices to school or ex school-leased netbooks.

All netbooks are regularly recalled for scheduled maintenance by our technician during the lease period. Also, at the conclusion of the lease period parents may wish to purchase their netbook outright. Our technician is required to remove all Department of Education owned software before netbooks are given back to students permanently.