As we celebrate Education Week, I would like to highlight the outstanding practices we are seeing in our classrooms and discuss a variety of events that have taken place this week. Schools are complex places and, despite everything that occurs in our schools each day, high-quality teaching and learning remains our absolute focus.

From Prep, our students are given the opportunity to learn in an environment that is highly structured, planned and organised. Each Friday at 9:30am, we run tours of the school with a particular focus on the Prep learning environment for our prospective students looking to begin school in 2023. On Tuesday night, our brilliant team of Prep teachers presented ‘A Day in Prep’ to our incoming families, brilliantly supported by our Student Captains, who spoke about their experiences at our school. Enrolment for 2023 is now open; please contact us via port.melbourne.ps@education.vic.gov.au for further information.

Our 8:45am ‘soft starts’ have been a great success for both focusing student learning and improving student wellbeing, engagement and attendance. With our classroom doors open from 8:45am, students can settle into their school day at their own pace and get their minds focused on learning as soon as they walk in the door. On Monday and Wednesday, many of you saw what that morning routine looks like. Whether our students started the day with a favourite book or tackled a maths challenge, I am proud knowing they are ‘ready to learn’ at 9:00am every day.

Feedback is important to us and on Thursday morning, our Assistant Principal, Katie Klajnblat, led a parent-forum as part of our upcoming School Review. We have held similar sessions with our students and our staff, with a focus on both what is going well in our school and where the areas for improvement are. There are two further opportunities for feedback:

A short online survey (link here).
Our upcoming Education Committee Meeting (from 6:00pm next Tuesday, link to Microsoft Teams Meeting here).

Whilst Katie was running this session, I was fortunate to meet with Premier, Dan Andrews, Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, James Merlino and Australian of the Year, Dylan Alcott. The event, held in our gymnasium, was to announce the Victorian Government’s new partnership with ‘Get Skilled Access’, a program that will build disability awareness among students and staff, creating more inclusive schools and a more inclusive Victorian Community. Our very own Sasha Carr was the star of the show too; be sure to check our socials for the highlights. At our school, we are proud to be leading the way as an inclusive school and will continue to explore how we improve our practices.

To conclude the week, we invited our Grandparents and Special Friends to visit our classrooms, as well as celebrating National Walk to School Day. After two years of limited opportunity to share our classroom practices with family, friends and the community, Grandparents and Special Friends Day was a treasured chance to show-off the high-quality learning environment we have built here. I enjoyed the opportunity to share morning tea with our visitors, hearing stories of how proud they were of our students, as well as a few stories of their own memories of school, a few years in the past now! Thank you to our visitors too from Port Melbourne Football Club, who ensured our students were well-nourished after their journey to school!

A brief reminder as I conclude a long article for this edition; next Friday 3rd June is a Curriculum Day. Team Kids are running a vacation-care program on the day for those who require the care.

Thank you for your ongoing support and keep doing your best.

Rohan.

STEM update

Michelle Sneddon