Principal's Report

School Review Summary

Many of the school newsletters over the last two terms have referenced our School Review. This is a significant event for a school – our performance and data is reviewed, new targets and goals are set, so that we can draft our next four-year Strategic Plan.

The School Review Report is available to view on our website, however you can read a summary of the key findings in the document attached below, which includes a brief description of our achievements and future work in the areas of Learning, Wellbeing and Community.

Our new School Strategic Plan has been endorsed by School Council. It will be published on our website once endorsed by the Department of Education and Training.

How does the school communicate to parents?

One of the discussion points in the parent forum of the School Review, was about the communication between the school and parents.

An area that we generally score lower in (on our Parent Opinion Survey) is the question of “Is there effective and regular two-way communication between teachers and parents?”.

We have our formal, scheduled communications; Semester Reports, Semester Parent Teacher Interviews, fortnightly newsletters (including a year level spotlight for every year level/specialist subject per term), termly Individual Education Plans (for relevant students), and termly Home Learning Statements.

Beyond the school-driven scheduled communications, parents are welcome to contact their teacher at any time, by email via the school office. 

As the member of staff on yard duty at the start and end of the day, I see teachers talking to parents from 8.45am and 3.30pm daily. There are also numerous phone calls that teachers make during the day to families for various reasons. By the very nature of any school, the uniqueness of each child means that there are some families that teachers contact more than others.

I am often questioned about what we can do for parents who don’t often get the opportunity to get to school to talk to the teacher (I am certainly in this bracket as a parent!). The reality is that teachers, the same as all of us, have a finite amount of time during their working day, and their priority is devoting their time to the planning and delivering of their teaching program. Finding more time for teachers to communicate with parents would be at the expense of them giving time to work related to their students’ learning. In short, whilst we see the benefits that having additional communication between teachers and families, finding the time is not an easy task.

I am always open to hearing parents’ feedback. Last week’s Principal Morning Tea was a great example of this; with questions and topics discussed that I hadn’t previously considered, and which have given me something to think about!

Foundation 2023 Orientation

We have run the first two of our five Foundation Orientation sessions, as well as the current Foundation Team holding a parent information session. Our new students took to school incredibly well and enjoyed getting to know their future friends, some of our teachers, and the buildings and playground. 

We were able to provide a morning tea on the first day of Orientation, enabling parents to start getting to know each other. Thank you to parent volunteers, Nicole Vander Linden and Ella Holcombe, and our librarian Paula Stafford, for assisting with the morning tea, and with the selling of second-hand uniform.

Tanks to Toilets

We are pleased to announce that our ‘Tanks to Toilets’ system is now in use. The student and staff toilets are now serviced by recycled water, collected from the roofs of our heritage building and the Fairfield Road building. The tanks have the capacity to hold 40,000 litres of water and are already ¾ full following the recent heavy rains.

This project was paid for through fundraising money and was coordinated by our Buildings and Grounds Committee.

Library Fund & Building Fund

We are also excited to share with you how we have been spending your library fund contributions and building fund donations.

Library Funds

We continue to increase our book stock in the library and have recently purchased $10,000 worth of books (from a budget of $20,000). You can read more about the library in this newsletter. We are also pleased to share that we have used these funds to purchase a new library cataloguing and borrowing system. We currently use Bookmark as our library system, which has limited functionality. From next year, we will be using Accessit– a library management system – which will enhance the library experience for everyone.

Building Funds

We have been making good use of building fund donations over the past few months. Most notably, the final stage of fence upgrade was completed. Our fence replacement works started in 2018, and we have completed six stages on LSC, plus a gate upgrade on WSC. This works has included the installation of a new gate next to our new pedestrian crossing, a new single gate next to the Fig Tree Courtyard, and new gates and fences next to the Year 1 building along Langridge Street. 

The alteration to the gate on WSC has worked well, reducing the amount of congestion on Wingrove St at the start of the school day.

I am grateful for all the parent contributions that have enabled this work to take place, adding to the appeal and comfort of our outdoor space. A special mention to parent, Damian Cullen, for his coordination of this work throughout the last four years.

Our next project is to increase the safety of the sliding gate on Langridge Street – a project which the Buildings and Grounds Committee are currently working on.

Working Bee Thanks

Thanks to the work of parent volunteers on Sunday. Our school grounds are looking fantastic, and all set to go for our Art4All event. Thank you to everyone who was able to help and thank you to our Buildings and Grounds Committee for their coordination.

2023 Class Planning

We are in the process of finalising our workforce for next year. During the next two weeks, we will be collating all our information to start creating 2023 class lists. We will be continuing with straight year level classes next year, and in the next newsletter (published 22 November) we will communicate how many classes we will have in each year level. In Week 10’s newsletter (published 6 December) we will confirm which teachers will be teaching what year levels, with students meeting their new teachers and classmates on Friday 16th December.

We are excited to inform you that our school has received funding to continue the Tutor Learning Initiative next year. We have also been allocated funding to employ a staff member for the Mental Health in Primary Schools initiative. This is all very exciting, and we look forward to sharing more details before the end of the year.

Art4All – The Countdown

Things are revving up as we reach the countdown for Art4All. Catch up with what’s happening and how you can help by reading the Art4All updates. 

It is sure to be a memorable event, and I look forward to seeing you over the weekend.

~ Paul Wallace, Principal