Principal's Report

As the end of the year approaches, the final newsletter of the year presents an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on a hugely positive year. Our first year of on-site schooling has enabled not only continuity of learning but seen all of our regular events back up and running. Academically, our strategic review presented a platform to celebrate some outstanding achievements by our students, summarised by our School Council on the opening page. Wellbeing-wise, we were able to present many opportunities for re-connection, have introduced many curriculum initiatives, initiated a psychologist on site to support students and families post-pandemic and enabled critical social and emotional development through the reinstating of buddies, camps and intra-school events. And our community has again been able to be fully immersed in school life, in classes, as parent helpers, as guest speakers, at events, and perhaps most importantly, just by being on school grounds again. A huge thanks go to all of our staff who do an outstanding job day in, day out and are a critical factor in our school’s success. I am enormously grateful to you, our community, for your formal and informal involvement throughout the year in your child’s education and our school’s 2022 story.

I wish you all a safe and fabulous holiday and hope your family enjoy creating many special memories together.

CONGRATULATIONS YEAR 6

Congratulations to every one of our graduating Grade 6 students. We congratulate you on completing seven years of primary schooling that encompassed almost every possible experience, which you navigated successfully and can now look forward to a hugely successful transition to and time at secondary school. We hope your connection to our school remains strong and we look forward to seeing you return in future years and keeping up to date with your successes. Here’s to a fantastic final week or so full of many memories to cherish. 

Congratulations to: Jack, Harvey, Ted, Tom Bea, Tom Ben, Izabella, Anthony, Axel, Oli C, Ashton, James D, Miles, Sam G, Jenson, Dilara, Tim, Xavier E, Charlie, Olivia, Jack, Sienna, Ella, Ruby, Charlotte, Alexandro, James W, Mia, Jack, Alexander, Oliver B, Harry B-F, Mans, Eva, Hamish D, Hunter, Ernie, Xavier M, Sebastian, Neha, Lucy, Katelyn, Darcey, Phoebe, Finlay, Harry M, Stevie, Sasha, Zoe, Joseph, Aria, Jack T, Paige, Eva, Nathan, Lola, Aloysius, Hannah, Alice, Ruby, Morgan, Thomas J, Lilian, Thomas E, Mollie, Alice, Maxwell, Sukuan, Lachlan, Ben M, Emily, Blake, Ingrid, Sam N, Riva, Edward, Will R, Jack, Fergus, Bianca, George, Teddy, Hamish W

IMPORTANT END-OF-YEAR INFORMATION

CAROLS: This exciting event takes place on Thursday 15th of December at 6:00pm. Please be aware that no rugs, chairs, etc. are to be set up prior to 3:45pm on the day as the netball courts are used during the day and for dismissal. We look forward to seeing you all there. 

FRIDAY 16TH DECEMBER: Please be reminded that this will be the day when any final day events occur, including the end of year assembly. It is a full day of school.

MONDAY 19TH DECEMBER: This is a Curriculum Day. Team Kids are running a program that can be booked on their website. 

TUESDAY 20TH DECEMBER: On this day we understand many students will not be in attendance. If families wish to keep students home, it will be noted as an approved absence given the timing of the day, the early finish (1:30pm) and the day having less rigor due to the number of absences there will be.

CAMPS 2023

As we wish our campers in Grade 3 a fantastic trip away, we are busily planning our camps program for 2023. As you may have heard in the media, there have been significant changes that are making this planning complicated. The newest Victorian Government Schools Agreement requires schools to provide hour-for-hour Time in Lieu (TIL) for any activities that occur outside of the 38 hour week. This pertains to all school events, however camps present the most challenging scenario with teachers accruing significant hours of TIL. Whilst we fully support this initiative, it comes without any funding or resourcing, meaning schools are left to try and cover the replacement teacher costs. School Council, teaching staff and Leadership all strongly support camps and would like to see them remain in their current form, or as close to as possible, for 2023 and beyond. We are currently of the belief that we will be able to fund all camps to go ahead, with some minor adjustments that will not compromise the benefits of the camps for students. This is a significant financial investment by the school, and we are hopeful that for future years there may be support provided at a state level to enable camps to run at full capacity in all schools. Further information will be coming confirming the durations of each camp shortly. 

STAFFING 2023

As written to earlier, our school is only as good as the staff and teachers that work in it. Recruitment and staffing for 2023 is therefore a critical process to invest time into, which we have over the past months. New teachers have been appointed as a result of some staff moving on and an additional class, additional investment in tutoring from the school and another specialist class (STEAM). Through advertising and hiring early we were able to select from a very large number of high-quality applicants. 

We welcome Mr Stephen Young, an experienced teacher in STEAM and Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program from Southmoor Primary School. Stephen will initiate and run the STEAM program at HPS for all students. In our classrooms we welcome Ms Mikayla Turner, Ms Maria Oanca and Mr John Ensabella, each of whom come with outstanding references and high-quality experience.

Outgoing are Emmanuel Le and Anne Somerville. Emmanuel is moving to work in Oakleigh where his wife currently works to enable a more cohesive home-life environment. Emmanuel has contributed significantly in Grade 3 this year and Grade 2 previously and we thank him for the support and care he has provided students and staff. We also thank Anne Somerville for her service. Anne joined us this year and whilst enjoying her time at Hampton, has been employed at a school much closer to home to reduce her daily two-hour commute.

KISS N GO REMINDER

Thank you in supporting the changes to the Kiss and Go process. Using the gate closest to Hampton Street (Gate 2) has resulted in much better traffic flow, easier stopping and collecting, and easier passage for pedestrians out of Gate 3. We will stick with this process going forward.

STUDENT TRANSITION

Transition sessions continue with students meeting their teachers and classes next Tuesday 13th December. We understand that this is both an exciting time and one that brings apprehension for some. Considerable time, energy and expertise goes into planning classes that will be successful in 2023 and I’m confident that the teams and groups we are assembling/have assembled will reflect this. Average class sizes across the school will sit at 21, with 27 grades up on this year’s 26. We have also hired a new specialist teacher to teach STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) across Foundation – Grade 6, who brings substantial experience and passion to the role which we are very excited about.

CELEBRATING THE ARTS

Congratulations to all students that participated in the Soiree and Choreography Competition over the past fortnight. Both were brilliant showcases of our students’ creativity and commitment to the arts. Thank you to Traci for coordinating two wonderful events and to all others that supported throughout the events. They are very much a highlight of the year. 

CONGRATULATIONS

A huge congratulations to Silla G who swam in the Bayside Long Course event at MSAC recently. Please see the Specialist page for details on her amazing performance!

New & Important Dates

• 13th December – Final Transition / State-wide Transition Day
• 16th December – Final Assembly (2:50pm)
• 20th December – Half Day: low attendance expected
• 30th January – First day of school for students 2023

To stay up to date with all events and key dates, see the Compass Calendar. 

Reminders

• All books should be returned to the library this week.