Principal's Report

Olympic fever is certainly prevalent at Preston PS at present. Our children and teachers have been enjoying watching and discussing many of the events, especially those with Australians competing and winning. Sadly, with the time difference the events have already occurred however the children are still very interested. Our Australian athletes are doing a great job of representing our country. Go Aussies! 

Pupil Free Day 

On Monday August 12th we are having Pupil Free day. The staff will be undertaking professional learning relating to the new Curriculum 2.0 and a new data storage and reporting system we have recently purchased. The day will be a very busy one for staff. 

Please remember no children should attend school on the day unless they are booked into the OSHC program. 

WOW Days 

Last term we promoted WOW (Walk or Wheel to school) Days every Tuesday in conjunction with the Darebin Council. Every student who walked or wheeled to school received a mark on their grades tally sheet. 

At the completion of term 2 the grades with the largest number of students who walked or wheeled to school were PAB Mrs Murphy’s grade at the junior school and 5AD Ms Dart’s grade at the senior school. 

Both grades won a Golden Boot that they can display in their classrooms. They will also receive a pizza lunch for their grade. 

Due to the great response to WOW days we will continue to promote the benefits of walking or wheeling to school. In a few weeks we are having a new bike shed installed at the senior school. 

Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to our Athletics Carnival winners!  They will progress to the District Carnival being held on Monday 19 August.

New Windows 

During the term 2 holiday period the windows on the west side of the senior school building were replaced. The building has a heritage overlay which meant we had to replace the windows on a like for like basis, however we were permitted to replace them with aluminium which should last for many years to come. 

The old windows were rotting and many of them were unable to be opened due to many layers of paint which built up over the years. It will be nice when the warmer weather begins and we are able to open them and get some fresh air into the rooms. 

The new windows were paid for by the government under a maintenance program. As the other windows in the building were not identified we will have to use school funds to replace them. We are currently sourcing quotes to replace them.

Preps 2025 

We have recently sent out first round offers to the families for whom we are the closest school and the families who already have a child enrolled at Preston to confirm that their prep child will be attending in 2025. 

If you have a child who will be starting school in 2025 and you have not enrolled them, please do so as soon as possible.

Parent Opinion Surveys 

Last week we sent home Parent Opinion Surveys to 250 of our school families. Families have been chosen using a random sampling option in our school’s student data package. 

If your family receives a survey and you haven’t completed it, it would be greatly appreciated if you could do it. Thank you to the families who have already completed it. 

School Council 

On Monday August 19th we will be holding our next School Council meeting. At previous meetings we have been discussing how we could spend some of our money that we currently have. If you have any suggestion please forward them to me at janet.paterson@education.vic.gov.au or to our School Council President Ali Harvey at harvey.ali@gmail.com. You could also discuss your ideas with any of our School Council members that you know. We look forward to hearing your suggestions. 

Regards 

Janet Paterson

Principal