Leadership Report

We have made it to the end of Week 4. I think after the incredible events that have taken place this week, we are letting all the students have Monday off. In case the Department of Education is reading these high calibre leadership reports, this is not the truth and we have our Term 3 Curriculum Day scheduled where all of our teachers will be working with Associate Professor Brian Poncy from Oklahoma State University. He is most well-known for his papers on best practices of Mathematics as well as his co-written book called Effective Math Interventions: A Guide to Improving Whole-Number Knowledge.  So before you rest and prepare for your weekend, here is a quick update on all of our celebrations this week. 

Graeme – Acting Assistant Principal for Term 3

Graeme will be the Acting Assistant Principal for the rest of Term 3. Graeme has been instrumental in supporting our Team Leaders in the implementation of our planning and instructional models over the last two years as well as leading the implementation of our numeracy program. While our parent community may know him as the ICT guy or the person to help us with our SENTRAL needs, his impact on our school, its programs and the development of our Bilingual program has been instrumental. 

Newlands Primary School Wellbeing Principles, Processes and Procedures teaser page was missing last week. While I was expecting of influx of families to ask where it was, I only had one. I asked what they wanted to see next and they asked about our School Values. So here is some information about our School Values.

Foundation

With Maths being the talk of the week, I led my first Daily Review in Numeracy with Colleen’s Foundation class. I am glad to say that all the students came out injury free and gave me the two thumbs up. The Foundation students were so quick to answer a range of questions on counting up, back, counting by 10s, subitising numbers to 10, ordering numbers to a 100, simple addition and subtraction sums and using this knowledge to answer questions about bar graphs. A big thank you to Koa for supporting me and giving Graeme and I timely and accurate feedback on how we can make it better next time.

1/2

I sat with Ramona, Isabel and Holly during their Mathematics session today. They were learning about Multiplication and using arrays. Not only were the explanations excellent, but the colouring in was exemplary. I apologise to Kaya as all the students bombarded me asking to be in the newsletter. So here is the photo as promised.

3/4

Our first group of 3/4s went to the Merri Creek as a part of the Nature Orienteering Excursion. During the day the students were involved in education activities including exploring old tree hollows, following animal trails, nature quiz questions and learning about snake safety as well as a range of other activities focused on sensory engagement. A big thank you to Nerida who continues to provide such fantastic experiences to our students. The rest of the 3/4s will attend next week!

Boite – School Choir at Melbourne Town Hall

I had the pleasure of attending the Boite School Choir last night with Simon and Clara where over 240 students sang a range of songs from different countries and cultures. Of those 240 students were over 20 Newlands students who were pitch perfect in the singing and passionate in their delivery. I want to thank Kehani who has led the Choir as a lunch time club this year and for these students to be able to sing with children from all over the state to a packed Melbourne Town Hall last night and is an experience they will never forget. An extra congratulations to Djuna, Max, Lowri and Bonnie who spoke so confidently when introducing different songs. A further congratulations to Bec, one of our fantastic parents who is the main organiser of such an incredible event. 

School Gym

It feels like our new Gym AKA ‘the Dungeon’ has been used by our community for years. So many of the students at our school are involved in one of the local basketball clubs and to be able to have home advantage and show our school to their non-Newlands friends has been noted as ‘cool’. It has been great to see some of our students play on Saturdays and witness some exemplary coaching skills by Emre & Scott (who have both emailed their thoughts to the Boomers coaching staff). 

District Athletics 

After the success of last week’s Newlands Athletics Carnival, our students competed against all the schools in our district. There was a flurry of ribbons (not the true collective noun) that came back through our gates at the end of the day, but more importantly everyone had such a great day. A big congratulations to our students who are moving on to the regional round – Jack in the discus, Taylor in the Shot Put, Cyrus in the 200m and Paxton in the 100m. Thank you to Raul and the teachers involved in ensuring everyone had a fantastic day. 

Mulching Bee 

There are monstrous loads of mulch in the school that needs to be distributed to our new garden. We are calling for all families that are available this Saturday and Sunday between 10:00am and 12:00pm to come on down and help us get this started. A big thank you to Agus and the Buildings and Grounds committee for making this exciting project happen. More information can be found on the Mulching Bee page in the newsletter. 

Parent Opinion Survey - Is there a link?

Our annual Parent Opinion Survey has been released this week. This gives our school feedback on what we are doing well and where we need to further improve. Our Education Sub Committee has been using the results from the Parent Opinion Survey to identify common themes to drive improvement. Last year, our school created videos show casing the work that we do. We are encouraging families to not only watch the videos, but more importantly complete the survey. Yes, there is a highly likely chance that during, before and after school yard duty you will be highly encouraged (closer to hassled) to complete the survey. More information can be found 2024 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey page. 

Please complete the survey by selecting the link below:

https://www.orima.com.au/parent

Select the school (Newlands Primary School), and then enter the below pin.

Pin: 604321

Have a fantastic weekend, 

See you all on Tuesday

Thanks, Luke