Principal's Report

In this week’s newsletter:

News and Appreciations

• Community Access to the Eagle Building
• Pokemon
• Student Support Group Meetings
• Nationally Consistent Collection of Data
• Attitudes to School Survey
• Student Learning Conference Bookings
• Sibling Photographs

Coming Up Tomorrow

• Assembly
• Interschool Sports

News and Appreciations

Community Access to the Eagle Building

We are pleased to be in the final stages of preparing for our three community partners, Footscray Hawks Basketball Club, RISE Netball Club and Westgate Basketball Association to begin regular access to our outstanding new competition-grade basketball and netball court.

Taleb, our Maintenance Manager, is currently finalising several requirements to ensure users can securely access the facility and store equipment. I am looking forward to seeing many of our current and former students making regular use of this wonderful community asset.

Pokémon

We appreciate that many of our students, particularly in the Junior and Middle Schools, engage with Pokémon in a positive and enjoyable way. It is an activity with many benefits, including opportunities to develop mathematical thinking, strategic reasoning, social skills, and negotiation skills through trading.

However, we have also experienced several incidents where students have become upset following trades they later felt were unfair. This is particularly evident when students from different year levels trade cards. For this reason, students who choose to trade must do so only with students from their own year level. While this does not eliminate all issues, it helps reduce them.

It is important to remember that once a trade has been completed, it cannot be reversed. In other words, there are no "trade-backs". We also strongly encourage students to leave valuable or rare cards at home. If losing a card through an unfair trade, misplacing it, or having it stolen would cause significant distress, it is best not to bring it to school.  

We are reluctant to ban games and popular student interests, but we will do so if the negative impacts begin to outweigh the benefits. Some families may remember the previous Labubu ban. We will also consider restricting participation for individual students or groups who fail to follow the established expectations.

Attitudes to School Survey

The annual Attitudes to School Survey has now been completed, with only a small number of catch-up sessions remaining.

Each year, students in Years 4, 5 and 6 are invited to provide confidential feedback through this comprehensive survey. The aggregated results help school leaders understand students' perceptions of their school experience and allow us to compare our results with those of similar schools and government schools across Victoria.

Thank you to Carolyn, who with the support of our classroom teachers, coordinated and administered the survey.

Student Learning Conference Bookings

Appreciations to the many families who have already booked a Semester 1 Student Learning Conference.

Conferences will be held after school on:

• Wednesday, 17th June - 3:40pm – 6:40pm; and

• Tuesday, 23rd June - 3:40pm – 6:40pm

   

Please note that conferences for 2BL and 4LT will be held on Monday, 15th June and Tuesday, 23rd June due to Bec and Lauren's part-time employment arrangements.

Parents and carers may choose either an in-person or online meeting.

This year, appointments with Specialist teachers will be limited to one specialist teacher booking per family. This decision reflects the limited number of available appointment times, the need to ensure equitable access, and the priority for Specialist teachers to meet with particular families where required. As these appointments are in high demand, please consider whether there is a specific academic, social or behavioural matter you wish to discuss before making a booking.

Please also note that, unlike previous years, Year 5 and 6 conferences will no longer be student-led presentations. We believe students already have opportunities to showcase their learning through the Term 1 and Term 3 Kids' Share Open Afternoons. Attendance by Year 5 and 6 students is therefore not required, and these conferences will be conducted between teachers and parents/carers only.

Please refer to the pinned post on Compass for all relevant information and ensure bookings are made before:

• 6:00pm on Tuesday, 16th June for the majority of classes; or
• 6:00pm on Sunday, 14th June for 2BL and 4LT.

Sibling Photographs

The Parents' Association's initiative, in partnership with our office team, to offer sibling photographs on Tuesday, 16th June has proven very popular.

A small number of places remain available in the session between 9:00am and 9:15am. 

If booked out, additional sessions will be added.

Please click here to book: https://compasstix.com/e/zrara7jeqe 

Coming Up Tomorrow

Assembly

We look forward to 2EP presenting their assembly item tomorrow.  With the technical issue affecting the large screens now resolved we will be able to feature 2DM’s Respect video that was originally scheduled to be presented as part of last week's assembly.

Following last week's interschool sports bye for all teams except AFL, we will have just one sports report this week.

As always, the gates will open after recess to allow students to briefly return to class before moving to the Eagle Gymnasium at 2:40pm, ready for assembly to commence no later than 2:50pm.

Visitors are asked to be seated by this time.

Interschool Sports

This week our senior students will compete in a home fixture against St Bernadette's Primary School.

Please note that there will be no AFL match this week.

Best regards,

Brendan

Repeated and Revised Messages