Assistant Principal's Report

Welcome to Week Five of Term Four. We have had a wonderful week at DPS, with lots of special events and a whole heap of learning opportunities for each and every student.

Welcome to DPS

In the past fortnight, we had two new students start at DPS. Welcome Sophia in Prep P and Ivanna in 3G. We are sure you will love being members of our DPS community and warmly welcome you to our school. 

Prep Transition

We have now had three sessions of Prep Transition, which is welcoming our 2024 Preps who are coming from Kinder to join us at DPS officially next year. So far the transition is going extremely well and we are getting to know our newest students and their families. Last Friday, the School Captains spoke to the new families and answered all of their questions. Families were extremely impressed by this and the School Captains said they enjoyed having a role in the transition process. Please call the school on 9848 1122 for more information about Transition. Alternatively you can check Compass. 

October Attendance

As you know, at Doncaster Primary School we firmly believe that attending school every day plays a crucial role in shaping a child's educational journey. Regular attendance allows students to fully engage in classroom activities, discussions, and hands-on learning experiences. It provides them with the opportunity to grasp new concepts, ask questions, and collaborate with their peers. Consistent attendance helps build a strong foundation of knowledge and skills, enabling children to excel academically. This term, we have been reinforcing the importance of attending school every day. The School Captains Jenna, Adrina, Jude and Isaac have teamed up with Mx Dutlow and have made an attendance video highlighting the importance of attending school each and every day. Please see compass or our website to watch the video, it’s a great message.   

October went by VERY fast! The month of October has been and gone and now we move into the month of November. Today I will reflect on our October attendance at DPS. There are 243 students who attended school every day in October. Congratulations to the DPS students who have been at school every day in October, you are superstars! A few of these students include: Melissa - 6J, Christian - 6M, Noah - 5E, Elena - 5C, Lucas - 4S, Anna - 4WB, Jazmin - 3Q, Oscar - 3G, Sharleez - 2M, Cooper - 2S, Zara - 1S, Wali - 1G, Seraphina - Prep P and Winson - Prep W. 

We were hoping to beat the figure of 307 which was the total number of students who had perfect attendance for September. Let’s hope we can improve and build upon this figure in November. Remember: it is not ok to be away!

World Childrens Week

At DPS, we love to celebrate Childrens Week each year! Our students are so important to us and teachers love being able to focus on and celebrate every child's rights, talents and qualities. This year, Children’s Week was held from 21 October – 29 October. This years themes was: Children have the right to relax, play and take part in activities they enjoy. Keeping the theme in mind, we celebrated on Thursday 26th October throughout our TRIBES session. Students were able to select the games they wanted to play throughout the session and displayed our school values to ensure they were playing games fairly and using their best teamwork skills. Once they displayed those skills, all students received a 'DPS TRIBES member' badge. We hope this badge is a reminder of how each and every student plays a role and belongs in our DPS community. 

We were continuously impressed and proud of the DPS students and the people they are becoming! 

Division Volleyball Matches

Congratulations to our girls volleyball team who played against Serpell a week and a half ago. While the game contained some great skills from both teams, DPS were unable to progress to the Regional final. The score in the first set was a very close 12 – 17 and the girls were very happy with the way they played. Congratulations to Manuella, Benita, Florence, Janelle, Elena, Hayley and Chloe. Thank you Mr Spinks for all of your work in this space.

SWPBS - School Wide positive behaviour

All classes have continued learning behaviours off the Matrix this term. Teachers in classrooms and on Yard Duty are looking for students that are displaying behaviours from the 'Be Respectful', 'Be Safe' and ‘Be Your Best’ part of the matrix and giving students coloured wrist bands. We now have 25 stars in our jar and many students have come to the office and had the experience of adding to the jar, which has been very exciting. I hope you’ve enjoyed the Compass feeds sharing these students achievements with our whole school community. So far we have put yellow BE YOUR BEST stars and blue BE RESPECTFUL stars in the jar. We are still waiting for our very first purple BE SAFE star to go in the jar. 

Congratulations to these students who have earned a yellow – BE YOUR BEST star: Isabella 2S, Yaseen 2S, Cooper 2Q, Ruchen 3Q, Alessia 2Q, Jasmine 2Q, Chloe 2S, Mason 2S, Heman PM, Avina PM, Jayden PM, Panisa PM, Omar 2S, Benita 2S, Kairav 2M, Sharleez 2M, Luke PW and Isabella 2M.

Congratulations to these students who have earned a blue – BE RESPECTFUL star: Liana PW, Miya PW, Luke PW, Nik PW, Lavina 6C and Yusra PW. 

A special mention to Luke in PW who has earned both a yellow and a blue star for the jar. Well done Luke, you are a superstar! 

We are constantly rewarding students who are displaying the behaviours from the matrix. The SWPBS framework is definitely having a positive impact at DPS. 

Respectful Relationships

We continue our whole school approach of Respectful Relationships. In Respectful Relationships there are 8 topics that we focus on across the year. This term, year levels are focusing on Topic 7: Gender and Identity and Topic 8: Positive Gender Relations. 

This week the Level Four students have been learning about gender stereotypes. As we shared at Assembly this week, the Level Fours have been exploring the roles that classic and modern fairytales give to females and males. In classic fairy tales, like Sleeping Beauty, the princess usually needs to be saved by a handsome prince. Then they looked at modern fairytales, such as the Paper Bag Princess, which flips this around and has a strong princess out to save a prince from the dragon. This helps students think about the messages some books tell us, and how we can challenge that when needed. Mr Wood Burgess says it has been great to see the students passion and enthusiasm throughout this unit. Thanks to Mr Wood Burgess for your recap of Respectful Relationships in Levels Four. We look forward to hearing how this unit develops over the coming weeks.

School Captains for 2024

We have accepted many applications over the last two weeks for 2024 School Captains. Applications have now closed, well done to all of the Level Five students who applied for the position. The next part of the process is where students are invited to a mini interview where the current school captains, Mr Hill and myself ask the candidates more about themselves and what makes them a good choice for this important leadership position. We will then conduct group catch ups with many of the candidates together to see how they gel together as a team and who shows the school values of determination, pride and success in these sessions. We are confident we will select four wonderful role models for our younger students who are also respected by their peers.

Swimming Program: Prep, Year Three, Four, Five and Six Students

This term, many of our students will be participating in the DPS swimming program. The dates for the swimming program is as follows: 

Monday 20th November – Level Six @ Aquarena. One day program.

Tuesday 21st November – Level Four @ Aquarena. One day program.

Wednesday 22nd November – Level Five @ Aquarena. One day program.

Monday 27th November – Friday 1st December – Prep @ Aqualink. One week program.  

Wednesday 29th November – Level Three @ Port Melbourne Life Saving Club. One day program.

We are looking forward to all DPS students participating in the Swimming Program. In Australia there are so many opportunities for children to enjoy water play, therefore it is so important that all children have swimming and water safety lessons. That way children gain a healthy respect for the dangers of water as well as the skills to be safe in and around water. I look forward to hearing feedback about the Swimming Programs conducted this year. Please see Compass or come to the front office for more information about swimming. 

Prep - Two Athletics Day

We are very excited to be having this year’s Prep – Year Two Athletics Day at Doncaster Primary School on Thursday 16th November. The students are working hard in PE to perfect their skills in a range of activities including tunnel ball, the baton relay, vortex and the jumping sacks to name a few. Parents are welcome to attend, so we hope to see you cheering and supporting our students on the day.

Life Education Visit 

Harold the giraffe and the Life Education program will be visiting all DPS students between November 8th - 16th. Students will participate in wellbeing workshops which encourage students to translate their learning into action. Please see the event on Compass to provide consent and payment. Many students have indicated that they are looking forward to the program and I’m interested to hear the key take aways for students and teachers.  

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS 

Kids Help - kidshelpline.com.au phone 1800 55 1800 

Parent Line - betterhealth.vic.gov.au phone 13 22 89 

Headspace - headspace.org.au phone 1800 650 890 

eSafety Commissioner - esafety.gov.au - Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online 

Have a great week ahead DPS families,

Carly Epskamp