Principal's Note
Dear parents and carers
Welcome to our first newsletter of Term 4. It is an action packed term - Tabloid Sports, school production, Foundation transition and of course THE BIG PLAY OUT FAIR. Stay up to date by looking at the important dates page or the Compass calendar.
Year 4-6 Production - Ngulu Nganjin
Our Year 4-6 production is on next week. This production was written by the school in 2022, with input from staff and students, in consultation with Glenn Shea, a Wathaurong/Ngarrindjeri elder. We sought permission to use Indigenous language from several places around Australia. The script has been updated this year to include new scenes and language. Students have also written and composed songs for the production. The plot line is as follows:
The story takes the characters on an imaginative ‘class excursion’ around Australia, stopping along the way to discover some of the incredible Indigenous languages from a colourful cast of goannas, whales, crocodiles, turtles, kangaroos and crows. The students discover some of the amazing diversity of Australia’s Indigenous Cultures and ‘Country’, including from Narrm, their home.
Our production will be held over two days. Details are:
Date: Monday 27th October and Tuesday 28th October
Time: 2pm-3:15pm
Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling the office on 9489 8333.
Parent Payments 2025
To date, only 64% of families have paid our 2025 curriculum contributions. Whilst these are voluntary payments, the funds are used to support the following:
- offer a wide range of subjects and special curriculum experiences such as a specialist STEM program
- enhance digital learning opportunities
- operate a literacy intervention program in years Foundation-2
- offer extension programs such as Tournament of Minds, Maths Olympiad and Maths extension teaching
- extensively resource our school library and employ a library technician
- employ a school nurse 5 days per week
- employ a school psychologist 1 day per week
If you are in a position to make a payment towards our curriculum contributions for 2025, you can do this via Compass (go to the Payment Centre on your dashboard).
Yarra City Council's Proposed Changes to Wellington Street North (Clifton Hill)
The School Council held an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 7th October to consider Yarra City Council's proposed options for changes to road conditions in Wellington Street. The School Council voted unanimously not to support either option and made a submission to Yarra Council to that effect.
Reasons for not supporting either option are detailed below:
Option 1 is of particular concern as it places cars and cyclists—particularly fast-moving e-bikes and scooters—on the same roadway without sufficient separation. This significantly increases the risk of conflict and accidents, particularly near school zones where young pedestrians are present. The use of partial modal-filters serves only to push vehicle traffic into quieter residential streets, for example, Council and Noone Streets, which are not designed or equipped for high traffic volumes and pose a risk to families walking to school via these streets.
Option 2, while separating bike traffic from vehicle traffic, allows for unimpeded cycling up and down Wellington Street. This encourages higher speeds among riders, especially e-bike and scooter users, with limited infrastructure to mitigate the risk to pedestrians crossing Wellington Street. Furthermore, Option 2 removes essential parking used daily by school families and staff. Staff are already constrained by the limited availability of all-day parking in the area, with the majority of existing spaces, located close to our school, restricted to 2-hour or 4-hour limits. This raises serious concerns: where does the Council envisage staff parking, and how are families expected to safely drop off and pick up students under these changes?
The School Council is supportive of upgrades to the existing school crossing on Wellington St, an additional pedestrian crossing at Hodgkinson St/Wellington St intersection and the proposed reduction in speed limit.
Foundation 2026 Student Transition
On Friday 31st October, we will host our first transition session for our 2026 Foundation students. We look forward to meeting our students and families and welcoming them to the school.
Thank you
Megan
Clifton Hill Primary School acknowledges the Wurundjeri people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we come together to learn, and we pay our respects to Elders of the Kulin Nation past and present.