Principal's Blog

Good Afternoon Parents Students, Staff and Friends of Derinya,  

As another week comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the superb leadership of this year’s Year 6 students. These students have gotten off to a great start, living and breathing our school values and modelling this to our younger year levels. It is with great pleasure that I announce this year’s student leadership group to include. 

School Captains – Ayla Miller, Juliette Walsh, Byron Callahan and Levi DiCarlo 

Learning Leaders – Nick Heyes and Mathilde Costuna  

Wellbeing Leaders – Ellie Rees and Hudson Gates  

Sports Leaders –Harper Molloy and Caleb Millman  

Visual Arts Leaders – Willow Morrison and Sophie Westlake 

Performing Arts Leaders – Elsie Armstrong, Isabelle Alcock, Elise Stalker and Lila Wood  

Japanese Leaders – Chia Butcher and Jackson Hendrix   

Science Leaders – Noah Krause and Victoria Vo 

STEM Leaders – Jax Ellis and Leo Williams  

Sustainability Leaders – Audrey Matthews, Sassy Booth, Eva Giasli-Moroney and April Norman  

Journalism Leaders – Evelyn Richey and Alexa Stipic 

I See I Care Ambassadors – Daisy Reynolds, Eleni O’Donnell, Riley Stevenson and Carson Carmona  

House Captains 

Yellow House – Ry Webb and Summer Thwaites 

Red House – Seb Churches and Millie Hayes Marshall  

Green House – Henry Hawkes and Evie Schneider 

Blue House – Eli Long and Evie Baker 

These leaders presented to both their peers and teachers at the end of last year and are to be congratulated on their appointment to these roles. I wish them the very best of luck for the year ahead. Our Student Voice Team is currently being elected where all Years 3-6 classes will have a nominated leader and will be buddied up with years P-2.  

Year 6 Uniforms 

It is with much excitement that today our Year 6’s will be presented with their new hoodies and polos. The new design by artist Bailey Mifsud celebrates the culture of our indigenous people and facilitates and supports a culturally safe space for all students to learn and grow.  

School Council  

I can confirm that the School Council election process is now complete and that this year a ballot was not required. This year our school council includes; 

Parent members – Danny Alcock, Robyn White (DET  parent), Jessie Sharp, Jodie Houghton, Theresa Poulsom, Chris Costuna, Nadine Van Grootveld and Eleanor Simons.  

DET members – Nadine Pye, Stuart Charles, Cory Stevens and Tina Ramsay  

I would like to sincerely thank Chrissy Robertson, Lenore McCullough, Rob Di Carlo and Blair Crouch for their dedicated service to our school council who are retiring from duties this year.  

School Review  

Every four years all Victorian Government Schools undergo a review process. Over the course of Term 1, we will doing a thorough review of the school’s data sets to include academic, wellbeing, parent and staff opinion surveys. We will also be engaging different groups from our community to share feedback around the school’s strengths and areas for growth as we formulate our Strategic Plan for the next four years. At the beginning of Term 2, we spend four days with a review panel, who talk to students, staff and parents/carers and observe school operations. This supports the formulation of the panels report and sets our future direction. Please stay tuned for communication around opportunities to be involved. As a staff we look forward to the review process being an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful work that has taken place and look forward to enhancing all aspects of our school even further.  

Derinya Fair  

Don’t forget to save the date. Our biannual Derinya Fair will be held on Friday 28th March from 3:30pm-7pm. Following our Fair’s return after covid in 2023, this year we will be making some significant improvements. We have been able to source a new company to supply our rides who are much more cost-effective meaning there will be many more rides and activities on offer catering to both junior and senior students. Derinya dollars will also be a far easier way to make payment which we will have available the week before the Fair avoiding queues on the day. All that is left is to rally the troupes to ensure our stalls are manned and cross our fingers for beautiful weather! Many thanks to our parent rep volunteers who will assist each class in setting up and managing their stall. To ensure everyone has a fantastic afternoon, it is appreciated that all families give up a little bit of their time to man their class stall. Many hands make light work.  

Online Safety  

Many thanks to our Year 4 families for their attendance and keen interest in our online safety sessions held over the last 2 weeks. As a reminder to all families within our community, as a school we are strongly committed to educating our young people to be safe when using devices and engaging online. All families are encouraged to consider 

• Ensuring home based agreements and boundaries are in place 
• High levels of supervision are maintained when students use devices at home 
• Ongoing conversations are had 
• No primary school aged students being on social media 

Does your child walk/ride to school? 

It is great to hear and see students getting to school by foot or bike. Being the beginning of the year, it is a great time to chat with your child/ren about this and discuss some strategies if they ever felt uncomfortable about a stranger or unsure of pickup plans. 

Things to consider: 

• Does your child know what to do if approached by a stranger? 
• Walk/ride in groups. 
• If you are running late, does your child know what to do/where to go? Such as return to the office so we can call home. 
• Return to the school to a familiar place if unsure of pickup arrangements / missed the bus. 
• If still on the school grounds at 4pm and you hear the bell, this is a signal to go to the office so we can call home.  

It is important to have these conversations with your child/ren so they can make a decision that supports them if ever in need. 

School Crossings Survey

As part of the Council's annual application to the Department of Transport for funding of the School Crossings program, the annual vehicle and pedestrian counts will be conducted next week commencing Monday 17 February 2025. You may see a camera mounted on a pole near the school. These are in place for the purpose of vehicle/pedestrian counts.  

Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend ahead. 

Kind Regards, 

Nadine Pye on behalf of the Derinya team.