Principal's Report

150 Celebrations

September 1 is fast approaching, and excitement is building.  As per usual, we have a dedicated 150 page in the newsletter, which this week focusses on the information you need to participate in the celebrations.  Please don’t hesitate to contact the office if you have any suggestions.

3/4 Camp

Last week I had the pleasure of joining the 3/4s on their camp to Cave Hill Creek. Despite some damp and cool weather, the kids enjoyed themselves and were exposed to a range of great learning experiences.  Cave Hill Creek certainly lived up to our expectations and we’ll be happy to return in 2025.

Well done to the staff who did an excellent job preparing for and running the camp and a big thankyou to the parents that went along to help out.

Refurbished Boomerang in Place

We are thrilled to unveil the recently refurbished boomerang at the main entrance of the school. This remarkable piece represents not only a rich cultural heritage but also the hard work and dedication of our students. It's a symbol of unity and respect for Indigenous traditions, and we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the students who put in their time and effort to make this possible. We would also like to thank Liz Morgan and Simon Faithfull for efforts and time in creating the artwork and refurbishing the old design.  ….photo for this Janine

August Meeting of School Council

Along with covering the usual routine items at last night’s August meeting, we also turned our attention to planning foe 2024.  This included:

• Discussing the key goals and actions that are likely to feature in the school’s Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) for 2024. These plans have sections for both teaching and learning and for wellbeing and engagement.  Following our recent school review, we have a clear sense of where we are at and where we’re headed, so developing the plan will be straight forward.
• Considering options to facilitate a reduction of face-to-face teaching time for our teaching staff.  This is something schools are required to provide for teaching staff to meet the latest bargaining agreement agreed to by the state government and teacher unions.  The best way for us to facilitate this change is through a slight expansion of the specialist program.  Last night we discussed the 2 options that would best suit our school, those being:
  • Giving each class a one-hour session of STEM every week, rather than one hour every fortnight.
  • Building on the PE program to include a fortnightly one-hour session.  This session would have a focus on applying the skills learnt in PE through playing games. This part of the program would enable us to cover off on aspects of the curriculum that we don’t currently cover adequately, particularly those looking at health and nutrition.

Over the coming few weeks we’ll settle on which option to run with and do the planning and recruitment required for this change to be introduced from the start of 2024.

Parent Surveys

Thanks to all that have already completed a Parents and Caregiver Opinion Survey.  We’d love to get lots of surveys completed to provide us with a broad sense of parent views. For those that have yet to complete a survey, you have until Friday September 8.

2024 Prep Enrolments

As mentioned above, planning for 2024 in now underway, and it’s certainly helpful if we know how many preps we need to accommodate.  A reminder if you have a child to enrol in prep for 2024, please access an enrolment form from the website or from the office, fill it out and send it in ASAP.