Principal's Report

It certainly has been chilly the last couple of weeks even though the sun has been out!

As per the Department of Education and our Sun Smart Policy, students must wear hats by this Friday, 18th August. Please find your child’s hat and ensure they are wearing it by this date. Students must wear the broad brimmed Huntingdale Hat which can be purchased from PSW, our uniform supplier. No other hats are allowed.

Family Fun Day

The Family Fun Day was a roaring success last Saturday. It was wonderful seeing so many students and their families. Student voice was very prominent in organising the day, with each class voting on a stall they wanted to run and they were very popular! The most pleasing aspect was seeing our families having time to connect with one another. The day ended well with the Matilda’s quarter final game being shown in the hall and together cheering them on!

I want to sincerely thank Watashi Mo for their outstanding organisation of the day and being supported by Assistant Principal Naomi Mori-Hanazono and the Student Leadership Council. Thank you to the support of parents in running the stalls and our families for attending.

Reminder- Senior School Production

Momentum is building for our senior school production ‘Leave No One Behind’. 「だれひとりとりのこさない世界に」

Students and teachers have been busy with rehearsals and excitement is building! We welcome all of our school community to attend the production. The details of the production are as follows:

Performance Dates: 5 & 6 September

Starting Time: 7.00pm

Venue: South Oakleigh College, Baker’s Road, OAKLEIGH SOUTH

Cost: $15

Tickets will be available online through TRYBOOKING and the link will be forwarded soon.

2023 Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents / caregivers / guardians think of our school. The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

All families are invited to participate in the survey (only one parent per family).

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the survey period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Thank you to the families who have already responded to the survey. We would like more families to take the survey. You can complete the survey using the following link https://www.orima.com.au/parent and use the PIN 356543

2024 Enrolments

We are taking enrolments for the 2024 school year.

If you know of any neighbours, relatives or friends who are looking to enrol for 2024 please direct them to our school office or website for information about our school. Tours can be organised by contacting Office Manager Gill Penfold

Any of our current families who have younger siblings starting at the school should enrol now!

Principal’s Day- thank you!

I was very overwhelmed with the cards, posters and letters that the students gave me and the delicious morning tea organised by staff for Principal’s Day on Friday 4 August. While the principal role has it challenges, I really do love being a Principal- I enjoy seeing children learn, teachers thrive, and the community come together as a whole. I get great energy and drive from working with people and the intrinsic feeling of achieving success. I am very proud to be Principal of Huntingdale Primary School and leading the bilingual education at this school.

Indigenous Literacy Week

On 6 September it is Indigenous Literacy Day. It is a day for a celebration of Indigenous language and literacy.

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation was founded by Suzy Wilson, owner of Riverbend Books in Brisbane. In 2004, Suzy launched the Riverbend Readers’ Challenge, with the aim of raising funds to improve literacy outcomes in remote Australia.

The Riverbend Readers’ Challenge partnered with the Fred Hollows Foundation to become the Indigenous Literacy Project in 2007. In 2011, it became the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Since 2011, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation has worked with over 400 remote communities, gifted 636,000 books, supplied 83 playgroups with early literacy Book Buzz resources, and published 143 books reflecting 26 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.

There are number of ways we can support Indigenous Literacy. You can visit their website for more information.

https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/indigenous-literacy-day

Mobile Devices Policy

Dr David Howes, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education has asked Principals to remind families about the state-wide mobile devices policy. This policy can be found on our website at:

https://huntingdaleps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/M11-Mobile-Devices-Policy-2021.pdf

All students must bring their mobile phone, tablet or smart watch to the office to be stored in a locked filing cabinet.

Accident Insurance

At school minor accidents can happen. While this is unfortunate we would like to remind parents that the Department does not provide personal accident insurance or ambulance cover for students. Parents/carers of students, who do not have student accident insurance/ambulance cover, are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including the cost of ambulance attendance or transport as well as any other transport costs.

Families can purchase insurance policies from commercial insurers and it is the responsibility of parents/carers to look into their preferred options in this regard.

Collecting Students After School

We have noticed an increase in parents collecting their children after 3.45pm on school days. After school, teachers are on duty until 3.45pm. After this time, parents and carers are responsible for supervising their children in the yard. If you are consistently collecting your child after this time, please book them into Team Kids so they can be supervised. We thank you for your cooperation.

Reporting Incidents at School

Sometimes there are incidents that happen between students during school time. When it is reported, teachers are able to investigate, understand the perspectives of each student involved and work towards a solution. Depending on the seriousness of the incident, parents may be contacted to inform them of what has happened.

Recently we have had parents report incidents to the school that have happened weeks, sometimes months before. The school makes every effort to investigate these, but often in these situations, children forget what has happened since time has lapsed. When we ask parents why the incident was not reported earlier, some common responses are “My child didn’t want to say anything” or “My child didn’t want to cause any issues” or “My child didn’t want to get anyone in trouble”

At Huntingdale we teach a comprehensive wellbeing program, where we encourage and teach children to ‘use their voice’ to report incidents. It is critical that we empower students to have the courage, skill and ability to report incidents as this is a vital for later in life. We do this in a number of ways including:

Completing the ‘Helping Hand’ (F-2) and ‘Support Network Card’ (3-6) which teaches students who they can approach if they have a problem. This is regularly revised during the year and many classes have these on display in classrooms.
Completing the Respectful Relationships topics of ‘Emotional Literacy’, ‘Problem Solving’, ‘Help Seeking’ and ‘Positive Coping’. These help build student skills in understanding their emotions and acting on problems.
Student Ideas Box- sometimes students will write about problems they are having which we then investigate.
Reinforcing in class our school norms, particularly ‘Be brave, participate to progress’. When there is an issue at school, we need our students to participate in the process of reporting incidents and actively being involved in solving them, so they are able to ‘progress’ in their personal and social relationships.

It is not appropriate for parents to investigate incidents themselves. In previous newsletters I have reminded parents that it is inappropriate to approach other families either in person or on social media as it causes confusion and further upset.

Parents also should not ‘promise’ to their own child that they won’t report an incident that happened at school. This does not encourage children to speak up, rather it disempowers them, as they are unable to develop their skills of problem solving and furthermore, the incident is never investigated. If a similar incident was to happen outside of the school, the child won’t know what to do!

If incidents do happen at school, please encourage your child to report them as they happen so that staff can investigate them properly.

Have a great fortnight!

Ruth Biddle

Assistant Principal's Report

Spring is coming and everything is starting to bloom which is encouraging to see.

Go the Matildas

It was great to see everyone in green and gold today. Our students are getting in the spirit for Matilda’s semi-final match tonight against England. Thank you to Mrs Wakely and the SLC for organising the day. All funds raised will go towards our outdoor learning area project.

Year 5 and 6’s music performance

Year 5 and 6 students performed the “body percussion” to music at the assembly on 14th August. Students enjoyed the music and movement. Thank you to Smith sensei for teaching our students the “body percussion”.

Family Fun Night

Thank you to everyone for coming along to the Family Fun Night on Saturday 12th August. It was great to see so many of our community there and our children enjoying the day. A BIG thank you to our Watashi Mo committee for organising the event and Team Kids for running activities on the day.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal