Welcome to the final newsletter of the year.

As we come to the end of another very full year, we want to thank our entire staff for their work to support students, families and each other across 2025.

As a school community we can be proud of the outstanding expertise, skill, compassion and ingenuity that characterise our staff team at Greenhills.

There is no doubt that it has been a big year, full of many highlights, some significant challenges and a year that has also seen many positive changes as we continue to evolve our communication processes, curriculum planning and delivery and of course our focus on student agency and wellbeing.

We thank all our staff for giving above and beyond, stepping up and supporting each other, our leadership team and the principal team. We acknowledge the extra hours they commit each week spent focused on our school. Many of which are hours well outside the normal school day at home of an evening and over weekends. Our State system relies on the good will of our staff to do this, and it is one of the elements as to why our system is continuing to move from strength to strength and why our school’s data is so strong and growing even stronger.

Thank you to our teachers: Shirley O’Shannessy, Roberta Iebbiano-Rosa, Andrea Williams, Ros Mackie, Alex Katsogiannis, Tracey Watts, Sharon Draper, Megan Hattenfels, Josephine Ciancio, Lauren Richardson, Sarah Leach, Betty Hajichristou, Jen Ellis, Ebony Killmister, Tegan Smith, Ashley Dunne, Steph O’Donnell, Jordan Daley, Cara McLean, Jess Johnston, Brooke Connane, Lynsey Barrett, Emily Bullen, Samantha Hose, David Symeonidis, Lauren Grimshaw, Suzanne Burgers, Joshua Hick, Abby Drapper, Jake Rowley, Ruby Bakkum, Ruby Cuce, Keely Jones, Kristine Charles, Gillian Wilkins,

Thank you to our Education Support team. Our classroom-based ES's do an incredible job. They are out every day supporting students in their classes and at recess and lunchtimes. The work they do is vital for us. Thank you Raelene Turner, Teresa Jordan, Sheryl Munks-Callahan, Catherine Rankin, Ilda Araujo, Nathan Marks, Ashlee MacKinven, Karen Porter, Melinda Williams, Rhoanne Salazar, Emma Slavich, Alyshia Ninness, Lisa Emery and Tim Gorman.

Thank you to Miriam Pekolj for running our canteen so effectively and supporting in the Library and Karen Morrison, Kate Walker & Libby Egan for providing outstanding care in Fist Aid.

Thank you to our Education Support Admin team. Our office is such a dynamic and busy place to be. Our office team help the school to function so that we can balance the DET requirements and processes we must complete and support the link with our parent community. Thank you, Nicole Pearson, Kiera Roberts, Jaclyn Rehlicki, Libby Egan & Victoria Harris.

A special thank you to our Executive Leadership Team. They do so many things each day that the school relies on. Many of these things go unseen. The leadership team have been vital in developing, managing and leading all our improvements and key actions this year right across the whole school. Thank you, Krysten O’Leary, Nigel Dunne & Victoria Harris.

On behalf of the school community, we wish Shirley O’Shannessy, Suzanne Burgers, Raelene Turner & Melinda Williams all the very best. We say a big thank you for everything you have done for us during your time at Greenhills. We will all miss you.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION

Last week, we hosted our Year 6 Graduation Ceremony. The event was held at Eltham High School and overall, it was a wonderful evening where we had the opportunity to congratulate all our Year 6 students and acknowledge all their achievements over the past 7 years at our school.

We are so proud of what our Class of 2025 has achieved at our school in terms of their learning but even more importantly the people they are growing into. They will all hold a special place in our hearts and minds and have truly represented what it means to be a Greenhills student.

The Year 6 student self-reflections in the Semester Two Reports provide an impressive insight into all our graduates and highlights why we are so proud of them. Here is a very small snapshot of two of these self-reflections.

“The HILAT that has helped me the most this year has been being “Being Reflective.” Every time I look over any piece of work, I always find places for improvement. This is something I have really honed in on this year. I believe this is why my historical fiction narrative was the incredible piece it was. I know this will be something I will use in the future”

I want to be remembered as a kind and empowering leader. My favourite quote I want people to remember is “by doing what you love, you inspire and awaken the hearts of others. I hope to have passed my love of learning and courage onto my buddy who can then pass it on to their prep buddy in the future.

When I leave Greenhills, I want to be known as a hard working student who sets a good example for the younger kids by using my HILAT’s and GREAT values. If I could tell someone how to be a good leader, I would say to never give up, just keep trying, no matter what happens, because if you don’t, you won’t improve. Being a great leader means you have to keep trying even if it doesn’t go your way because no one can be perfect.

Graduating Class of 2025 – we are proud of what you have done, where you have got to so far and most importantly who you have become.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the parents of our graduating students for placing the trust and confidence in our school to teach and guide your most precious children.

During the ceremony, we also recognised all those families who with the departure of their Year 6 child this year, will be leaving our school community. This year represents a very large group with forty-two families in total. I thank all these families for their contribution to our school over these years.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION AWARDS 2025

A special part of our Graduation Ceremony was the presentation of awards. Here is a list of the students who were presented with an award:

Award	Selection Criteria	Recipients
Principal’s Award for Educational Excellence	Excelling throughout Year 6 in a range of curriculum areas and for making Greenhills a wonderful place to learn.	Madelyn B
Numeracy Award	For embracing mathematical challenge and demonstrating passion and dedication to achieve and grow their Maths skills.	Jimmy M
Literacy Award	Outstanding achievement, grit and enthusiasm in all aspects of the English Curriculum.	Indiana L
GRIT Award	For consistently demonstrating determination in their learning.	Emma S
RESPECT Award	For consistently demonstrating respect and empathy towards others.	Fletcher VL
EFFORT Award	For consistently demonstrating effort in all areas and taking ownership of their learning.	Elizah K
ADVENTURE Award	For consistently demonstrating drive and ambition and taking risks with their learning.	Felix R
TEAMWORK Award	For consistently demonstrating inclusion and empathy as well as contributing positively to all group situations.	Oliver AH
Italian Language Award	Outstanding contribution in Italian Language Studies.	Harry P
Physical Education Award	Outstanding contributions made to all areas of the Physical Education and Sport Program.	Francesca T
Visual Arts Award	Outstanding contribution in all aspects of Visual Arts.	Yat W
Performing Arts Award	Outstanding contribution in all aspects of Performing Arts.	Riley S
STEAM Award	Outstanding contributions made in all aspects of Science, Engineering, Technology, Arts and Maths.	Sophie M
3rd Division Signals Award	For embodying all 5 of the Greenhills values both in and outside of the classroom.	Eden T
Max Smith Award	This is the first time this award has been given and it is in honour of Max, a person who strengthened our school community through their genuine pride in Greenhills and their consistently positive actions.	Josie E
Judith Ireland Studentship Award	In recognition of academic application, social responsibility, and community participation. The scholarship is for $600 which is forwarded to the students’ educational fund at his/her selected secondary school.	Bella Z
Emmerling Award	This is in recognition of the significant service that Rachel Emmerling has made to our school community. In fact, between her mother Mary Murrell and herself, there has been a direct member of their family teaching at this school since 1974! The award is presented to a family who has made Greenhills G.R.E.A.T. by strengthening the culture of our school through significant whole family commitment and contribution over the time they have been a part of our school community.	Powell Family

START UP 2026 DATES & TIMES

School will begin for all students other than our Preps on Thursday 29th January at 8.55am. Prep students will commence via a staggered start on either Thursday 5th February or Friday 6th February. They will then attend each school day as normal from Monday 9th February as we have combined all our allocated prep entry assessment days into the first week of the school year.

THANK YOU EVERYONE

As a Principal team we wish to pay special tribute and thanks to our parents and carers. Your dedication, involvement and support this year has been G.R.E.A.T. We certainly appreciate the partnership we have with you, and you make our school such a wonderful and positive place to work each day.

Thank you and well done to all our students. Hearing the laughter, seeing the smiles, participating in all the learning and extra-curricular activities we have on offer is simply the best. We are so proud of you.

We continued to learn a lot about ourselves and the strengths of our school. We “Acted with Courage: we were “Open to the New”, we “Engaged in Dialogue” and we were “Reflective”. This means we have a very exciting 2026 planned and we can’t wait to get into it all…but yes first a holiday!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! See you back in 2026.

James, Janine & Brad,

Principal Team

Greenhills Primary School Newsletter

Greenhills is G.R.E.A.T.Grit, Respect, Effort, Adventure, Teamwork

Issue 41 · 17 Dec 2025

In this issue

Greenhills is G.R.E.A.T.
Grit, Respect, Effort, Adventure, Teamwork