Principal Report

Hello to our wonderful school community!

Despite the wild, wet and windy Tuesday afternoon, we’ve had a fantastic start to the school year here at NLPS, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my visits to the 24 classrooms each week. To see all our students settled and engaged in their learning makes me proud of the wonderful processes and teaching we have put in place here at NLPS over many years. I commend our amazing teaching staff, including specialists and Educational Support (ES), on doing a stellar job ensuring that all students are feeling safe, connected and well-supported in their new classes in order to be able to access the learning so quickly. 

Foundation Students Begin Full Time 

An extra special well done to our six Foundation (formally known as Prep) teachers who have also done an amazing job in engaging the 95 new students who have already made an excellent start to their learning journey, beginning with knowing the school routine and expectations for learning and behaviour. The new Foundation students started full time this week and have ‘hit the ground running’ (in the mornings at least!). We all look forward to witnessing another cohort of children develop and progress through their high-level learning at Newport Lakes Primary School. 

Building Updates 

Many of you that live close to the school would have received communication about the new works and related traffic management earlier this week. The school has recently returned the access agreement and we are hoping to see the old mod 5 portable demolished in late February. Please also note that the school is not managing this process in any way and all queries or concerns should be directed to the VSBA (Victorian School Building Authority) via the contact details on the communication they have sent out.

Parents assistance required to make our children safe 

The safety of our students is always of the upmost importance to our school and there are a number of ways in which parents can assist in this task. Some children are being dropped off or permitted to attend school well before it is safe to do so in the mornings before school.  

As mentioned in previous newsletters and Compass messages, school yard supervision does not begin until 8.45am and yet there are many children in attendance well prior to this time. So far this year, we have had students being dropped off or ride into school as early as 8:15am. This is equivalent to dropping your children at the local park with a bunch of other kids (known or unknown) without any adult supervision for an extended period of time. No one should expect 30-50 primary aged students to manage themselves without adult support, particularly when accidents occur, yet this is what is happening in the yard each morning. 

The school has an excellent childcare facility on site in operation from 7.00am where children can be cared for and supervised until 8.45am. If a parent is not able to supervise their children then they should not be left in the school grounds before yard duty begins at 8:45am- it is not safe. If this continues to occur, parents will be called and requested to return to school and pick up or supervise their children until 8:45am. 

In addition, there are a small number of parents that have not been following the parking restrictions in Elizabeth and Ross St, particularly near the pedestrian crossing and in the blue ‘pick up and drop off’ zones.  They may possibly be new parents to the school, or grandparents/carers unaware of the parking restrictions, or it could be that parents are blatantly ignoring the local traffic laws.

We will closely monitor this and if there is no improvement, the school will request that the council‘s parking officers patrol the local streets around the school over the next few weeks and fines will be imposed upon cars parked illegally. Sometimes you may see the council officers, other times they will just take photos and you will receive an infringement fine in the mail – the simple way of avoiding this would be to park in the correct areas, obey the rules and make it safer for our students. If you are finding the area congested, an idea could be to park a block or two away and then walk with your children before/after school, with the time alongside each other a great opportunity to get some fresh air, ask about their day and practice road safety skills.

I thank you all for your understanding and cooperation to ensure the safety of our children.

Information Sessions 

Next week we will be conducting online information sessions in the evenings (this year between 5:30 - 6:30pm) for all year levels. 

These sessions will give an overview of the curriculum, special events and activities, homework etc. All teachers in the grade level will be in attendance, as well as leadership and specialist representatives.  

Due to classroom space issues, they will again occur online. Please note that all parents will have an opportunity to view the Year 1-6 classrooms later in the term as part of our Open Afternoon on Thursday 14th March or the Foundation Picnic on Thursday 29th February.

The dates for each of the Information sessions are; 

• Monday 19th February - Foundation 
• Tuesday 20th February – Year 1 & Year 2
• Wednesday 21st February – Year 3 & Year 4
• Thursday 22nd February - Year 5/ 6 

Webex invite links for each of the sessions are being sent home via Compass this week. We look forward to seeing you there!

Parent-Teacher Interviews - 'Meet the Teacher' 

The ‘Meet the Teacher’ interviews will be conducted for all grades from 2:00-7:00 pm on Tuesday 5th March 2024. 

Parents have the option of attending these sessions to meet the teacher either ‘face to face’ or online via Webex.   Being the beginning of a new school year, we recommend that parents come along to the school for a face-to-face discussion with the teacher but we also realise that it may be difficult or inconvenient to attend for some families so an online interview would be preferred – the option is up to each parent.

Further information and details of booking your meet the teacher interview will be sent out to all parents next week on Compass.

District Swimming Sports

All the best to the school’s swim team that will participate in the District Swimming Carnival at Werribee next Monday, February 19th. The students were selected via before school swim trials held last week. Thanks to Mr. A for organising the before school event and parents that have volunteered to help out with timing on the upcoming day.

Personal Accident Insurance and Ambulance Cover

Parents are reminded that the Education Department does not provide personal accident insurance for students. Parents and guardians are responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs.  Student accident insurance policies are available from some commercial insurers. These cover a range of medical expenses not covered by Medicare or private health insurance.

School Council Election Update 

At the closing date for nominations for the NLPS School Council, the number of nominations was equal to the number of vacancies in the membership category of parent member and school employee member.

Therefore, a ballot will not be required.

The elected school council members for the term 2024 - 2026 are;

Parent category:                                                                        

• Dean Marshall
•  Anton Freischmidt
• Denise Fry
• Ben Houkamau
• Brett Fairbank

Teacher category: 

• Priscilla Patterson

Congratulations to our six new members. I am looking forward to welcoming you to the group.

The continuing (2023-2025) members of the school council are:  

Parent:

• Leah Campbell
• Kim Gilson
• Steph Viljoen

Teacher:

• Carly Bannon
• Mat Williamson

The school would like to thank the outgoing council members Lauren Sammartino, Kristy Clucas, Veronica Barbetta, Jo Sutton, David Moss and Murray Hall for the significant investment of their time and energy to the betterment of our school over the period they have served on the council. 

Our first school council meeting for 2024 will be conducted on Monday, February 26th and we will be electing various roles and sub-committee chairs. A notice will be placed in the following newsletter inviting any parent that may like to be on one of the school council sub-committees.

Have a wonderful 2 weeks, everyone!

Carly Bannon

Acting Principal