Leadership Report 

Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,

Welcome to this week’s newsletter. We have had a busy and productive time across the school with several major learning, sporting, community, and facilities programs currently underway.

Student Support Groups (SSGs) and Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

We are currently in the middle of our Student Support Group (SSG) meetings. This is a vital opportunity for teachers and specialists to collaborate with parents and carers to discuss student learning goals arising from their Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

An IEP is a written statement that describes the specific goals, adjustments, and strategies tailored to meet a student’s individual educational needs, allowing them to reach their full potential. These plans are central to how we plan, monitor, and celebrate student progress towards prioritised learning goals. We highly value the close consultation we have with families in developing and monitoring these goals, ensuring a strong home-school partnership that supports every child's success.

Winter Gala Sports Day

Today, Friday 12th June, selected Year 5 and Year 6 students who have made our Winter Sports teams are out representing our school at the Winter Gala Sports Day. The students will be participating in Football, Soccer and Netball.

The Winter Sports Gala Day aims to promote teamwork, sportsmanship, resilience, and active participation among our senior students. Through involvement in interschool sport, our students have a fantastic opportunity to represent our school with pride, build confidence, and further develop their skills in a supportive and positive environment

We wish all of our competitors the very best of luck today!

ParkIT Program Update

Recently, we teamed up with Outdoors Victoria and the Hume City Council to explore the ParkIT program—an initiative designed to encourage physical activity, connection to nature, and safe, active travel for students on their way to school. Together, we surveyed our school families to consider options for supporting students to walk to school from a designated community drop-off spot.

Unfortunately, we did not receive sufficient support from the community to move forward with the program. Continuing with ParkIT would have required a considerable investment of school resources for a very small number of participating students.

While this specific program will not proceed, we still strongly encourage our students to maintain their health and fitness by walking to school whenever possible. As a reminder, we have a secure bike shed on-site so students can ride their bike or scooter (please note that e-scooters are not permitted) to school. Please ensure your child always wears a properly fitted helmet for their safety.

Facilities Update: Rolling Facilities Evaluation (RFE)

The physical environment of our school plays a crucial role in student learning and community safety. To ensure our spaces remain safe and high-functioning, schools in Victoria have the quality of their physical assets assessed by the Department of Education every five years through the Rolling Facilities Evaluation (RFE).

The RFE is a comprehensive, technical audit focusing on the maintenance of the buildings and grounds. This objective data allows our leadership team to manage our school assets through a proactive, data-informed approach.

The RFE process moves through three key stages:

1. Condition Assessment: Independent assessors visit the site to identify defects or areas requiring preventative maintenance.
2. Asset Analysis: Data is used to categorise the urgency of works, ensuring high-priority safety and compliance issues are addressed first.
3. The 5-Year School Maintenance Plan (SMP): The final output is a strategic roadmap that allows us to move toward a proactive facilities management model.

Recently, Macutex was commissioned by the Department to conduct our site evaluation. A team of 5 surveyors, electricians, and other specialists were onsite conducting a full audit, which included using drones to map the grounds.

As part of this process, school leadership conducted a walking interview with the lead assessor to discuss the main facilities challenges we face. We have explicitly brought the following three priority areas to the attention of the Department:

• The Main Artificial Grass Area: We highlighted the general wear and condition of the grass, as well as ground unevenness where the surface has sunk below the line of the concrete paths, creating tripping hazards and the tripping hazard that this presents.
• The Main Boys and Girls Toilet Block: We raised concerns regarding the condition of the cubicles and washing facilities, alongside the degradation of flooring and wall materials which impacts our ability to maintain a safe and hygienic environment.

• The Ground Between the Gym and New Portables: We highlighted the uneven nature of this specific site, which presents tripping hazards when dry, slipping hazards when wet, and suffers from a lack of proper drainage.

   

Maintaining our facilities is about protecting the quality of our assets to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for our students and a safe environment for staff, families, and visitors. We are actively working with the Department of Education to raise our concerns about these priority issues and will keep the community updated as our 5-Year School Maintenance Plan takes shape.