Assistant Principals' Report

2026 Book Week Parade & Book Fair

Our Primary Years Book Week celebrations were an outstanding success. This year’s Symphony of Stories theme inspired students to embrace the magic of books, and the enthusiasm was on full display during our Book Week Parade. The parade was a joyful highlight, with students arriving in an incredible variety of colourful and wonderfully imaginative costumes. From classic characters to modern favourites, the effort and creativity shown by our students and families made the event truly special. It was heartwarming to see students proudly sharing their characters with peers and teachers, creating a vibrant celebration of storytelling across the Primary Years.

The Scholastic Book Fair added even more excitement to the week. The Learning Lab was buzzing with eager readers exploring shelves filled with new and engaging titles, eye‑catching stationery and plenty of fun treasures to inspire reading at home. The Book Fair was sensational, with many students discovering new favourites and families enjoying the opportunity to browse together.

Book Week continues to be a cherished tradition in the Primary Years, and this year’s celebrations truly showcased the joy, imagination and connection that reading brings to our College community.

House Performing Arts Day

We are so excited that our House Performing Arts Day is coming up in the last week of this term! This is one of the highlights of our College calendar, showcasing the incredible talent and creativity of our students. We look forward to seeing many of our parents join us for this exciting event!

House Performing Arts Day is taking place on Thursday, the 17th of September.

Please note, in accordance with our child safety standards, no adults are permitted in the schoolyard during recess and lunch times.

Additionally, for the safety and privacy of our students, we kindly remind everyone not to post any photos or videos of students other than their own on social media.

Please refer to your own child’s house below for costume details. Students will come to school in costume and wear this for the whole day. Please note that shoes must have closed toes and tops should be sunsmart.

McGrath:

Students can wear as much pink as possible
Black pants, shorts, or skirts in place of pink bottoms
Sparkles are encouraged

Students will be given the option to add pink glitter, face paint, hairspray, and ribbons on the day. This is optional, and students can opt in or out. Please inform your child on the morning of the performance if they have any allergies to any of the aforementioned items.

Beachley:

Students can wear anything to do with sport: netball dress, cricket whites, footy, soccer, basketball jerseys, karate, etc.
Beachley house tops, black pants or shorts
Runners must be worn
Yellow accessories, hair ties, hair bows or scarves

Students will be given the option to add yellow glitter, face paint, hairspray, and ribbons on the day. This is optional, and students can opt in or out. Please inform your child on the morning of the performance if they have any allergies to any of the mentioned items.

Goodes:

Students can wear anything to do with sport
Wearing different countries' colours/jerseys is encouraged
Black shorts and/or pants
Goodes house tops
Green accessories
Runners must be worn
Some students may be given items to add to their costume on the day

On the day, students will have the option to have a small amount of face paint on their cheek and green hairspray. This is optional, and students can opt out on the day. Please inform your child on the morning of the performance if they have any allergies to any of the mentioned items.

Wood:

Students wear any uniform items or sport-related items (clothes or equipment) for their sporting group:

Martial arts/combat sports
Gymnastics/dancing/cheerleading
Cricket/baseball/softball
Basketball/netball
Soccer/football

If students don’t have any sporting uniforms or items to wear, they can wear orange with black coloured pants or shorts. Any orange coloured accessories are highly encouraged on the day!

For the remaining practice sessions, students are encouraged to bring their sporting equipment to practice for the performance day.

On the day, students will have the option to have a small amount of face paint and glitter on their cheek. This is optional, and students can opt in or out. Please inform your child on the morning of the performance if they have any allergies to any of the mentioned items.

Chang:

Year 6s wear rock clothes with a red t/shirt including denim
Year 4s and Year 5s wear AFL clothes
Year 2s and Year 3xs wear soccer clothes
Preps and Year 1s wear swimming clothes

Stynes:

Students in the AFL group can wear footy tops and shorts, or blue clothing.
Students in the Cricket group are encouraged to wear white clothing (white t-shirt and white shorts or pants and sneakers). We will add a temporary emblem with a pin on the day.
Students in the Soccer group can wear a soccer T-shirt or jersey or other similar sportswear (e.g. sports top or tshirt and shorts) or blue clothing.
Students in the athletics group are to wear clothing to look like they are in a running race. It does not matter what colour this is, but some blue is encouraged!
Some students will have coloured zinc applied to their faces. This is optional, and students can opt in or out. Please inform your child on the morning of the performance if they have any allergies to any of the mentioned items.

We thank you for helping make this a fantastic and memorable event! There will be further communication around the performances closer to the date.

Kids First Prep - Year 2

Prep to Year 2 Students will participate in a program called 'All About Safety' facilitated by Kids First trainers beginning next term. This program supports children with the skills to identify difficult or unsafe situations. The program aims to promote resilience in children, familiarise them with empowering strategies, clear communication, and awareness of “safe” behaviours.

Kids First Australia is a proudly independent national child, youth and family services provider and early education specialist. Their vision is for all children and young people to thrive in resilient, strong, and safe families and communities. Kids First is an evidence-based organisation that partners with universities to measure and evaluate their programs.

As part of this partnership, Kids First will be delivering a Parent Information Session on Thursday 8th of October (Week 1) from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. This session will be held at the College in the Primary Years Learning Lab.

The session will explore protective behaviours education and how parents can support this at home with their children. It will also cover online safety, including measures and strategies you can implement to help protect your child when using the internet at home. Kids First trainers will also discuss the program in which our Prep - Year 2 students will participate during Term 4. All Primary Years parents are welcome to attend this session. Please note this is an adults-only event. If you are interested in attending, please complete the TryBooking registration as soon as possible to secure your place.

https://www.trybooking.com/DOPVN

Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee – School Round Results

This term, students participated in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, a national competition that gives students the opportunity to test their spelling skills in a fun and challenging online format. Students completed the School Round by spelling 30 words against the clock, with accuracy and time both contributing to their results.

We are very excited to congratulate Aardarsh, Luca and Zach, who achieved fantastic results and have advanced to the State Finals! We wish them the very best of luck in the next round and congratulate all students who participated. Also, thank you to Ms Hutchinson for coordinating our students' participation in this competition.

Sincerely,

Ms Steph Reid, Assistant Principal of Positive Climate & Wellbeing and Ms Kate O'Halloran, Assistant Principal of Teaching & Learning