Principal's News
What a busy fortnight around the school, thank you for helping us in all the little and more significant ways over the last two weeks. It was so lovely to see so many of our families attend the opening ceremony to our Art Show, we greatly enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate arts and culture with you. The performances from our Taiko Club, school choir and dance club were a great way to open the Art Show with our hall hosting some very detailed and creative pieces of student art throughout this week.
There are lots of details in our newsletter, thank you for taking a moment to read over these and for your support over the last fortnight.
Happy World Teachers’ Day
World Teachers’ Day is today! It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the incredible work teachers do and the lasting impact they have on our students and communities. In a time when recognising our teaching profession is so important, it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate again this year.
The World Teachers’ Day theme, “Hats Off to Teachers”, is a great way for us to collectively show appreciation for the expertise, dedication, creativity, and support all teachers provide to our young learners.
I appreciate our school community recognising and communicating with teachers with positive affirmations and their appreciation. I sincerely thank our kind families and our amazing PFC team who helped put on such a beautiful morning tea for our staff. We have wonderful teachers at Caulfield Primary School, I deeply admire their contributions to our school and our classrooms. It is an incredibly complex position of responsibility, our teachers care deeply about their work and your child, the efforts that they make on a day to day basis goes well beyond the hours that they are renumerated for. Most teachers at our school, would work up to 50 hours per week and beyond targeting both the individual learning and wellbeing needs of over 300 students.
I really love the quote from educational psychologist, Lee Shuman who puts it so perfectly:
2024 Parent Opinion Survey Results
Thank you kindly to the 72 parents/carers that completed our annual parent opinion survey. These results were recently released, and we have looked at these in detail at both a school council level and leadership meetings within the school. This survey is completed annually and is not managed by the school, we have no ability to adjust the questions asked or change these, we are able to celebrate some really positive results and also seek to explore some of the details and things we might like to do better. Our results are shared in the graphics below:
As a follow up, we would really appreciate your input to explore the question around communication, namely the question ‘Teachers communicate with me often enough about my child's progress.’. If you can spare a minute to respond to some of the local context questions, this will really support us with further understanding where we can improve.
School Wide Positive Behaviour:
Following an application, shortlisting and selection process, I am thrilled to announce tha the school was accepted into the Schoolwide Positive Behaviour intake for 2025. From next year we will be working closely with Elwood PS, Bittern PS, Mount Eliza North PS, Glen Eira College, South Melbourne Park PS, Eastbourne PS and Malvern Valley PS to undertake professional learning in this project.
School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) is an internationally recognised approach with an extensive evidence base that is shown to improve behavioural, wellbeing, and academic outcomes for children and young people. When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Students and staff benefit from:
- increased respectful and positive behaviour
- increased time focused on instruction
- improved social-emotional wellbeing
- positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
- create safe, orderly and respectful school-wide environments.
We are really excited about this journey over the year ahead and supports the schools approach to evidence based teaching, learning and wellbeing outcomes for all students.
Student Scholarships
The Department of Education administers a number of scholarships available to eligible students who are enrolled in Grade 4 to Year 12 in 2024.
Applicants for these scholarships are evaluated on their:
- participation in school activities
- community involvement
- academic achievement.
Scholarships are either one-off payments or cover the duration of the student’s course or annual study.
Many of these scholarships have specific eligibility criteria, so please refer to individual applications for more information. Applications are now open, and close on Saturday 1 February 2025. For information on how to apply, refer to Student scholarships.
Health Advice – Department of Education
Protecting against mosquito-borne diseases
Warm and wet weather can result in greater numbers of mosquitoes and increased risk of illnesses from mosquito bites. While the overall risk is low, some mosquitoes carry diseases that make people sick. The best protection against mosquito-borne illness is to avoid mosquito bites.
Families can protect against mosquito bites by:
- covering up as much as possible with long, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothing
- applying insect repellent that contains picaridin or DEET on exposed skin when leaving home
- limiting outdoor activity if lots of mosquitoes are active. Families with any health concerns should see their doctor or phone NURSE-ON-CALL: 1300 606 024 (available 24 hours).
Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines
Japanese encephalitis virus is spread to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes and can cause a rare but potentially serious infection of the brain. Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines are available to protect Victorians at higher risk of the virus.
The Victorian Department of Health encourages eligible people who live or work in high-risk local government areas to get vaccinated. For more information, including what is considered a high-risk area and eligibility for a free vaccine, refer to the Department of Health’s Japanese encephalitis webpage.
Find out more:
For more information on protecting against mosquito-borne diseases, families can refer to the following Better Health Channel pages:
Curriculum Changes
As shared in our last newsletter I am really excited about the use of SoundsWrite to support us in 2025 as it is an evidence-based framework for systematic synthetic phonics instruction consistent with the changes shared by the Minister of Education in June.
Victoria is making incredible changes to our curriculum from 2025 and beyond. It is a really exciting but busy space, noting that inside 12 months, the Department of Education has developed and introduced a new English curriculum, updated an evidence-based approach to reading with significant emphasis upon the big 6. Mandated a Prep - 2 phonics expectation of 25mins per day and introduced a foundational literacy curriculum from Prep – 2 and a new teaching and learning model (VTLM 2.0). For absolutely anyone, that is a lot, I recognise that and my priorities as principal is to ensure our staff feel supported and encouraged to develop understanding, confidence and collectively grow in our knowledge and expertise.
Melbourne Cup Day and Curriculum Day:
A reminder that the school will be closed on Monday November 4th and Tuesday November 5th for the student free day and the Melbourne Cup public holiday.
Road Closures
Please note detailed road closures impacting on our school on October 29. I have responded on your behalf and indicated how much this impacts on our families. I am providing you this notification in advance to try and support school drop offs on that day. I apologise for the inconvenience caused.
Please note the following:
- Cedar Street - power works conducted which will impact on pedestrian access with no vehicle access between 8:30 - 3pm
- Olive Street - power works conducted which will impact on pedestrian access with no vehicle access between 8:30 - 3pm
No Assembly
Please note that no assembly will be held on Monday morning, both Miharu and I are out of the school with external commitments and meetings. Our next assembly will be held on the 11th November.
Thank you once again for helping us celebrate 'Teachers' Day' throughout the school today, I look forward to having a chat with you around the school over the coming weeks, enjoy a wonderful weekend.
With Thanks,
Edward Strain
Principal