From The Principal's Desk

Dear Parents and Carers, 

It has been a busy couple of weeks for many of our students and staff. Last week our Grade 5 students experienced the wonder of the Grampians (Gariwerd) and were involved in a number of team based activities and individual challenges.  

I attempted the “Leap of Faith” and whilst no photos were taken to back this story up, I do have plenty of witnesses.  

Enjoying the views from Chatauqua Peak!

Camp Norval at the Grampians

Camps are wonderful experiences for our students and they require the planning and support of the staff to make it happen. I would like to acknowledge the Grade 5 staff and Laura (Chaplain) for attending and ensuring the students were able to be provided with an enjoyable camp experience.  

On the last day many students made it to the top of Chatauqua Peak which was a great accomplishment.

On Thursday last week some of our students were selected to participate in the ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments) for English. This assessment ranks their ability against students around the world.  Congratulations to those students who were selected and participated in the assessment.

On Friday last week we had 16 students attend the second workshop of the Ballarat Young Authors' program and for some of our Grade 5 students who had Camp, ICAS and this day, it made for a very busy week.

We finished the week with the National day against Bullying and Violence which was a really positive way to finish the week. We began the day with Josh Hose (Paraolympian) talking to the students about his successes in life but also his challenges in life. The focus for the day was clearly set around being KIND and that Bullying & Violence was not ok.  

In my wandering around the classes I saw a lot of students and staff engaged in the activities. I did see in one of the Grade 3 classrooms our students role playing a scenario of bullying and how they can handle this.

Some of our classes who had earned some special rewards on the day such as toasties with Tim Bone, AFL with the Western Bulldogs in the stadium and Gymnastics. A big thanks to our Wellbeing team (Mrs Cooper, Mr Costanzo,Mrs Dawson and Laura) for organising this event).

It was wonderful to see how staff embraced the day with the students and to complete the BE KIND AT DPS activity at the end of the day on the Grade 5-6 tennis courts was an accomplishment with over 536 students. 

Whilst the school has been busy with these events the Prep - Grade 2 playground upgrade has commenced. It will be a 3 week program (weather depending) and we look forward to some new playground activities for our students in the yard.

This week and beyond! 

This week we celebrated Book Week and our students 

and teachers embraced dressing up for the day and celebrating their favourite book character.

On Thursday and Friday there will be Grade 3 camp and we hope the weather is as favourable as it was last week for the Grade 5 Camp. I will be attending this camp with the Grade 3 staff and students.  

On Friday 25th August we will have the School Trivia night and we have over 110 people (70 parents and 40 staff) attending this event. A big thank you to Ms Gerrard and the office staff who have been driving this event. The money raised is going to the Energy Breakthrough Team and a new shade sail over the garden centre (which gets quite hot in summer). It will be a great night for the school community.

Advanced Notice:

Some key dates and events coming up:

• September 1st is a Curriculum Day where our staff will be focusing on Numeracy teaching practice.  This will be a student free day.

Have a great week – Scott, Marnie and Stephanie