Assistant Principals' Report
Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter article,
Pat Cronin Foundation, 10th Annual Be Wise Walk
The Pat Cronin Foundation walk is upcoming on Sunday 23rd November (next weekend) from 10am! Given our recent collaboration with the Pat Cronin Foundation and our engagement with the Be Wise Presentations, it would be fabulous to have members of our Heidelberg Primary School community participating and showing their support for this meaningful cause. Link to register here: https://bewisewalk.com.au/
Please see the Compass post on Friday afternoon from Monique about our school based Pat Cronin walk on Wednesday 3rd December at Heidelberg Park.
Year 6 Transition to Secondary Workshop
We are pleased to invite our Year 6 families to an upcoming workshop focused on supporting students with their transition from Year 6 to Year 7. This will be held online at 6.30pm on Tuesday 25th November, 2025. During this session, Amanda from Organising Students will explore executive functioning skills that enable students to make a smooth and confident transition to secondary school.
In addition to the parent/carer workshop, students will participate in an incursion at school designed to equip them with practical strategies for a successful start to their next stage of learning.
Please see link from Department of Education website on tips for parents/ carers in supporting your child starting secondary school in 2026. Please scroll down the page to the section that speaks of secondary students.
https://www.vic.gov.au/tips-starting-school
Life Education Program
The Life Education program will visit HPS from Monday 17th November until Tuesday 25th November 2025. Life Education delivers health and drug education through a visiting presenter who will support students to develop strategies and practice the skills required to lead a healthy lifestyle. Lessons are age appropriate and the children will be covering a wide range of health related topics, ranging from the human body and how it works, healthy eating and nutrition, medicines and drugs, bullying, resilience and social skills.Healthy Harold, the much loved Life Education giraffe mascot is always a much anticipated element of the visit. The sessions are always fun, interactive and extend and develop the children’s understanding of the topics covered. We will be further broadening these topics in class both prior to and after the visit and aligning to our wellbeing sessions.
Foundation will focus on: ‘My Body Matters’
Grade 1&2 will focus on ‘Safety Rules’
Grade 3&4 will focus on ‘The Inside Story’
Grade 5&6 will focus on ‘Take a Breath’
Further information on what each topic covers can be found in your child's Compass event on the dashboard.
Active to School Travel Survey for HPS
Thank you to the 118 families that completed the survey. The data will be utilised in assisting HPS as we work with the local council. We are working closely with Emily Harford and the team at Banyule City Council to make travel to and from school safer and easier for everyone.
We understand that our central location makes on-street parking highly competitive. The temporary closure of the Cartmell Off-Street Car Park, along with ongoing construction at the school and up the hill at Austin Hospital, these works are adding to the challenge for families and staff. Through completing this survey, we will continue our discussions with the council to develop practical solutions to make travel to and from school safer and easier for everyone. Further updates in the coming weeks with the view to launching Active to School Travel in early 2026. Thank you for your support.
Have a great weekend.
Helen Thomas & Monique Rankin
Assistant Principals
Heidelberg Primary School