Principal Report

Dear PVNPS Community

Jane has been my right hand since I arrived at PVNPS. Her ability to welcome me to my first Principal class position and then also to assist me to understand all things finance and lots of other important processes, has been amazing. I will not go on too long, except to say thank you to Jane and that I have appreciated her friendship and our professional relationship immensely over the past five years. I will miss her warmness, calmness and fun nature.

We have advertised and interviewed and found a successful replacement for our Business Manager position. I will be able to introduce you to this person in the next few weeks.

PARENT ASSISTANCE

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for their support and especially our parents who continue to volunteer and help out in small or big ways. 

It is with great appreciation and recognition to those families who give up time to squirt powder paint on children, dress up as a cheetah, build shelving and make maths equipment and those who help in the classrooms. Then there is our parents who are our school councillors who give up some time to discuss all school matters after hours, eight times a year.

CAN YOU HELP IN THE CLASSROOM?

If you can assist in the classroom for an hour or so, to help with reading or writing or maths, please speak with your classroom teacher. 

If you have not completed an induction ( OHS, child safety and confidentiality agreements), you will need to do this before starting. You will also need to provide your working with children check to be photocopied and kept on file.

Teaching and Learning Programs at PVNPS

I am proud of what we have achieved and the further developments we are making in reference to our curriculum and our teaching pedagogy at PVNPS.

We heavily rely on evidence based practices and research to guide our teaching. We have  structured approaches in Literacy and Numeracy and this enables all students to participate at their level. We are aware of the diversity within learners and catering for this is what we do.

We introduced a strong focus on phonics in prep to Year 2 in 2023 and this year have introduced this approach in Years 3 and 4. 

Developing positive dispositions of students  and being able to have a growth mindset is highly important because 'If they think they can - they will!'

Last Friday Ms McAlister organsied our Maths Consultant, Peter Sullivan, to come back out to the school as we have been implementing the 'Launch-explore-summarise ' model that he advocates and which is also on the Departments Numeracy Portal as a preferred model. 

Peter  modelled a maths lessons for all our teaching staff to learn and to reflect upon, varying levels were catered for and hands on materials used.

 Peter will be coming back out in Term 2 to consolidate our math instructional model and to also extend our work with a focus on formative assessment.

ANOTHER  MR G GRANT 

I attended a grant ceremony at Hyatt Place, Essendon Airport, on behalf of Mr G and PVNPS to receive a plague for a grant that Mr G was successful in achieving.  This grant is for $4000 to establish worm farming for our garden program. Three cheers for Mr G!

Victorian Principals Association(VPA)

Last Thursday and Friday I attended the State Council meeting of the VPA, being a council member for the last three years. This meeting was about all the issues concerning primary schools in this current climate. 

One of the biggest issues that schools have at the moment is the Victorian Schools Building Authoirty (VSBA). The issue is around the timelines they have to rectify buildings or the jobs that they will actually fix - otherwise schools have to pay for this themselves. 

We had the VSBA come and fix a mould problem in the music room late last year, after some heavy rainfall and they only completed this in week 2 this term- However, now they will not complete it and told me I need to fund the $20,000 for new carpet and the painting to be done. I am going to push back, as the school money we do have I would prefer to spend it on staffing, materials and programs for students and not just for making a school room efficient.