Acting Principal's Report

Exciting times continue for our wonderful school as we move to the second half of Term 1.

The presentation of Year 6 Leadership roles and badges at this week’s assembly has generated immense excitement in our senior school, with our young innovators knuckling down to produce comprehensive action plans for the year ahead in their respective areas of leadership. The ideas generated in this space thus far have been truly prolific with students already visiting me with proposals, which is fabulous! This program promotes student voice and agency and is a very strong component of our senior program at Chatham.  

Acting Assistant Principal Role

Please be advised that Ms Kirstie Briggs will be in the role of Acting Assistant Principal from this week through to the end of term, with Ms Lucy Bray and Ms Michelle Owens assuming responsibility for Foundation KB throughout this time. I called our Foundation families to advise of these arrangements last week and it has also been communicated via Compass. I thank Mr Zac Barry for his work in the role of Acting Assistant Principal during the first half of this term and also Ms Bray and Ms Owens for their work with 5/6B throughout this time. 

Surrey Hills Music Festival – Saturday 28th February 2026

What a brilliant day of sounds and sweets we experienced at the Surrey Hills Music Festival last Saturday. Under the guidance of Mr Yanai Morris from Tuned-In Kids, our famous Chatham rock bands, Acorn Rush and The Late Midnights, performed an electric set to an excited crowd of music connoisseurs. Both bands were outstanding and the crowd really appreciated seeing such talent in musicians so young. Well done and ‘rock on’ to Eddie L, Liam C, Leopold P-C, Jake T, former student August K, Maddy R, Clementine K, Dina K-H and Jillian A. 

Our cake stall was also a huge success and we thank Ms Bree Knights, Ms Lisa Almond and Ms Pam Nasiakos who had undertaken a power of work in the lead up to this event to bring it all to fruition. I also thank all parents and carers who were able to ‘create and donate’ a sweet delight for the sale, which raised over $800.00 for the school, and also the families and staff who were able to drop in and support our bands and cake stall on the day. It was wonderful to be able to spot our vibrant Chatham marquee housing our cake stall opposite Reunion Café throughout the day, and we hope to be invited to participate again next year.

Division Swimming Competition – Wednesday 4th March 2026

It was fantastic to see Jude Knights represent Chatham at the Division level of swimming competition on Wednesday. The event was held at the Boroondara Sports Complex and Jude competed in the 50m Butterfly. He put in an absolutely brilliant swim to finish 6th in a very close field. This was an amazing effort and we wish Jude all the best as he continues to pursue his interest and talent in swimming. Jude currently swims for Surrey Park Swimming Squad and I’m predicting we may be tuning in to watch Jude compete at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032... or perhaps at a host nation still to be confirmed in 2036! Congratulations and keep up the great work, Jude!

School Tours for 2027 and Associated Activities 

Our first school tour for the year saw a group of 11 prospective families come to hear about our school and its programs. These families were very enthusiastic and it was fantastic to have our School and Vice Captains greet our visitors at the gates and also share their insights along with other senior students as we visited various learning spaces around the school. Students in the younger years were also more than happy to share what they were learning with our guests, which was wonderful to see.

We have a number of upcoming opportunities approaching for prospective families with kinder-aged children, including our Information Evening on Wednesday 18th March, Open Afternoon on Wednesday 25th March, Story Time Session on Wednesday 1st April and a Kitchen Garden Experience on Tuesday 25th April. Our Year 4 students will also be visiting Canterbury and District Preschool to read to students in the coming weeks. 

Regarding enrolments, it has been fantastic to also have 6 new students commence at Chatham at other levels of the school over the past two weeks and we give a warm Chatham welcome to these students and their families. This is wonderful to see as we look towards building our numbers in the coming years.

The Wonderful Chatham Library

What an exceptionally vibrant and inviting space our Chatham library is. Every class visits the library for one hour per week, where staff engage students in a multitude of Literacy lessons including text studies and also encourage students to borrow from our huge selection of books. Our Library is also open every day at lunch time for our students to enjoy.

Ms Andrea McLeod does an amazing job of maintaining and expanding this facility, with beautiful and inspiring displays, and the promotion of newly arrived texts for our students amongst many other tasks. There will be further updates regarding this exciting space in the weeks to come. 

School Council 2026

Our first meeting of the new School Council is to be conducted on Monday 16th March 2026. At this meeting, the School Council will determine the Office Bearers for 2026 and prior to electing the Office Bearers, the School Council will have the opportunity to consider the provision of two co-opted Community Members.

Community Members can be parents/carers or other interested members of the community, and at the discretion of the School Council, can be appointed for a term of one or two years. If you are interested in being considered for a Community Member vacancy, please email me directly as the Executive Officer of the School Council at: georgina.kirwan@education.vic.gov.au by Wednesday 11th March 2026.

Class Representative 2026

Our Class Representatives list has been finalised and I thank our Parents’ Club President, Ms Pam Nasiakos for her brilliant work in this space. Thank you to those who have volunteered for this role.

Please see the list below:

Reminder – 2026 Year 3 and 5 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) 

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual national assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and is the only nationwide assessment that all Australian children undertake. 

Students sit assessments in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The assessments are all completed online, with the exception of the Year 3 writing assessment, which is a handwritten assessment. 

The testing window for this year is between Wednesday 11th March and Monday 23rd March. If your child is away on one of the testing dates, we will endeavour to make this up within the testing window.

Please see below the dates of assessment and times pertaining to each assessment:

Chatham Gives Fund 

Chatham Gives is a discretionary program set up to support those facing financial hardship. Funds that are provided to this program are derived from the fundraising efforts of the Parents’ Club and/or Fundraising Committee of Chatham Primary School.

The funds that are provided are in the form of:

• Payment of excursions for the child(ren) involved

• Payment of a school camp

• Payment of school uniform for the child(ren) involved (on occasion the Acting Principal may also draw on the support of State Schools’ Relief for this purpose)

• Lunch orders paid for once or twice per week

• Food vouchers up to a value of $250.00 at high stress times, e.g. before school holidays, at Christmas, etc, with caveats upon the form of expenditure

   

The families and students involved in this program remain anonymous with the Acting Principal and Business Manager the only formal liaisons. Access to this program can be discussed with the Acting Principal or Business Manager, if parents/carers are facing financial hardship. Parents/carers can also donate to this program by contacting the Business Manager.

We look forward to a brilliant second half of Term 1!

Thank you,

Georgina Kirwan

Acting Principal