Assistant Principals' Report
Curiosity - Mappen Units
This term, our Curiosity units will be focusing on Place and Sustainability. Students in Prep, Year 1, Year 3 and Year 6 will focus on Place. Students will learn about different places and how we can care for and sustain them, places in their local community, the diversity of places and what makes them unique, the importance of ‘Place’ to First Nations Australians and different aspects of life in other places, including Asia.
- Prep - Where We Live
- Year 1 - Places and Spaces
- Year 3 - Our Island Home
- Year 6 - Australia and Our Asian Neighbours
Students in Year 2, Year 4 and Year 5 will focus on sustainability. They will learn about different places and how we can care for and sustain them, where our food comes from and how we can make healthy and sustainable food choices, Earth’s water and the importance of water conservation, and how to protect environments to ensure the sustainability of our precious wildlife.
- Year 2 - Raw to Ready
- Year 4 - Harmony with H2O
- Year 5 - Wildlife Warriors
Home Reading
Daily reading is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to support your child’s learning, and research shows it makes a real difference. Children who read - or are read to - every day build stronger vocabulary, better comprehension, and more confidence as learners. Studies also show that reading most days can give children up to a year’s worth of additional developmental advantage by the time they reach primary school, and those benefits continue to flow into later years. Regular reading strengthens focus, sparks imagination, and helps children make sense of the world around them. Whether it’s a bedtime story, shared reading, or quiet independent reading, just a few minutes each day creates a lasting impact on your child’s literacy and overall academic success.
The expectations in the Primary Years are that all students read for 20 minutes, 5 nights a week and record their reading in their diary. This recording is evidence of home reading and will be used by our teachers when completing Work Habits on students' reports. Classroom teachers will be checking students' diaries each fortnight, and we will be rewarding classes that have the most nights of reading at our Primary Years assemblies.
eSafety Webinars for Parents & Carers in Term 2
As part of our ongoing commitment to student wellbeing and online safety, we encourage parents and carers to explore the range of free parent webinars offered by the eSafety Commissioner. These sessions cover a variety of topics relevant to families, including online friendships, navigating screen time, social media use, gaming, and supporting children to make safe and respectful choices online. These webinars are a valuable way for families to build confidence and understanding in supporting children in the digital world.
- Navigating screen time: tools for today’s families
- Exploring the online experiences of boys and young me
- How AI is influencing new online risks for children and young people
- The trust trap: navigating friendships, pressure and manipulation online
We particularly recommend the webinar “The Trust Trap: Navigating Friendships, Pressure and Manipulation Online”, which explores the subtle and sometimes difficult‑to‑spot ways online interactions can impact friendships, identity, and wellbeing. The webinar unpacks behaviours such as exclusion, controlling dynamics, and emotionally loaded interactions that are often dismissed as “just joking.”
Parents and carers will gain practical strategies to recognise these behaviours and start supportive conversations that help children set healthy online boundaries and feel safer navigating digital friendships. This 45‑minute webinar is designed for parents and carers and can also be viewed alongside young people aged 13+, supporting shared understanding and meaningful conversations at home. While the webinar is targeted at secondary‑aged students, we believe the information is particularly valuable for our Year 5 and 6 families as students begin to engage more independently in online spaces.
In the Primary Years, we continue to place a strong emphasis on being kind, respectful, and responsible online. Recently, our Year 6 students participated in a Cyberbullying presentation delivered by the Mill Park Proactive Policing Unit, which focused on safe online behaviour and the importance of making positive choices. In addition, our Year 4 and 5 cohorts will soon take part in Kids Helpline Cyber Safety sessions, further supporting students to navigate the online world safely and confidently.
More information and registration for eSafety parent webinars can be found here:
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars
