Principals' Message 

Hello Parents and Friends,

Welcome to our very first newsletter for 2026.  It has been a fantastic start to the school year and we are so pleased with how all our students have settled in.  It is such a special time in primary schools across the state as new Preps commence their learning journey.  It was a wonderful day at Templestowe Park and we have added some photos to this newsletter.  Our Grade 3-6 students participated in our annual Swimming Carnival last Friday and it was an outstanding event.  A huge thank you to Mr Van Der Pol who once again produced a sensational event for our students and community.  See some photos in Learning @ TPPS.

Learning has commenced across all year levels and our students have jumped straight back into the routines that we spent so much time and effort introducing in 2025.  It was such a fantastic year in 2025 and we have seen exceptional academic results throughout the year.  This has included the best ever results we have achieved in a range of different assessments. This was highlighted in the Department of Education 2025 School Performance Report where we achieved in the ‘High’ section in the Overall Performance Group for all schools in Victoria. This is the highest performance level that a school can achieve.  We were particularly pleased with the results that were achieved in Literacy and Numeracy, where our students performed extraordinarily well.  

We are so motivated to continue improving both our academic and wellbeing outcomes for our students in 2026.  Extensive work has taken place to design the very best research-based lessons for all students.  Additionally, staff are about to commence training in two brand new programs that will be introduced in 2026.  They are the highly successful Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) wellbeing program and the award winning QuickSmart Numeracy Support program.  You will learn more about these excellent programs throughout the year.  We will be hosting a special parent information session in the coming weeks to explain to parents about our teaching and learning methods in the school. Please keep an eye out for this on Compass. 

We have so many outstanding initiatives happening in the school; however, there is one area that requires improvement.  As outlined throughout 2025, the Department of Education has identified Templestowe Park as a school that is required to improve student attendance.  A great deal of work has been undertaken in this area, but unfortunately, we have not seen improvement.  An important letter will be sent to families next week outlining the steps the school will be taking in 2026 to address this critical area. 

PFA Twilight Evening and Welcome Picnic

The PFA and TPPS warmly invite all families to our Family Twilight Night and Welcome Picnic on Thursday 19th February.  Families are invited to bring a picnic dinner and enjoy the company of our community on the front oval. There will be some fun sports activities for the children between 5:00pm and 6:30pm. 

We look forward to seeing you on the night and enjoying each other’s company!

Please note – this is an alcohol-free event. 

Day: Thursday 19th February

Time: 5.00 to 6:30pm

Venue: Front Oval 

Happy Chinese New Year! 

We would like to wish all of our Chinese families a Happy New Year! We hope that the new year is smooth sailing, like a horse running freely on flat land with no obstacles. 

Parent Payments for 2026 - Please Make Your Payment by Friday 27 February

You will notice on your Newsfeed under Course Confirmation that the 2026 Parent Payments are now available to be paid on Compass. 

The process on how to pay the charges is outlined in the letter and guide on the Compass Newsfeed. 

Once again, the student charges for Prep and Grades 1-6 are different.  Our Grade 1-6 students use student textbooks while our Prep students do not.  Please see more information on what these levies cover in the attached letter. 

Thank you for your vital contribution to our voluntary levies.  Without your contributions we would not be able to offer our extensive and diverse learning programs, purchase the excellent resources we have and improve our facilities.

If assistance is required, please reach out and we can help.  Please contact Sanober in the school office or Mark to discuss. 

A huge thank you to all the families that have already made the payments.  It is greatly appreciated. 

Parent Payments – Curriculum Contributions – What does it cover? 

Victorian Government Schools provide students with free instruction and ensure students have free access to all items, activities and services that are used by the school to fulfil the requirements of the Curriculum. 

• Curriculum Consumables: covering stationery items including but not limited to: scrapbooks, exercise books, display books, art folio, document wallet foolscap, pencils/ pens (depending on grade), pencil case, colour pencils/wax crayons, white board markers, wooden ruler, sharpener, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, etc. ($55)
• Consumables for Art ($45) 
• Consumables for STEM ($40)
• Consumables for Literacy ($40)
• Consumables for Mathematics ($40)
• Consumables for Language ($25)
• Consumables for Food Tech ($15)

• Consumables for Wellbeing ($20) 

Student Workbooks ($50 – also subsidised by the school) 

• Spelling Mastery Student Workbook

• New Wave Mental Maths Student Workbook 

   

Online Subscriptions

• Maths Online Subscription ($15)
• Literacy Online Subscription ($15)

• Other subscriptions ($15)

We thank the community for making contributions that allow the school to offer such an engaging, diverse and empowering learning environment.  Without your contributions, our learning programs, grounds and school library would be vastly different and inferior to what we currently offer. 

Welcome to our new and returning staff!

 We are pleased to welcome the following new staff members in 2026:

• Ms Megan Chen – Grade 3 
• Ms Natalie Yip– Grade 4 
• Ms Tara Sela – Grade 5
• Ms Emily Dobe– Grade 6 
• Mr Neil Mitchell Grade 6

• Mrs Megan  Bell - Maths Extension and High Ability Teacher

   

We are so happy to have these new teachers at TPPS and we look forward to contributing greatly to our school. 

Term 1 Overviews 

Term 1 Curriculum overviews for all year levels were forwarded to parents via Compass today. Within these overviews you will find what your child is learning in all curriculum areas, the Positive Education focus for the term, homework requirements, Specialist days and teacher contact details.  

All term overviews are permanently kept in the Community Section of Compass (choose School Documentation from the dropdown menu, then School Community Information, then the year level folder that you wish to access).

Thank You to Our 2025 School Councillors 

Our final meeting of the 2025 School Council will take place on Wednesday 18th February, 2026 and we would like to acknowledge and thank our School Council and those who have completed their terms.  We had an extremely successful year in 2025 with outstanding academic and wellbeing outcomes.  Additionally, the School Council undertook the work to make our new COLA a reality.  This was over two years of blood, sweat and tears.  

Our School Council is such a motivated, supportive and passionate group of people.  Led by our President, Shalina Navaratnam, this group guides strategic and financial planning for the school.  They are also a wonderful bunch of people that we have loved to get to know personally throughout the year. Thank you for such a wonderful year. 

Our School Council for 2025 consisted of the following members:

• Shalina Navaratnam (President)
• Peter Manolakos (Vice President)
• Amy Gunzburg (Treasurer)
• Aoj Khan
• Sanna Clapton
• Rafaela Lambrou
• Aylin Eser 
• Brian Cleary        
• Narelle Syme
• Robyn Twyford
• Emma White

• Mark Roberts (Executive Officer) 

   

Members who will conclude their 2-year term are Aylin, Shalina, Amy and Emma.

Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) 

A great deal of pre-construction planning has been taking place for our COLA.  To make way for the COLA, some trees will need to be trimmed or removed.  A number of our gum trees are extremely large and they are also posing a safety risk. Harnesses are installed on some branches for safety reasons.  Please rest assured, any trees that are removed will be replaced with new trees across the school.   

An indicative timeline for the project is below.  

• Builders to take possession of the site on Friday 27th February - 2nd March 
• Footing construction – first week of March
• Steel erection – 19th of April
• Wrap up project on the 7th of May

During this period, the asphalt basketball courts will be closed to the students and community. 

The COLA is going to be an exceptional addition to our school.  It will provide a covered space for PE classes, assemblies, playtime and whole school activities.  This is a project that has been fully funded by the school and has been six years in the making.  It is quite astounding that we have some of the best grounds and facilities of any primary school in the state and yet we have not received any additional major capital works funding in our forty-eight-year history.  Some schools have had multiple complete rebuilds during this time.  Thank you for the support of our School Council that assist us greatly in providing such fantastic facilities for our students, staff and community. 

Grade 6 and Sustainability Leaders Badge Presentation Assembly – Friday 13th February 

We held a very special assembly today to present our 2026 School and Semester 1 Sustainability Leaders with their badges. We will post photos of this special assembly in our next newsletter. 

Meet the Teacher

On Wednesday February 25th (to 4:30 pm) and Thursday February 26th (to 7.20 pm), parents of Year 1 to 6 students are invited and welcome to meet your child's new teacher for the 2026 school year.   This opportunity to formally meet and share information is really important to assist the relationship between teacher and student.  Being so early in the year, this discussion is not based on academic progress.  It is simply a chance for teachers and parents to learn more about each other, as well as learn more about the needs of your child to support them and help them settle in quickly to the new school year.  

If work commitments prevent families from attending onsite for these two dates in February, an online option will be provided.  Making a booking on Compass will be required regardless of the conversation being face to face or online.  If you can only ‘attend’ online, please book a time on Compass and then email your child’s teacher informing him / her that you would like to meet online.  The teacher will then let you know as to how this will happen.  If you intend meeting your child’s teacher face to face, just making a booking via Compass will suffice. Bookings will be able to be made early next week.

Parking Around the School – It is all of our responsibility to keep our students safe 

As with all primary schools in our area and across Victoria, there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students and parents converging on a very small area within a twenty-minute period.  There will always be congestion, this is simply a fact of life. The safety of our students and community is paramount so please follow all road rules and parking guidelines. 

The RACV have produced an excellent resource for the community titled, 'Road safety around schools in Victoria: rules, tips and school zones'. We strongly recommend that all parents and carers spend 10 minutes investigating this excellent resource. 

Brain Food Information and Suggestions

We encourage all students to munch away on healthy snacks to fuel their brain during learning time. Robyn Dery (Accredited Practising Dietitian) has provided information and suggestions to families about how to adequately fuel their child for learning. 

Please find the information sheet from Robyn below. You will notice that a balanced and full breakfast is the most important factor in setting up your child for a successful learning experience. Please keep this information sheet handy throughout the year for guidance and suggestions for what is appropriate to nibble on during this period. 

Important – Please ensure that all brain food is placed in a small container rather than in your child’s lunch box.  There is not enough space on the student desks for lunchboxes during learning time.  Thank you for your cooperation. 

TPPS Birthday treats at school 

To avoid disappointment and to support the safety and well-being of all students, we

request that Parents and Carers read the following guidelines about birthday treats at school carefully.

At TPPS, we have a number of students who are anaphylactic or have severe allergies to a range of foods. Anaphylaxis is a severe, rapidly progressive allergic reaction that is potentially life threatening. Certain foods and insect stings are the most common causes of anaphylaxis.

It is very difficult to monitor the ingredients in foods that are brought in for birthdays. It is for this reason that we ask families to please follow these guidelines when bringing food to the school for a birthday.

These guidelines will be strictly adhered to by teachers and all school staff. 

• No birthday lolly bags
• Only ONE item per child eg. One lollypop 
• Only one type/brand of item eg. A bag of Chupa Chups 
• Food MUST be individually wrapped
• No nuts
• No homemade food

Birthday treats will be distributed to students at the end of the school day.  If birthday treats do not meet the above guidelines, the treats will be returned home.

It is perfectly acceptable not to bring in treats and we will celebrate each child’s birthday in the class by singing 'Happy Birthday' to them.  As a school we never supply food or drink as rewards for students. School-wide rewards systems include certificates, ribbons, class games, etc. 

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Mobile Devices at school 

All phones brought to school by students must be switched off and stored securely during the school day. At Templestowe Park this means that when any student with a phone enters the school grounds it must be turned off.  At 8:50am, students will give the phone to the teacher for safe storage throughout the day.  At the completion of the school day, students can access their mobile phones when they leave the school grounds. Smartwatches can only be used for time management, not communication. In the event where a smartwatch can connect to the internet via a SIM card, this functionality will need to be disabled during school hours.

Please click here to access our Mobile Devices Policy. 

Photos on Social Media 

It is timely to remind all families that photographs of students during school activities should not be uploaded to social media accounts. This is particularly the case if other children (not your own) are in a photo. 

Accident Insurance

The Department of Education (DOE) does not provide personal accident insurance for students.  Parents are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs.  DOE (which includes the school) does not offer replacement of personal items which are brought to school and are lost, broken or stolen.  Sentimental or expensive belongings and toys, including sports equipment and electronic devices, are normally best left at home.

Annual Privacy Reminder for our School Community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu

• Vietnamese

   

Have a fantastic weekend! 

Mark Roberts                       Brian Cleary                                       Robyn Twyford                                    

PRINCIPAL                           ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL                  ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL