Hello Parents and Friends,

Four weeks into the school year and everything is humming along at Templestowe Park. Our ‘Meet the Teacher’ interviews were a great success and our teachers have gained so much more insight into their students. Our Twilight Evening last week was a huge success and it was so wonderful to see hundreds of community members in attendance. The Prep students have settled in so well and it was so exciting to visit them this week to see our systematic synthetic phonics teaching approach taking place. Our Preps are learning SATPIN ( the six letters that our reading program begins with) and they were already sounding out words with these letters. Our Grade 3-6 have all commenced their novel studies for the year and are reading classics such as ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and ‘Blueback’ by Tim Winton. The depth of analysis of these texts is quite extraordinary and our students absolutely love reading these outstanding novels. Our Grade 5/6 students commenced interschool sports last week and have all represented the school admirably. Our corridors are now starting to come to life as Ms Sumner displays the beautiful artwork that our students are creating. We are so proud of the students and staff of Templestowe Park. We have such a comprehensive, engaging and exciting learning community. TPPS is such a great place to learn.

Student Attendance - Every Day Counts!

The letter sent out to all families about attendance certainly created a lot of discussion around our school community. This is an area that we have to improve and it can only be achieved if we work together. Please click on the 'Attendance News' section in this newsletter to see all our attendance requirements and helpful tips to maintain excellent attendance. The school has the highest focus on this area in 2026 and the school will stop at nothing to improve attendance.

“Education is the passport to the future, and attendance is the stamp that gets you there.”

Grade 6 & Sustainability Leadership Badge Presentation

At our first assembly for the year, we presented our new Grade 6 and Sustainability leaders with their badges. We had arranged for Mr Mathew Guy ( State Member for Bulleen) to attend; however, he had to withdraw as he had to travel interstate for a funeral. We then invited Mr Gabriel Ng (Federal Member for Menzies), but unfortunately, he was a late withdraw. Even though these political leaders were not present, we still had a wonderful presentation to our newest school leaders.

We would like to wish our 2026 student leaders the very best in their roles. We have an outstanding student body and these young people exhibit our RRIPO values every day. We look forward to their leadership and guidance throughout 2026.

PFA Twilight Evening and Welcome Picnic

The weather was absolutely perfect for our PFA twilight evening and welcome picnic last Thursday night. We had an amazing turnout to the event and it was so great to see our entire community enjoying each other’s company on the front oval. Once again, the team from Proactivity provided a range of activities for our students to enjoy while our families relaxed and socialised. It was so great to get around and speak with so many of you on the night. Thanks for a wonderful evening!

New School Council in 2026

The 2026 School Council nominations closed last Monday and I am pleased to announce that we have filled all available 'Parent' positions for 2026. We had the exact number of nominations in the ‘Parent’ category that were available positions.

We are pleased that the following parents will join the 2026 School Council in the 'Parent' category.

Dr. Shalina Navaratnam
Mrs Amy Gunzburg
Mrs Jessica Abbott
Dr. Iris Zhou

We also plan to co-opt further members as part of the 'Community' category at our first School Council meeting in March. Our first 2026 School Council meeting will take place in March. I look forward to a fantastic year ahead with our new Council!

Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) - synthetic grass to be laid!

We are pleased to inform you that the School Council endorsed the installation of synthetic grass over the two asphalt basketball courts. The installation will take place after the construction of the COLA. We are so excited by this news. This project will provide an outstanding facility for our students and school community.

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.

Parents & Friends (PFA)

We had an excellent turnout of parents and community members at our PFA AGM and first meeting a couple of weeks ago. There were so many new faces and heaps of new ideas to build our community and provide exciting experiences for our students.

I am pleased to inform you that the following people were named as office bearers for 2026.

President: Angela Pezzimenti
Vice President: Matin Toudarbari
Secretary: Maral Khoee
Treasurer: Monica Huynh

Check out the PFA section of the newsletter to keep track of all the fun community building events that our PFA undertake throughout the year.

The next PFA meeting will take place on Friday 6 March in the staffroom at 9:00am. We invite all community to join us!

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.

New 75” Televisions for Classrooms - Thank you!

Students across the school are now looking at huge 75’ televisions in their classrooms. We have replaced our old 55” televisions with brand new 75” monitors and our students are very happy. The school decided to make the change as we use these monitors throughout the day to present slides and media. The larger screens make it much easier for our students to see and the picture quality is greatly improved.

The school was able to purchase these brand-new monitors with the contributions made to the ‘Library’ fund by our school community. Donations to this fund allow us to purchase a wide range of books for our Library and improve technology across the school. We thank you for your contributions and our students do too!

Prep 2027 Information Evening

We warmly invite prospective Prep 2027 Parents and Carers to our Prep 2027 Information Night on Thursday 26th March from 7.00pm to 8.00pm. The information session will take place in the Library and will cover topics such as school readiness, the Prep curriculum and everything else TPPS has to offer. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

Please click here to register your interest in attending.

For all information about Prep 2027 please click here.

Principals' Award

At our assembly today we presented ourt first Principals' Award for 2026. We were so pleased to present Alexander K from 6ES with the award. Alexander has had an exceptional start to Year 6. He has been attentive and engaged in all areas of his learning, particularly during Literacy. He has shown great curiosity and confidently shared his knowledge about World War II in connection with our novel study of Once. Alexander is polite and respectful, follows instructions, and is always willing to help a friend. He has also shown great enthusiasm in his role as JSC Leader in 6ES.

Well done, Alexander! You are a wonderful example of someone who lives the RRIPO values at TPPS.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Mark Roberts Brian Cleary Robyn Twyford

PRINCIPAL ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

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