Principal's Report

Happy week 7 everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a nice (extra) long weekend with staff having a Professional Practice day on Friday. As I mentioned in the prvious newsletter our aim was to focus on our students writing and in particular, creating a consistent instructional model for our school. Through much research, collaboration and commitment from all, we've worked on a model that you'll see in classrooms shortly. We also dived into growth mindset which you can see on the photos below.  

Upcoming on Monday we have our Cross Country at Hanging Rock. Not only will we be completing our cross country run, but we have time to explore the surroundings as well. I have liaised with local rangers at HR to see how we can further support the upkeep of the environment which I believe is an important contribution to our local community. We are thankful for those parents that have offered to come along, we look forward to seeing you there!

Keep an eye on the Woodend Star in the coming publications, NPS will be featuring after the excursion we had to BUPA Aged Care in Woodend. Whilst it was whiteboard word games, students absolutely put thier best foot forward and we couldn't be prouder of how they demonstrated our values and got involved. We have been invited back next week to particpate in carpet bowls, which in the words of some Bupa carers, it will be great for students and residents to "egg each other on and form some alliances". 

Sharny and I went out to Little Stones ELC last Tuesday night and spoke at thier Kinder information session about the transition towards Foundation and beginning school. In the coming weeks are hoping to send some students out to Little Stones to begin forming relationships with those younger. This is a great opportunity for our future leaders to demonstrate thier leadership skills and build relationships with potential school mates in the coming years. We are very grateful to Little Stones for the opportunity and look forward to building a partnerhsip together. 

NAPLAN week is here for Grade 3s and 5s. Yesterday was Writing, today Reading then tomorrow will be Language Conventions and Numeracy. 

Nuerodiversity Celebration Week

Neurodiversity Celebration Week is a worldwide initiative that challenges stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences. It aims to transform how neurodivergent individuals are perceived and supported by providing schools, universities, and organisations with the opportunity to recognise the many talents and advantages of being neurodivergent, while creating more inclusive and equitable cultures that celebrate differences and empower every individual.

We will be celebrating this in Week 8, where staff have planned a range of activities thorugh the week. There will be more information to come, although the week will consist of a few dress up days (coloured clothing represting various nuerodiversities at our school and in our community). Students are encouraged to wear these colours on the particular days as follows:

Tues – Purple and blue clothing 

Wed – Yellow and red clothing

Thurs – Orange and green clothing

Fri – Rainbow (any and all colours!)

We hope to bring the school community together in celebrating everyone at our school not just this week, but at all times. 

Community Story Time

We've had two Community Story Time sessions so far, it has been pleasing to see a few people come along. If you know of anyone in the community that may be interested, please encourage them to come along.

YMCA Lady Northcote

Grades 3-6 have thier upcoming camp booked overnight from the 2nd-3rd May. We ask if you could please pay your deposit by Monday 18th March, from then on installments can be made to pay the full amount. Thankyou.

Easter Raffle

Please keep donating where you can as we will begin piecing our prizes together in the next couple of weeks. This will be drawn on the last day of this term at our last assembly. Watch this space!