Principal's Report

Dear HPS Community, 

Despite it being a short week it was still very productive and full at HPS!

The extra day the public holiday gave to the weekend enabled many of our community to get away for a little break or just relax and recharge ready for the remainder of the term.

Berry Street Education Model Training

On Tuesday, staff were involved in the 3rd of 4 day training in the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM). 

BSEM aims to provide educators with knowledge and strategies to support the complex learning needs of all students.

BSEM acknowledges that every classroom contains some students who require a trauma-informed approach to build safety and connection and achieve their potential as learners.

I thank all staff who attended for their participation and willingness to be open, vulnerable and learn how we can collectively influence positive changes in the classroom practice.

NAPLAN

This week our Year 3 and 5 students have been participating in the annual NAPLAN assessments. With writing and reading now completed, conventions of language  and numeracy assessments will be conducted next week.

Parents and carers will receive individual results, which provides additional data to the teacher judgments in semester reports, for them to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy over time.

As a school and a system, the results importantly support monitoring and evaluating of the performance in these fundamental capabilities. Results provide schools, states and territories with information about how education approaches are working, areas to be prioritised for improvement, and those schools requiring support in the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy. This information is vital to the evaluation of our School Strategic Plan (SSP) and Annual Implementation Plan (AIP).

We have been extremely impressed with the resilience and effort of our Year 3 and 5 students. Well done and all the very best for next weeks assessments. We are proud of you for trying your best!

School Council

The call for nominations closed during the week and I am very pleased to welcome two new members to council:

*Matthew Dixon - parent category

*Jack Thornton - school employee category

We also welcome back onto council:

*Enaksha Garde - parent category

*Monique Rankin - school employee category

There are still two positions in the parent category that remain vacant

A school council meeting must operate with a quorum, which requires not less than one half of school council members currently holding office to be present at the meeting and majority of members present must not be Department employees.

Ensuring we have full membership becomes very important for the school council to function effectively to:

• to establish the broad direction and vision of the school within the school's community
• to arrange for the supply of:
  • goods
  • services
  • facilities
  • materials
  • equipment
  • other things or matters required for the conduct of the school, including the provision of preschool programs
• to raise funds for school related purposes
• to regulate and facilitate the after-hours use of the school premises and grounds
• to exercise a general oversight of the school buildings and grounds and ensure they are kept in good order and condition
• to ensure that all money coming into the hands of the council is expended for proper purposes relating to the school
• to inform itself and take into account any views of the school community for the purpose of making decisions in regard to the school and the students at the school
• to generally stimulate interest in the school in the wider community
• to prepare the School Strategic Plan and review the Annual Implementation Plan — to be signed by the president and the principal
• to report annually (the Annual Report) to the school community and to the department on:
  • the school’s financial activities
  • the School Strategic Plan, and
  • any other matters that are determined by the Minister
• to manage the hire, licence and shared use of school facilities
• to determine the dates for the school’s student-free days:
  • in accordance with the number of student-free days each calendar year specified by the Secretary of the department

Please consider joining our school council! Feel free to come and see me (usually found at one of the gates at start and end of the day), call or email me if you are interested :-) Naomi.Ivers@education.vic.gov.au 

Annual Report to Community in the staffroom 6.00-6.30pm on Tuesday 1st April- any community member welcome to attend.

Expressions of interest will be sought for our subcommittees in 2025 to reflect the work that is done within the school council. These subcommittees are not exclusively for school council members and are open to all members of the community. Keep an eye open for information regarding subcommittees as they are a great way for people to get involved with and support the school!

Goal Setting Conferences

Students and staff are working to be prepared and ready to share goals and strategies that will support your child to achieve future successes in their learning and wellbeing. Thank you to those families who have already booked a time for either Tuesday 18th or Wednesday 19th March- thats next week!! To those who have not yet booked, please do so by end of day Monday so that our teachers have time to be organised, enabling the best use of time for your session.

If you have an SSG meeting booked for this term (already completed or book for the upcoming week or two), your child's goals and strategies have already been discussed and so another booking time is not required.

*Room 15 parents and carers: please note that Faye will conduct her Goal Setting Conferences Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th March due to her being on long service leave.

2025 Camp Dates:

Year 3 - Wednesday 2nd - Friday 4th April

Year 5 - Wednesday 7th - Friday 9th May

Year 6 - Monday 12th - Thursday 15th May

Year 4 - Wednesday 27th - Friday 29th August

School Council Meeting Dates: Start time 6pm, Conclude by 8pm 

Term 1

Tuesday 1 April - first meeting with 2025 council members

**This meeting will begin with a presentation of the Annual Report to community. All members of HPS community are invited to join this meeting in the staffroom from 6.00-6.30pm to see the presentation.

Term 2

Tuesday 20 May

Tuesday 17 June

Term 3

Tuesday 12 August 

Tuesday 9 September

Term 4

Tuesday 28 October 

Tuesday 2 December

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend and we look forward to seeing you next week!

Naomi Ivers

Principal

Heidelberg Primary School