Leadership Report

Costa Missailidis -Wellbeing and Engagement Leader

Open Streets

What a fantastic morning we had at our latest Open Streets event on Friday 30th May!

Students and families enjoyed a range of activities out on Blair Street — from skipping, hula hooping, and bike riding practice to logging even more skipping hours for Jump Rope for Heart. The energy and enthusiasm was wonderful to see!

We were also lucky to have Dr Cranky join us for a free bike check-up and service. Many students and families took up the opportunity to give their bikes a tune-up and learn more about safe riding.

To help warm everyone up on a chilly morning, hot chocolates and coffee were flowing — and definitely appreciated!

What another amazing community event! A big thank you to all students, families, and staff who took part.

Save the date!Our next Open Streets event will be held on Friday 27th June — we can’t wait to see you there!

Building Resilience Through GEM – Every Monday at Merri-bek

At Merri-bek Primary School, we are proud to continue implementing The Resilience Project as part of our whole-school wellbeing approach. Each Monday morning from 9:00am, students engage in dedicated sessions focused on the core wellbeing strategies of Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness, and Emotional Literacy — also known as GEM.

These weekly lessons provide students with the tools to:

• Recognise and appreciate the positive moments in their lives (Gratitude)
• Understand others’ feelings and build stronger relationships (Empathy)
• Be more present and aware in the moment (Mindfulness)
• Identify and manage their emotions effectively (Emotional Literacy)

We encourage families to continue the conversation at home through GEM Chats — a simple and effective way to connect and reflect with your child. This week we will be exploring ‘Gratitude’ at home. Questions like “What are you grateful for today?” or “What was the best part of your day?” can support your child’s emotional wellbeing and strengthen your family’s connection.

Thank you for partnering with us to support your child’s wellbeing and growth.

Understanding Bullying – Supporting Our Students

At Merri-bek Primary School, we are committed to creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment for all students. An important part of this is helping our students understand the difference between rude behaviour, mean behaviour, conflict, and bullying.

To support this, we’ve been using a helpful tool in our classrooms: the “Am I Being Bullied?” Flowchart. This resource guides students through a series of questions to help them reflect on their experiences and understand whether an incident may be bullying, a one-off mean act, rude behaviour, or a conflict between peers.

Key distinctions:

• Rude behaviour is unintentional and not meant to hurt.
• Mean behaviour is hurtful and on purpose, but happens only once or twice.
• Conflict often occurs during disagreements where emotions are high.
• Bullying is ongoing, intentional, and involves a power imbalance.

We encourage you to talk through this resource with your child to help them build confidence in identifying behaviours and knowing when to seek support. If your child ever feels unsafe, worried, or unsure, please remind them they can always speak to a trusted adult at school.

Thank you for partnering with us to ensure a supportive and safe environment for every child.

Jump Rope For Heart

We’re skipping through the term!

Jump Rope for Heart is well underway and it’s great to see so many children practicing their skipping and getting involved in the fundraising for the Heart Foundation.

Keep up the great efforts and if you haven’t signed your child up yet, it's not too late! www.jumprope.org.au/parents   

It’s not long until our Jump Off Day on Friday 4th July, so keep on practicing those tricks! And don’t forget to share your online fundraising page with friends and family to raise money for a great cause!

Thanks,

Costa Missailidis

Joseph Hess - Maths Learning Specialist

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) recently published its revised mathematics curriculum (Mathematics curriculum 2.0).

All Victorian government schools will start using the Mathematics curriculum 2.0 in 2025. At Merri-Bek Primary School, we are using the revised mathematics curriculum for school reporting from Semester 1 2025. 

On your child's previous report, the teacher reported against the 3 strands of the achievement standard for mathematics (Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability). 

Under the Mathematics curriculum 2.0, your child’s teacher will report against the achievement standard as a whole, providing a single, aggregated score. As the achievement standards reported on have changed, the first time you receive a report under the Mathematics 2.0 curriculum, it will only show achievement and not progress. 

For all reports after this, progress will be shown against the single achievement standard.

The report for Mathematics will look like this: 

F-2 Learning Outcomes - Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics

3-6 Learning Outcomes - Number, Algebra, Measurement, Space, Statistics, Probability 

The VCAA made these changes to help teachers plan their teaching and learning programs in mathematics, giving them more flexibility to support students to link ideas within mathematics and also with other curriculum areas.

For further information, refer to the department’s policy on Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 -https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/reporting-student-achievement/policy

If you have any queries about your child’s numeracy report, please contact Joseph Hess by email: joseph.hess@education.vic.edu.au

Joseph Hess - Maths Learning Specialist

 Tristan Kelly - Literacy Learning Specialist

New English Curriculum 2.0

A new English curriculum (English curriculum 2.0) has recently been published by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). The new curriculum was available for familiarisation in schools last year and in 2025 all Victorian government schools are implementing it.

We are using the new English curriculum 2.0 for school reporting this semester. There are no changes to the structure of the English reports. Students will still receive three separate Victorian Curriculum Levels: Reading, Writing and Speaking/Listening.

If you would like to understand more about the reporting process, please refer to the department’s policy on Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 -https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/reporting-student-achievement/policy

Literacy Coaching

This term our Literacy Consultant Narissa Leung (Oz Lit Teacher) has been working with the Year 1/2 team. Narissa observed 1/2 teachers and students in multiple sessions across the term and provided feedback and coaching to the team. 

Narissa was particularly impressed with the team’s growth across the term. In her feedback she emphasised how teachers have successfully developed routines so that students are transitioning between each part of the Literacy block quickly and focusing on their learning. It is an action-packed morning, so these seamless transitions are essential. The Literacy block includes explicit teaching of phonemic awareness (identifying and manipulating speech sounds), phonics (knowledge of how letters represent sounds), high frequency words, handwriting, opportunities for independent reading and buddy reading, and short brain breaks throughout. Narissa also highlighted the positive impact that teachers are having by providing immediate feedback to students when they are recording words and sentences on their mini-whiteboards during the phonics segment of the lesson. Another success that Narissa emphasised was the way that teachers are using a range of strategies to support and challenge every student within the Literacy block based on their point of need.

Tristan Kelly - Literacy Learning Specialist