Principal Report

Welcome to the Highvale PS newsletter for Week Four. We have had another great fortnight at HPS where we celebrated Science Week and Bullying: No Way Week. Students have had a great time completing whole class and individual activities in these two areas along with many, many others. 

New Staff to HPS

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome two new staff members to HPS. Luisa Hill will be teaching in 2S every Thursday as Caroline Coady has now moved into a full time position in 1S after Brooke Scott began her maternity leave. Luisa comes to HPS with a friendly smile and a wealth of experience, having previously taught for many years at Orchard Grove PS. We also welcome Yolanda Nell who will be teaching in 6D for the remainder of the year when Emily D begins her maternity leave. Yolanda joins us with vast teaching experience in schools in both Australia and South Africa. Welcome ladies.  

Attendance

At Highvale Primary School we firmly believe that attending school every day plays a crucial role in shaping a child's educational journey. Regular attendance allows students to fully engage in classroom activities, discussions, and hands-on learning experiences. It provides them with the opportunity to grasp new concepts, ask questions, and collaborate with their peers. Consistent attendance helps build a strong foundation of knowledge and skills, enabling children to excel academically. This term, we will be reinforcing the importance of attending school every day. 

Congratulations to the 149 students who have achieved 100% attendance so far in August. Some of these students include: Lucas L PFY, Emma S PFY, Noah L PB, Lydia Y PB, Yuchen L 1S, Rihana V 1S, Walter Z 1D, Emmy H 1D, Anya Z 2S, Cooper K 2S, Gretel L 2M, Bob W 2M, Kenul P 2J, Claire H 2J, Olivia T 3CBB, Lucas W 3CBB, Austen H 3J, Bonnie W 3J, Meera S 4A, Ene Z 4A, Jason L 4U, Victoria Z 4U, Zoe L 5S, Gavin W 5S, Claire C 5X, Aaron L 5X, Michael H 6S, Diya V 6S, Matthew N 6D and Irene L 6D.

Here are some attendance figures for 2025 so far:

Remember: it is not ok to be away!

ICAS Assessments

We ae pleased to be offering our Year Three, Four, Five and Six students the opportunity to participate in the ICAS this year and have received a total of 245 enrolments across all six subject areas. 

The timetable for the remaining ICAS is as follows:

Spelling – Wednesday 20th August

Science – Friday 22nd August

Maths – Friday 29th August

Wishing all students the best of luck completing these assessments.

Year Five/ Six Camp

Our Year Five and Six students attended the Sovereign Hill Camp earlier this week and they appear to have had a great time. They were tired when they arrived back at school, but they report that it was a wonderful experience and they enjoyed their time away together. A HUGE thank you to the parent volunteers who assisted our teachers in supervising the students at Sovereign Hill. These include: Angie Wing, Alex Tai, Chris Vat, Samuel Cham, Angelo Kizilis, Dustin Edge and Rob Tidd. We couldn’t attend these camps without parent volunteers so your help is very much appreciated by the students, myself and our school community. 

Science Week 

This week we celebrated Science Week and many students have identified this as their favourite week of the whole school year. Mrs Williamson planned a range of ‘hands on’ and fun activities across the week that linked beautifully with this years theme ‘Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language’. We hope you enjoy looking at the Science Week page of this newsletter.

Book Week 

We are very excited to celebrate Book Week at HPS next week. This years theme is “Book an Adventure” and 2025 is a particularly special year for Book Week as it marks the 80th anniversary of this wonderful event. At HPS we will celebrate Book Week by reading, creating texts and developing a lifelong love of Literacy. Some special events include special guest readers, creative writing tasks, a school-wide public speaking competition and a whole school dress up day on Friday 22nd August.  We hope to see all students dressed up on Friday.  

Grandparents Day

We are looking forward to our whole school Grandparents Day on Wednesday 27th August. Grandparents/ Family members/ Special friends will be invited into classrooms from 9:00am – 10:30am and will join in a special class activity. We are very excited to open this invitation and spend the morning together having fun at Highvale.

Fathers Day

On Friday 5th September, we will be holding a Fathers Day Breakfast from 7:30am – 9:00am. Fathers, grandfather and male role models are all invited onsite to enjoy an egg and bacon roll and meet other Highvale Dads. Please come along and celebrate Fathers Day with us!

NAPLAN Information

We are very proud of the Year Three and Five students who performed extremely well in their NAPLAN assessments. Individual student results have been sent home for families to view. The students of Highvale were primarily ranked in the top two categories of ‘strong’ and ‘exceeding’, which is an outstanding result. 

Some highlights from our NAPLAN data include:  

• 95% of our Year Three and Five students achieved a result of strong or exceeding in Reading. This is almost 10% more than other schools in our network.  
• 93% of our Year Three students achieved a result of strong or exceeding in Numeracy. This is more than other schools in our network.
•  96% of our Year Three students achieved a result of strong or exceeding in Writing. This is more than other schools in our network.  
• 87% of our Year Five students achieved a result of strong or exceeding in Spelling. This is more than other schools in our network.  
• 87% of our Year Five students achieved a result of strong or exceeding in Grammar and Punctuation. This is more than other schools in our network.  

Whilst we are very proud of our students academic achievements and celebrate these, we also recognise that our students have many talents such as music, dance, cheerleading, athletics, chess, basketball and public speaking. Well done to all students who are participating, achieving and having fun in varied activities both inside and outside of school.        

Financial Contributions 

Highvale Primary School sincerely thanks all parents and carers who have supported our school this year. Your generous contributions play a vital role in helping us enhance and enrich the educational experiences we offer our students. These contributions have enabled us to provide additional resources and opportunities beyond the standard curriculum. If you are yet to make contributions and would like to, please see Compass or come and visit us at the school office. You are helping to make Highvale a very special place for our students to learn and grow. 

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS 

Kids Help - kidshelpline.com.au phone 1800 55 1800 

Parent Line - betterhealth.vic.gov.au phone 13 22 89 

Headspace - headspace.org.au phone 1800 650 890 

eSafety Commissioner - esafety.gov.au - Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online 

Have a great week ahead HPS families,

Carly Epskamp

Acting Principal

carly.epskamp@education.vic.gov.au