As we reach the end of Week 8 of Term 1, we reflect on the great start to the 2026 school year we have had. Our students have settled in well and have made new connections with their teachers and peers. The weather has been interchangeable, meaning we are finding a lot of student jumpers and jackets throughout the day. An important reminder to all to ensure items of clothing come to school with names on them. It is much easier for us to return them.

On Tuesday morning our students and staff met for our first official Housemates session of the year. As this week is Harmony Week, they completed an activity about themselves while buddied up with a student from a different year level. Their final pieces of work will be put together in a mural on the wall in our multi-purpose hall, so it can be shared with our community whenever we meet in this space. Thanks to Mrs Minchew for co-ordinating the activity and our staff for their support. We are aiming to hold up to two Housemates sessions a term with different focuses between learning and wellbeing. The aim of these sessions is to develop cross age relationships across our student body. On Tuesday it was great to see how welcoming and supportive our older students were to our younger students and to see the House T-Shirts on display.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN testing period commenced last Wednesday for our Year 3 and Year 5 students. While there was a slight hiccup during the Year 5 online Writing session, our staff and students showed resilience and persisted. We were able to complete our planned timeline and are utilising the catch up period to finish off testing with any students who were absent. The test period officially ends on Monday 23rd March. Results will be sent out to families as soon as they are available.

Planning Week and AEU Stop Work

Each term our teaching teams meet to plan for the following term, in order to do this we have to change around our specialist timetable for the week. Teachers will always let students know when there are planned timetable changes. Planning days are as follows:

Monday: Foundation and Year 3
Wednesday: Year 1/2
Thursday: Year 4
Friday: Year 5/6

If you have been following recent media about the current negotiations for the Victorian Government Schools Agreement process, you will be aware that there has been discussion about Australian Education Union members participating in “Stop Work” action on Tuesday 24th March. I can advise that currently the school will still be operating with minimal disruption. Further advice will be sent out to the community closer to the day. If by chance an agreement is reached prior to Tuesday, the “Stop Work” will not be happening. The Year 4 excursion to the city will still proceed either way.

Colour Lap-a-thon

We are looking forward to our annual Colour Lap-a-thon next Wednesday, Ms Mann has mapped out a route, the colours have arrived and staff and volunteers are ready to go. Orders for the BBQ lunch will remain open on QKR until Monday at 10pm. Please ensure your child/ren’s order is placed before this time. Students will participate in the first two learning sessions of the day, will have a recess and lunch break. The day will consist of the whole school tug of war, our BBQ lunch and end with our colour lap-a-thon. Funds raised are planned to go towards school projects, like a roof for our student bike shed and an upgrade to our Audio Visual equipment in our multipurpose hall. Students are reminded that they are to wear a white t-shirt if they want colour on them or a dark t-shirt if they do not, there is an alternative route planned for these students.

Literacy

Over the last few years our teachers have been working to improve our teaching and assessment practices in Literacy, to ensure the best outcomes for our students. This has included reviewing our instructional models, phonics program and resources and the types of assessments undertaken to help identify student learning goals. Many of our families who have been part of our community over the last 10 years will know that we have traditionally utilised levelled texts for reading and have tracked where their child is up to by the change in levelled reader sent home. This year we are moving away from this system, this does not mean that students will not have goals in reading and will not be reading texts appropriate to their abilities. Staff are using different strategies to assess which doesn’t produce a reading level, but will still be considering the Big 6 in reading; Oral Language, Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension. The Big 6 in Reading has always been the basis for our reading program, we are adjusting our assessment practices to align with these. Further information about changes to our literacy program will be shared with families throughout the year, so please keep an eye out for this.

This week in visits to classrooms it was great to see the Year 1/2 students taking part in their morning phonemic awareness sessions that incorporate physical activity into the learning.

Principal Assistant Principal

Elissa Campbell Adam Sayers

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