From the  Principal 

Hello to our amazing community!

How blessed do I feel when photos like these arrive in my inbox from our talented art teacher, Suzy who is quietly working to ensure the success of our school’s art show?

I am a very fortunate principal, indeed. The students at our school continually surprise me with their energy, enthusiasm, genuine concern for others and happiness. Our teachers continue to be the best version of themselves as we continue to revise procedures and processes to ensure our students are cared for, always. The feedback I receive is welcomed, as we view it as an opportunity to acknowledge a ‘job well done’ or as an ‘opportunity to learn and grow’. 

GRATITUDE

I was reminded today of the importance of ‘gratitude’. According to David Stefano, (Professor of psychology and author of four books), “Gratitude is a super virtue. It’s an idea that dates back to Cicero, who said that ‘gratitude is not only a great virtue but the parent of all other virtues’. When you feel gratitude, you become more honest. It cuts rates of cheating dramatically. When you feel gratitude, it makes you more generous. You give more resources to other people. It also gives you more patience and perseverance. When you feel gratitude, you put more weight on future gains. So you’re more willing to put in time and effort in the moment, even if it’s difficult.”

Also, when you feel grateful, your moral compass becomes stronger. When you see other people breaking the rules, you hold them to higher moral standards. Your expectations rise.

So, at Carnegie PS, I encourage all of us to express gratitude. If we see each of us expressing gratitude towards others, we might even think of them as a better person and according to Sara Algoe (psychologist) people actually like us more when we do it.

STUDENT NUMBERS

There is still movement in our 2024 student numbers with families joining the school and some that are leaving over the next few weeks. At this stage we have planned our workforce based on 598 students for 2024. We will have 26 classes. Class structure is always dependent upon student numbers. You will see that we will be operating straight classes in prep, grades 1,2, 5 and 6 and multi age classes in grades 3 and 4 to accommodate our students and reduce grade sizes. We shared our plan with school council last Wednesday. 

We will let you know classes and teachers later when our staffing is finalised. 

Numbers:

STAFFING

We are working industriously to finalise our staffing for 2024, using Department of Education recruiting practices. We are still finalising the Learning Tutor role and we are finalising classroom teacher placement. 

The Department of Education are supporting flexible workplaces and we are accommodating the requests of our ongoing staff to afford some of them part time roles in 2024. 

We will welcome back: 

Keren Freeman and Kate Lawerson (Learning Specialist) who have been on Family Leave.

Tyahnne Cogan will continue at CPS in 2024. She is already well known to our school and brings experience and a very good understanding of our school’s context. 

We will welcome 2 NEW classroom teachers to CPS.

• Penny Bradley: Penny is well known to our school. She understands our school’s context so beautifully and she has established strong relationships with both our students and staff. She exhibits our school values always and we can’t wait to welcome her in her new teaching role.
• Angus McCracken is starting his teaching career at CPS and we warmly welcome him to our school community. He shows considerable enthusiasm and is highly motivated to join the team. He will be undertaking a study tour of India before commencing here in 2024.

We are excited to be able to offer some additional literacy intervention to support our students with learning diversities. This is what the Department of Education refers to as a ‘reasonable adjustment to the program’. 

Eighteen of our teachers will be trained in the OG approach that supports a consistent methodology in the teaching of reading, writing and spelling in the junior years (Prep – grade 2) that aims to reduce the amount of intervention required in the senior years. It is part of a 4 year plan at CPS.

Alicia Parker and Bec Batten will be taking maternity / family leave in 2024 and we will offer them a fitting farewell as they embark on another stage of their parenting journey. We wish Symone Tonkin best of luck as she returns to her base school in 2024. Symone has spent this year at CPS teaching year 4. 

With Gratitude to you all,

Karen Roberts