Out and about at Surfside

Surfside was a hive of activity last weekend with the Federal Election and our annual Trivia Night being held on site. A big thank you to our Surfside and wider community who made their way up the school on Saturday to cast their vote and also purchase a democracy sausage. Te crew at 'One Kind' were very thankful for your support and the money raised goes toward supporting small communities in Cambodia. We have also been holding our school tours for our prospective 2026 Foundation families throughout the week and will continue next week. It has been a pleasure to showcase our classrooms and school grounds and a big thank you to the students who have been looking after our spaces.

Education Week 2025 - Celebration of Cultures

Education Week is an annual celebration of public education in Victoria. In 2025, Victoria will celebrate Education Week from Monday 19 May to Friday 23 May. All children deserve a place to learn and thrive in. This year’s theme Celebration of Cultures highlights the diversity of our communities and the importance of every child feeling safe and welcome at school. Throughout Education Week, students school communities will celebrate and share ideas to promote the wide range of cultures and cultural connections.

To find out more about Education Week 2025, visit Education Week | vic.gov.au.

Families can utilise the following resources to learn and start conversations about celebrating culture at school.

The websites below can provide a starting point for conversations and activities:

FIRST NATIONS

Marrung, the name for the Murray Cypress tree in the Wemba Wemba language, is the strategy to ensure all Koorie students in Victoria achieve their learning aspirations. Marrung also helps connect schools and parents with Koorie education teams to support cultural inclusion and education guidance in their region. For more information, contact marrung@education.vic.gov.au.

The Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll recognises and celebrates the achievements of Aboriginal Victorians who have made a profound contribution to their community and wider Victoria.

Community resources

50 Words Project is an interactive map that encourages students and families to learn 50 words in the local Indigenous language of the land that they live on.

Deadly Story is a cultural resource portal that helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care connect to Indigenous identity through Culture, Country and Community.

Bunjilaka Aboriginal Culture Centre at Melbourne Museum tells stories of celebration and survival of Indigenous Australians through learning resources, exhibitions and art.

MULTICULTURALISM

The Shared Understanding podcasts and video series from the Centre for Multicultural Youth lets students hear from other students and young people with lived experience of the benefits of diversity at school and how to deal with racism and discrimination.

Multicultural Museums in Victoria explore different cultures from across the world, provide their unique perspectives and celebrate their contributions to our community. See the list of museums below:

• Melbourne Museum’s Pacific and world cultures exhibits
• Co.As.It Italian Historical Society and Museo Italiano
• Chinese Museum
• Hellenic Museum
• Islamic Museum of Australia
• Jewish Museum of Australia
• Melbourne Immigration Museum

GLOBAL EDUCATION

The Global Design Challenge facilitates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) focused partnerships for primary and secondary school students with students across the globe, enhancing their critical and creative thinking skills and global competencies.

The Victorian Young Leaders (VYL) program offers an immersion experience for Years 9 and 10 students and accompanying teachers. The program provides students with the opportunity to develop leadership, global citizenship and language skills, as well as intercultural capabilities.

The Global Youth Forum is a 3-session forum, connecting Year 9 and 10 students in Victoria with their peers across the Asia-Pacific to create collaborative solutions to local issues. EOIs close on 25 July for the Term 3 cohort.

Some important dates as a reminder for the next few weeks

May

Mon 12th - Fri16th - Education Week - Celebration of Cultures

                    - 2026 School Tours 9.30am (Bookings via school website)

Wed 14th - 2026 School Tours 9.30am (Bookings via school website)

Thu 15th - Breakfast Club in the kitchen - 7.45am-8.30am

Fri 16th -   Assembly @ 2.30pm in the courtyard (Education Support Staff Appreciation Day)

Mon 19th - Fri 23rd - Book Fair Week in the library

Tues 20th - SSV Division Cross Country (qualified students)

                       School Council @ 5.30pm (Finance 5.00pm)

Tues 20th-Fri 23rd - Year 6 Camp - Roses Gap

Thu 22nd - Breakfast Club in the kitchen - 7.45am-8.30am

Tue 27th - Year 1 Science Incursion

Wed 28th - Emergency Management Drill

                       Year 5 Soverign Hill Excursion

Thu 29th - Breakfast Club in the kitchen - 7.45am-8.30am

                      SSV Winter Lightning Prem - Year 6 & selected year 5's

Fri 30th - Assembly @ 2.30pm in the courtyard

School Concert - Save the Date

We are excited to announce that Surfside Primary will be

hosting our 2025 School Concert in Term 4! This is a special

opportunity for our students to showcase their creativity and talents on stage.

📅 Date: Thursday 27th November 2025

📍Venue: The Grove Pavilion

🎭Theme: Jungle Adventure!

It will be a fun-filled evening of music, drama, movement,

and colourful costumes, all inspired by beloved jungle-themed movies and

musicals. Families can look forward to an entertaining show that celebrates the efforts and enthusiasm of all our students.

More detailed information, including performance times,

costume suggestions and ticketing, will be shared closer to the date. For now, please mark your calendars and get ready for a wild night of fun!

Surfside PS Trivia Night

At Surfside we value the intensive fundraising efforts of our school community. However, the main goal of this effort is to build connection within our school community. This connection and school spirit was evident on Saturday night during the Surfside PS Annual Trivia Night. Each table was dressed in a particular theme so there was references to the 70's, TV shows, Australian icons and even condiments that you place in the fridge (well the room was torn on whether tomato sauce is in or out of the fridge). A big thank you to Alan and Maureen from the Trivia Crew who coordinate a great evening of questions, singing and dancing. A big thank you to Vicky, Kerry, Ebony and Stacey for their organisation and the Surfside leadership team for their coordination on the night. We are already looking forward to the 2026 event! Our fundraising efforts continue to support the continuation of the Surfside Kitchen and Garden program as well as supporting facilities upgrades within the school grounds.

ANZAC Day Service and March 

A big thank you to our school community for participating in and attending the recent ANZAC Day march and service. It is fantastic to see our younger generation representing our older generation and remembering the impact it had on our current way of life. Thank you to our school captains for representing Surfside in the wreath laying service. Most of all to our veterans - we thank you for your service, sacrifice and dedication - Lest we Forget.

Enrolment Time at Surfside

Enrolments have now opened for new students and families who will be joining the Surfside family in 2026. If you have a sibling of a current student at Surfside they will also need to complete this enrolment process. We will be conducting tours on the following dates for prospective families and bookings can be made via the school website or contact the office to book a spot. 

• Monday 12th May
• Wednesday 14th May

Please check out the enrolling your child in Primary School page for more information.

SURFSIDE PRIMARY SCHOOL WEBSITE - HOW TO ENROL

Year 6-7 Transition Forms

Families in year 6 have received transition forms and information this week to start their enrolment and transition process to Secondary School. A reminder to our year 6 families that transition forms, for 2026 Secondary School enrolment are due to be returned by Friday 9th May. All families are to return these forms if you are enrolling in the government or independent school system for 2026. 

Special Person's Cookies & Celebrations

A big thank you to our Mum's and the Special People in our young people's lives for joining different year levels at different stages throughout the week. A reminder that if you are looking for a special gift for the weekend please drop in to the office and we have some cookies for sale for $3 per pack. We have a range of other gifts such as lemon cordial, preserves, scrunchies, face wipes, heat packs and everyone loves a good hankie!! Wishing all our Mum's and Special People a Happy Mather's Day.

GRIP Student Leadership Day

Last week our Year 6 Student Leaders spent the day at The GRIP Student Leadership Conference in Geelong. The day concentrated specifically on training our students in their role as a school leader, and the impact that they can make. They left feeling very inspired and eager to involve others in bringing new ideas to life here at Surfside! The students then put some of the ideas and actions in place during their weekly leadership session on Tuesday and we look forward to hearing more about their goals for 2025. A big thank you to Mrs Catchlove, Mrs Manning and Mrs Henderson for supporting our student leadership team throughout this experience.

Student Voice and Agency at Surfside

Our student voice and agency representatives recently met with Mrs McCredden and myself to provide some feedback on our recess and lunchtime clubs program. Our staff have been leading a variety of clubs that include:

• Craft Club
• Indoor Soccer Challenge
• Timestables Rock Stars
• Tech Club
• and of course everyone's favourite...
• Swifties Club on a Friday!!

Our Student Voice crew highlighted the following areas that were working well:

• Calm place to go with fun teachers
• Clubs are a good place to relax with friends or meet new friends
• We like the creative clubs
• People are making new friends in clubs

They also had the opportunity to provide some areas for improvement:

• Some clubs in the library have too many people
• More opportunities to dance
• We want it to be easier to find 
• Opportunity for more board games and the opportunity for a chess club
• Minecraft education club
• Opening the library for reading or catching up on work

Bebras Maths Competition

As a part of our high abilities program at Surfside Primary, students from years 3-6 took the opportunity to participate in the recent Bebras computational thinking challenge.

A big congratulations to our Year 3 and 4 students who recently took part in the Bebras Maths Challenge! The Bebras Challenge is an international event that encourages students to solve a range of fun and tricky problems using logic, reasoning, and creativity. Rather than just focusing on numbers, the challenge explores real-world problem-solving and computational thinking.

What made this challenge extra special was the teamwork on display. Students worked in small groups, sharing ideas, encouraging each other, and combining their strengths to tackle each problem. It was wonderful to see classmates listening, helping, and learning from one another—true collaboration in action!

We are incredibly proud of how our students supported each other and gave every challenge their best effort.

Well done, team Bebras—you smashed it!

A big thank you to Mr Chapman for supporting this wonderful initiative.

SSV District Cross Country Event

This week qualified students participated in the SSV District Cross Country. The students did us proud on a tough course against tough competition and in perfect Cross Country weather - there was rain, wind and even some sunshine. We have had a number of students participate for the upcoming Division Championships in a few weeks. Well done to the students and remember to keep your training and running going in preparation for 2026. A big thank you to Mr Baker, our teacher support crew and all of our parent/carer cheer squad.

Tennis Champion - Nox Horrobin

Tennis Victoria released their latest rankings for the 2025 Green Ball Series (Under 10s) yesterday, and we’re thrilled to share that Lennox H from year 4 has achieved the #1 ranking for South West boys! Nox is always hard at work improving his skills and this hard work has paid off with his recent #1 ranking. Keep up the great work Nox. We are always happy to celebrate student success in or out of the school so if you have any news that we can publish please make contact with the administration team. 

Student Engagement at Surfside

Student engagement is important to student success and we have ongoing programs, projects and activities that help support or boost student engagement. Below is a little snapshot of what has been happening at Surfside over the past fortnight at Surfside:

Kitchen & Garden Cooking Up A Storm

The menu board has a stellar line up in the kitchen over the past fortnight and the smells that are coming out of the kitchen have been scrumptious. Students have been making their own pasta from scratch, brewing up an aromatic and tasty bolognese sauce, making special person's cookies and preparing a fresh and tasty salad throughout the sessions. A big thank you to Georgie, Clancey, teaching staff and our many parent helpers who keep the program going at such a high level. Our program is very reliant on school based fundraising and we thank our community for their support in this space and we are always on the lookout for parent/carer volunteers so please check out the Kitchen and Garden page and join us in the kitchen - where the magic happens!

Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club has been abuzz with helpers and students popping in for a hearty breakfast and a positive start to the day on Thursday mornings. AS the weather gets a little cooler in the morning it is a great space to keep warm and enjoy some toast and baked beans before you start your school day. A big thank you to Mar Chapman, our student helpers and our amazing parent helpers Bec and Amanda for their support and welcoming our students. Remember Breakfast Club is open from 7.45am-8.30am every Thursday morning.

Snack Shack

Wow our Snack Shack was busy this week. It felt like the lines were endless but our Snack Shack crew worked through the lines with enthusiasm and continuous smiles to feed the masses of Surfside. In the first couple of weeks we have had chocolate truffle balls and hedgehog slice. We aim to communicate via compass and our FaceBook page each Tuesday afternoon in preparation for Wednesday. A big thank you to Clancey, Gill and our student Snack Shack crew.

Drum Beat 

As part of our Engagement initiatives at Surfside Primary School, we have been coordinating a specialised Drumbeat Program.  Mr. Morzinek and Kellie have been facilitating our first round of weekly Drumbeat last term and will continue offering the program here, amongst many other engagement and wellbeing initiavtives here at Surfside such at Ocean Mind Surfing, the Tinkering Program, Bike Education, Snack Shack, the Intergenerational program and Garden group.

Victorian State Schools Spectacular

The annual Victorian State Schools Spectacular program is an invaluable performing arts opportunity for Victoria’s government primary and secondary school students.

The program showcases and unites government school communities through working towards a common goal of more students reaching the highest level of achievement in the arts, ensuring kids are happy, healthy and resilient, and building pride in our schools.

The Spectacular has become an invaluable rite of passage for Victoria’s top young talent, and a cherished, memorable education experience for all participants. Surfside students thoroughly enjoyed their experience in last years spectacular and have already been busy preparing for the 2025 edition.

STUDENT ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL SURVEY

PARENT / CAREGIVER / GUARDIAN INFORMATION AND CONSENT LETTER

Each year our year 4-6 students participate in the Department of Education Student Attitudes to School Survey. We value student voice and use this feedback to guide our school improvement work and set goals for the future. Please take the time to read the parent/carer information and consent letter as provided byt the Department of Education. Our testing window opens on the 12th May to the 13th June. Please contact the school on 5256 1411 or email peter.walsh@education.vic.gov.au if you have any further questions.

2025 Student Attitudes to School Survey

Dear Parent / Caregiver / Guardian,

This letter is to inform you about the 2025 Student Attitudes to School Survey (AtoSS), which all government school students in Years 4 to 12 will be invited to complete.

About the survey

The AtoSS is a voluntary student survey offered by the Department of Education every year to help schools and the department understand students' experiences of school. We will ask your child about their thoughts and feelings about their school, their learning, relationships with other students, resilience, bullying, health and wellbeing, physical activity, and life in general.

ORIMA Research Pty Ltd has been contracted by the department to manage the collection of the online survey and will provide support to schools through a telephone hotline and email.

This year, the survey will be conducted at your school from 12th May to 13th June.

What are the benefits?

Young people enjoy having a say! This survey has been running for nearly 20 years and helps schools plan programs and activities to improve your child's engagement with school, their wellbeing and their learning. The survey data also helps the Department of Education understand how to improve student learning.

What are the risks?

We don’t expect many risks of participation, but some students may find some questions personal or sensitive. If you agree for your child to take part, they can still skip questions or withdraw at any time whilst completing the survey if it makes them upset or uncomfortable. A teacher will be present during the survey to support students.

The questions come from validated survey instruments used in Australia and around the world. They focus on your child’s strengths and are designed for each year level group.

What will my child be asked to do?

Your child will be invited to complete the survey online during class time using a purpose built secure online survey tool. We are not “testing” your child. Please note:

• Students can choose if they want to take part, skip questions if they don’t want to answer, and can stop doing the survey at any time.
• There are different versions of the survey to let all students take part.
• The survey will take around 20-40 minutes to complete.

How is my child’s privacy protected?

A teacher will give your child a unique login to complete the survey. This unique student login is an assigned identifier that will be used by the department to link data for analysis and research only. Some student demographic data such as year level, gender, age, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status are provided to ORIMA research, and linked with the unique student login ID to administer the survey. This information helps to support analysis and research, to paint a clearer picture of how Victorian school students are faring.

ORIMA Research will only use student personal information for research purposes to facilitate the administration and data collection of the Attitudes to School Survey. To keep your child’s survey answers private, ORIMA Research won’t include any personally identifiable data in the survey answers file that is provided to the department.

 All data is stored on servers located in Australia, and only staff who are working on the project can access it.

All information collected about your child will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Data and Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), as well as the Department’s Schools’ Privacy Policy. Please note that consistent with the above legislation and our policy, there are instances where we may be required by law to share information provided by your child. For example, where there is a threat to your child’s health and safety.

How will results be reported?

The department will only use aggregated state-wide survey data to report on initiatives and this data may also be used in public discussions of issues about student engagement and wellbeing. An example of how survey data has been previously used includes reporting levels of student engagement in the Performance Summary in the Annual Report to the School Community. The department will not share any identifiable student data with any other party.

Your child’s school will only get reports about groups of students. Information about individual students and the student answers data file will not be shared with schools. If there are low numbers of student answers to a question, the report will not show results for this question to protect the privacy of those students.

Your school may share the survey report back to you.

For more information about this survey, including the questions your child will be asked to answer, please visit the department’s survey information page.

If you would like more information or have any concerns about the survey, please speak to your child’s teacher, or contact the department at school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.

Yours sincerely,

Department of Education, Victoria

School Council 2025 - May Meeting 

Our next school council meeting will take place on Tuesday 20th May at 5:30pm with finance meeting at 5.00pm.