Principal's Message

Dear Families

As we wrap up Term 3,  I would like to thank our students for their dedication to their learning, our parents for your ongoing support and our teachers for showing belief in every student and ensuring they meet their potential.  

As you read today’s newsletter you will see how there have been many engaging activities for our students. Various excursions, incursions and special events, rehearsals for our school concert and our Year 6 Charity fete, which was a major event for our Year 6 students.  It allowed them the opportunity to work collaboratively in teams and raise funds for their chosen charities.  As a catholic school it is very important that we have a focus on outreach and how we can make a difference in the lives of others.  I am incredibly proud of what our students achieved.

Flourishing Learners Conference  - Excellence and Equity.

Last week Ferial Davis, Kellie Cumming and I joined thousands of educators from across Melbourne Catholic schools for the very first MACS Flourishing Learners Conference. This event brought together world-class presenters, thought-provoking conversations, and fresh ideas about teaching, learning, and wellbeing,  all designed to empower teachers across our Catholic system to deliver both equity and excellence in education.

We were informed of the latest in explicit teaching, literacy leadership, curriculum design, and student wellbeing topics that will continue to shape the way our children learn every day.

Keynote speakers included: Professor Dylan Wiliam (UCL Institute of Education), Tom Sherrington (Teaching WalkThrus), and Emina McLean (language and literacy expert). Their presentations, along with contributions from other leading thinkers, highlighted evidence-informed teaching, responsive pedagogy, curriculum design, and strategies to support every learner to thrive.

Our insights will be shared with staff and strengthen our shared commitment to high-quality Catholic Education.

Planning for 2026

Could parents please email me as soon as possible (principal@gswheelershill.catholic.edu.au)  if your child is not returning to Good Shepherd in 2026.  This does not include our current Year 6 students.  We will begin planning class grouping early next term.  In the first newsletter back I will write more about this process.

Congratulations to Fr Andrew Madry

Archbishop Peter Comensoli has appointed Fr Andrew (Rev Andrzej Madry CR) as the Episcopal Vicar for the Southern Region.  This is in addition to his role of Parish Priest of Good Shepherd and St Justin's parishes.  We pray for him as he takes up his new appointment.  We welcome back Fr Andrew next term as he has been on holiday back in his home land for the past 4 weeks.

Beginning and End of day procedures

Thank you to many of our families who have made a genuine effort to collect their children up on time each day from the drive through area.  Unfortunately there are still some repeat offenders who arrive late without communicating with us or giving good reason.  I will be writing to these families and providing them with the documentation to enrol their children into our after school care program.  

A very important safety reminder that parents should not be getting out of their cars in the morning when using the “Kiss and Drop” area.  This is both unsafe and also holds up the traffic.  Thank you for your support.

School Advisory Council Meeting

Our SAC met on Tuesday night and Kellie Cumming our Learning and Teaching Leader presented our latest NAPLAN data.  

The Key highlights were:

• Results in all domains (Reading, Writing, Spelling, Numeracy and Grammar/Punctuation) were above both the state and national averages.
• 95% of Year 5 students achieved a strong or exceeding results in Reading
• 90% of Year 3 students achieved a strong or exceeding result in Writing
• Over 80% of current Year 5 students demonstrated medium to high growth in Numeracy (Year 3 to Year 5), when compared to students across the country.

SAC members were also presented with the proposed school fee/levy structure for 2026 as prepared by our Business Manager.  There is a slight increase in both fees and levies to cover the following; CPI for education, compliance requirements, increasing costs from suppliers, enhancing school resources for students and new EBA agreement where we will see increased staffing costs.  Members of the SAC endorsed the structure for 2026.  A breakdown of fees and levies will be included in the newsletter next term in week 3.

MACSSIS survey

A big thank you for your support in completing the annual survey.  Our goal was to reach at least 20% participation from parents and I am happy to say that this has been achieved.  I look forward to sharing with you the results with you when we receive them.  

Jacqui Marshall

Principal