Principal's Report

Industrial Action

On Friday we were all pleased to hear that the AEU and government had reached an in-principle agreement after months of negotiations.  That means rolling strikes are off the table for now. 

AEU members will now be given the opportunity to indicate whether or not they are in favour of the agreement, which is a process that runs for 3-4 weeks.  Should the agreement get over the line, school operations will be back to normal. 

One impact that parents will notice is that AEU members will not be writing comments on mid-year reports.  This is a state-wide action.  We will clarify this situation as we get closer to the end of term.

Friday Assemblies

Assemblies at both campuses are such a good way of sharing information, building a sense of community, celebrating achievements and giving students a chance to present in front of an audience and showcase their talents.

It’s always nice to see lots of parents, grandparents and siblings come along to assemblies and last week we had a large crowd come along to the p-2 assembly at the Buninyong Campus.  Well done to our Scotsburn parents who are very good at supporting the students by attending Scotsburn campus assemblies on Friday afternoons.

It’s worth noting that our kids are pretty amazing at presenting at assemblies.  This is a long standing part of the school’s culture, which is worth celebrating.

Prep Transition Surveys 

There is a lot that goes into supporting students and families from kinder/day care into prep.  The process goes over many months and involves liaising with local kinders and other early childhood centres, preparing and distributing information, open mornings, tours, the pre-schooler program, orientation day, buddies and a range of strategies to help preps and parents settle into school in the new year. 

Late in term 1 each year, we survey our prep parents to gather feedback on how their prep child has transitioned into school.  This is a useful way of helping us understand the impact of the transition process.  Parents are asked to rate key aspects of the transition process, for example:

• I was made to feel welcome on my initial contact with the school.
• The information I received from the school before enrolment was relevant and helpful.
• The transition visits to school were valuable and enjoyable for my child……. etc

Parents also had the opportunity to add written comments.

Recently the results were collated and today I sat down with the prep team to consider the feedback gathered.  Overall, the results were extremely positive, suggesting the transition process we have in place is working nicely.  The results have also helped us understand where there are opportunities to improve.  The prep team has already planned a few subtle changes to the transition process in response to the feedback.

Well done to all involved in the transition process and a big thankyou to all parents who helped us out and took the time to complete a transition survey. 

Use of School Crossings

We’re really pleased that a large number of students take the opportunity to use one or more of our school crossings (including the traffic lights) to keep themselves safe.  Please keep encouraging your child/ren to use available crossings.

For those driving kids to and from school, please be conscious of driving slowly around the school.  Generally, everyone is doing an excellent job with this, but we have had reports of cars travelling at speed up Warrenheip st in the crossing area.  No doubt some of that is non-school related traffic, but if our school community is doing the right thing, that’s a good start.