Across Oliver's Desk 

Dear Parents & Guardians, 

SOME CHANGES TO THE GRADE STRUCTURE FOR 2025

We have been working through staffing appointments for 2025 in the past month. It can sometimes be a 4-week turnaround from the time the job is put on Recruitment Online to the final appointment and sign off. We wished Ms Ash Shanks well as she headed off on maternity leave last week. All the best Ash on the impending arrival of your first bundle of joy. In other news, Ms Sophie Young (Prep B) will also be going on Maternity leave as will Mrs Natalie Telpuk (Art) at the end of the school year. Ms Sara-Jane Vaughan will also go on maternity leave early next year so she will not be placed in a grade. We will keep you informed of all these new Woori babies. 

There are some changes to the class structure I put out three weeks ago. 

We welcome Ms Hayley Evans to our staff next year. Hayley will teach 3/4E next year. Libby Bemrose will teach 1A next year and the only other change is that Jess Riley will job share with Kat Clark and not Libby Bemrose in grade 2B, obviously this is because Libby will now take 1A full time. 

A big congratulations also to Charlie Greenwood, who will be joining our staff as a teacher aide next year. 

If you have any questions about staffing for 2025, please come and see me. 

STEP UP DAY

Step up day is Tuesday the 10th December. On this day our current grade sixes go to their high school. Grade six parents need to be aware that no buses are organised for this day and it is the responsibility of parents to get students to and from their respective high schools. 

We call it step up day because all students move to their class for 2025. We have organised for our new teachers to be here on the 10th so that all students will be meeting their new teacher and their new classmates. Teachers will plan get to know you and fun activities to help everyone transition.

Students will go back to their normal classrooms after lunch. Preps finish a little earlier at 12:30pm. 

SPELLING COMPETITION 

Our school grade final was just as it is every year. Full of drama and great spelling. 

Congratulations to all our finalists, the winners were:

Prep –            Jordan Lammertsma

Grade 1 –      Bridie Paull

Grade 2 –      Samantha Heffernan

Grade 3 –      Logan Olszewski

Grade 4 –      Amelia Hughes

Grade 5 –      Lachlan Gardner 

Grade 6 –      Isabella Hasenbos

Senior School overall Champion –

Isabella Hasenbos 

Junior School overall Champion –  

Samantha Heffernan

DISABLED PARKING 

The school is well aware of the issues we have with a lack of parking. However, we are getting some people who are parking in the disabled parking area that don’t have a disabled placard. This makes life very difficult for people that genuinely need the disabled parking bays. One of our grandparents (who qualifies for a disabled park) had to walk a long distance last week due to the fact that someone had illegally parked in the bay. Please do the right thing with our disabled parking bays. 

INTERSCHOOL GRAND FINAL, SPEAKING COMPETITION

Molly Benson came second in our schools speaking competition earlier this year. She went on to the Yarra Valley interschools competition which she won. Last week she competed in the Grand Final against all the other winners in the Eastern Suburbs. As a school we have won the Yarra Valley competition 9 out of the past 10 years. Therefore, the school has been represented at the Grand Final 9 times. In that time the highest we have ever placed was a 2nd and a 3rd. However, Molly has absolutely covered the school in glory by winning the Grand Final, our best ever result. Molly’s speech is on how much she loves the country she lives in and she uses the national anthem to explain her points. It is a very clever speech which the judges (toastmasters) obviously loved. 

The school is just so proud of Molly and what she has been able to achieve. 

Molly with her teachers Lucy Derix and Jess Banfield

MORE STUDENT SUCCESS

We always like to hear about the success of our students even outside the school. I spoke to Amelia Hughes this week and she told me about what she has been doing outside of school.

Amelia has joined the Doncaster squadron of the Air League because she would like to join the RAAF as a fighter pilot. Her squadron participated in a Review with a huge number of other squadrons at Point Cook on the weekend and they came first. This is a huge achievement because they had the smallest squadron (10 cadets) and 6 were brand new, like Amelia. 

Well done Amelia.

SCHOOL SAFETY

After the tragedy that hit Auburn South Primary School, our school council discussed that there is potential for someone in a car to lose control through the start of our Kiss and Drop. Therefore, we have had bollards placed where we think there could be a danger. 

We have also had the lines repainted for student safety.

Please remember that when this time of year gets too much. Try to escape to the wonderful world of a book.

See you around the school soon!