Last Wednesday we had a Police Officer visit DPS to speak with our students. One of the main topics was about being safe online.

The Federal Government safety web site has a lot of information for parents and children relating to safe internet use.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

This year we have made a committment to improve attendance at DPS. While it is "OK" we know there is room for improvement so we have created a data wall and we record student attendance, if your child is developing a pattern of regular absences you will receive a phone call. We are also recording the purpose of absences and watching closely to see if there are any reasons for students to be missing school.

Attendance is so important and every day counts. Regular attendance is crucial to educational achievement. Absence from school flows on to negative effects like leaving school early, poor academic achievement, and social isolation. Even short absences can make it more difficult for children to keep up.

Non-attendance affects student outcomes and learning. The effects are cumulative. Each further absence makes things harder for the student.

Being late for school is being absent from school for a short period – children miss learning. We start school at 9.00 am. Having holidays or going overseas during school term times affects learning. We teach from day one of each school term. It is not ideal for students to miss the first week or weeks of a school term.

Research shows that early education is pivotal in a child's long-term academic, social and personal development. It's a time when they learn some of life's most important skills, including critical thinking, literacy, and numeracy. It is important that children build a strong foundation of learning and social skills in the primary school years. Primary school education provides a strong base for lifelong learning abilities, including cognitive and social development. Regular attendance is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school each day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

* important skills and knowledge to help them learn

*social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and teamwork.

*children who attend school every day and complete Year 12 have:

*better health

*better job opportunities

*higher income across their lives and there is no safe number of days for missing school.

Each day a student misses puts them behind.

As a school, we value our staff and their professional learning and development, and the positive impacts this has on student outcomes and school improvement.

We are proud to share that Julia Bay recently completed Create: Middle Leaders at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership.

This program equips educators with the confidence and skills to influence and lead improvement in classroom and educational practices in their school. Through completion of this program, Julia has built greater understanding of what good leadership looks like, and has learned about emerging research in teaching, learning and leadership. Additionally, the program has helped Julia to build further capacity to lead school improvement, and to develop strategies that help create impact.

The department are looking forward to working with Julia to implement the knowledge and skills from the program to continue to support student outcomes and wellbeing at DPS.

Professional Learning

Our staff often attend professional learning workshops to ensure we keep up todate with the most recent initiatives. Our Prep leader Diane Meilak, who is also one of our Learning Specialists and Lillie Powell attended a VCAA workshop to learn more about the English Curriculum 2.0, which will begin to be implemented in classrooms from 2025 in Victoria.

Some key takeaways we found are listed below:

-There will be a scope and sequence for P-2 (available during Term 4) but this can be adapted for older students.

-English Online Interview is being reviewed (Prep/1).

-English Curriculum 2.0 be implemented in 2025 but there are 3 years to transition to the new curriculum (depending on what schools decide).

-Decodable texts to be used.

-Systematic Synthetic Phonics to be taught for a minimum of 25 minutes per day in the Prep-2 classrooms.

-Online Modules will be available to staff during Term 4 to understand the new curriculum.

-Stronger focus on sound–letter correspondences.

- Clear relationship between reading and spelling as a connected set of skills.

- Foundation in phonic knowledge and then a shift to morphemic knowledge across levels.

- Underpinned by evidence-based approaches.

STAFFING

At the end of this term there will be a few changes. Carly Epskamp will continue in her acting Principal role at Highvale Primary School. Gareth Dutlow will be leaving us to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and Lauren Majoor will not be returning as she is leaving the profession.

I have heard so many times in the media that teachers, particularly young teachers are leaving the profession due to the administration and scrutiny under which they work. Here at DPS we have avoided this thus far but it seems it is inescapable as we wish two staff well. I only had these changes confirmed this week but we have advertised vacancies on recruitment online and feel confident that we will attract good quality educators due to our reputation.

I must acknowledge and congratulate Niky Corfios and Julia Bay for stepping into the principal class. Their skills, experience and ability to lead others has become obvious already and they are highly respected by our staff.

Looking to 2025, our numbers look stable, with potential to grow so we will continue with the current structure of 25 classrooms.

We will have specialists in the following areas: Physical Education, Visual Arts, Science, LOTE (Mandarin) and Library/Cultural Studies.

As we approach the end of another busy term I take this opportunity to mention our amazing staff. This year we welcomed some new staff to DPS. I recently met with one of our new staff and sought honest feedback about DPS. Feedback about our staff and their commitment came through clearly.

Our teachers work hard, our data is excellent and they’re happy and feel supported. Like every school we have our challenges but our staff enjoy a strong sense of belonging and they work well together. This is no coincidence as we structure our timetables to allow common planning time so they can spend time together developing the curriculum and analysing data sets as we cater for individual needs across the school. A large part of our success is also our strong leadership framework, and I’m not talking about myself.

Our leadership team are outstanding.

PRINCIPAL – Jim Hill

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL – Niky Corfios

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL – Julia Bay

LEARNING SPECIALIST JUNIOR LITERACY – Diane Meilak

LEARNING SPECIALIST SENIOR LITERACY - Lillie Powell

LEARNING SPECIALIST JUNIOR NUMERACY – Brent Granger

LEARNING SPECIALIST SENIOR NUMERACY – Kelly Soccio

WELLBEING LEADING TEACHER – Andrew Johnson

Highlighting these people does not exclude the rest of our very capable staff, all of whom play an important role at DPS. It would be remiss not to mention and acknowledge the support we enjoy from our parents. The parents and friends group do some terrific fund raising with a minimum of fuss, such as the recent Father’s Day stall. This raised valuable funds, but it was also a learning experience for students who handled “cash”, some of whom have had very little experience with real money! And of course our school councillors, I thank them for their part in making DPS run like a finely oiled machine!

School finishes tomorrow at 2.15pm. I wish you well, enjoy the break!

Regards

Jim Hill

Determination Pride Success

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