Principal's Message

Last Friday 1st March it was an honour to celebrate our new student leadership group for 2024. We held a special lunch that families also attended and we presented each student with their official badge at assembly. I thank the families for taking time out of their days to accompany their child and be present at assembly. Congratulations leaders, I cannot wait to see what you achieve this year!

Family Fun Night

We look forward to seeing our HPS community onsite between 3.30 and 5.15pm on Tuesday 19th March for our annual Family Fun Night. A range of activities will be on offer for students and their family members to participate in. Feel free to bring a picnic rug and afternoon snack to share with your family! 

Parent/Carer Volunteer Training

In order to assist in classrooms, at school events and on camps/excursions, we ask interested parents/carers to complete the Parent/Carer Volunteer Training on Wednesday 20th March 9am-10am. Further training sessions will be offered throughout the year. If you have previously completed this training, you do not need to repeat this.

All volunteers will need a current Working with Children Check and sign a copy of our Child Safety Code of Conduct.

Please follow this link to sign up for the training session: https://compasstix.com/e/jq9wn5xwss 

School Council 2024

I'd like to congratulate the following parent members who were successfully voted in by the school community for a two year position on the HPS School Council:

• Phillip Arnold
• Anna White
• Carmen Powell

We also welcome two new staff members to the Council:

• Naomi Bartlett
• Craig Harrison

We continue to work with the following members who will be fulfilling their second year of their nominated term:

• Kathryn Muscat
• Michelle Denison
• Rachel Vallance
• Aryen Akbary

On Tuesday 12th March we will hold the Annual General Meeting at 6.15pm where office bearers including President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary will be elected. I will communicate the outcome of this election to the community via Compass next week.

I take this opportunity to thank our previous members of Council for their hard work and dedication over the last two years in particular. I am grateful to each of you for volunteering your time to be a part of the school's decision making and planning process via School Council. I'd like to make special mention of Lisa Holmes who was our School Council President for 2023. Working with Lisa has been an absolute pleasure and the school community should be very proud of the way she has represented each of you and been the voice of the HPS broader community. 

I encourage all previous councillors and those that nominated themselves but were unsuccessful during this election, to please continue volunteering at our school and keep in mind that we seek nominations on an annual basis, so don't give up!!

Harmony Day - Thursday 21st March

This year we will be celebrating Harmony Day with various in-school activities. We encourage students and staff to wear a touch of orange or cultural attire that would be appropriate for school. More information to come!

Compass Calendar

A friendly reminder that the Compass calendar has been updated with significant dates for 2024. We will continue to remind families and provide more information via Compass, however these dates may be handy for your personal forward planning.

Last Day of Term 1 - Thursday 28th March

Easter Parade for ELC/Prep/Yr 1/Yr 2 - 9am on the basketball courts (weather permitting). Easter hats to be made at home! Back up Easter hats will also be made at school!

Free Dress Day - SRC will be fundraising for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal and will be asking for donations for students to come in free dress! More information to come!

All students are dismissed at 2.30pm on the last day of term. OSHC will be available from 2.30pm.

Prep Enrolments for 2025

If you, or someone you know, is interested in enrolling a child for Prep 2025, please feel free to come along to a school tour. School tours are offered at various dates throughout the term, with Friday 8th March and Tuesday 19th March the last two for Term 1.

If you have decided that Hillsmeade PS is the school of choice for your prep child in 2025 please follow this link https://www.hillsmeade.vic.edu.au/enrol/

to enrol your child. I remind families to please check that you reside in the Hillsmeade school zone. You can find our school's enrolment zone at https://www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au/

Out of zone applications will be accepted and the outcome determined by a range of factors, including 'in zone' enrolment numbers. 

Prep enrolments officially commence Monday 15th April 2024. Applications are to be submitted by Friday 26th July 2024 with notifications of the outcome of the enrolment application to be announced between 29th July - 9th August. Formal transition sessions for Prep 2025 commence early Term 4, from 7th October.