Principal's News

Never has the Guns N’ Roses ballad, 'November Rain' felt more appropriate. We have experienced a very wet start to November with so much rain across Monday and Tuesday. Despite all this, we have had a very busy and fun two weeks around the school. On Wednesday we welcomed our 2026 Prep students to our school with their first transition session, we also had a great Halloween dress up day last Friday with a disco event for our students with some scary costumes and dance moves on display. 

Thank you for taking a moment to read over some highlights from around the school detailed below. 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Miss (Zhimin) Zhao who has worked with great enthusiasm over the course of this year to move towards full registration as a teacher. Teachers in their first year work alongside a mentor teacher and undertake considerable professional development including peer observations and reflections before presenting a considerable body of work for review at the end of the year to support their application for full registration. Miss Zhao provided a detailed inquiry project addressing ‘Will explicitly teaching and weekly reviewing of key disciplinary vocabulary enhance students ability to apply technical words in real life technology contexts?’. Congratulations Miss Zhao! 

Open Classrooms

A reminder that our Term 4 Open Classrooms are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Week 7 (17th and 18th November), please join us for a Term 4 exploration of our learning environments. 

• Prep – Year 2 Open Classroom (Monday 17th November) – 3:30 – 3:45pm
• Year 3-6 Open Classroom (Tuesday 18th November) – 3:30 – 3:45pm

Thank You

 Across last week, we had the chance to recognise and celebrate the wonderful work of our teaching staff as a part of World Teachers’ Day. Teachers at our school dedicate incredible care and professionalism to their work. A day of teaching can be challenging, exhausting, demanding and yet ultimately incredibly rewarding. I appreciate the great care, kindness and support that our staff make in the lives of our students. They care deeply about their work and delivery of teaching, learning and wellbeing in an immersive bilingual environment. 

Thank you kindly to our PFC and school community who put together a wonderful morning tea for our teaching staff last Wednesday morning. This was a lovely gesture and was greatly appreciated by our staff – thank you!

Prahran Urgent Care Clinic

One of our awesome parents, Kyle (father of Poppy – Prep) has kindly supported our school community by raising my attention to the Prahran Urgent Care Clinic (https://prahranucc.com.au/). This is open 7 days per week 8am – 10pm as a booking or walk in service. This is available as a free service with or without a Medicare card providing high quality care for patients (including children) with non-life threatening injuries or illnesses and is located at 55 Commercial Road or on foot from Alfred Lane. 

Some examples of what they do for school kids is usually antibiotic scripts for infections, wound cleaning and dressings, UTI diagnosis, X-rays and casting for broken bones, tetanus shots and cleaning animal bites/scratches. 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Barnabas who recently returned from a national swimming meet, representing Team Victoria and Caulfield Primary School. Barnabas competed in three events including a 6th place finish in the 4x50 meter freestyle relay, 10th place in the 100m freestyle and 11th place in the 50m breaststroke with two personal bests achieved. This was a significant achievement with 450 students competing from around the country. Congratulations Barnabas. 

Wake City Visit

Last week we hosted a delegation from Wake, Okayama including the Mayor, Mr Keisuke Ota, Superintendent of Education, Mr Akinobu Tokunaga, Town Management Manager, Mr Yosuke Shimizu and Acting Manager, Mr Akihiro Nitta and Study Trek Manager, Mrs Kate Bamford. 

This visit was looking at consolidating our existing partnership with Wake and working to provide opportunities to support students at our school and the Wake district. 

Remembrance Day – Tuesday November 11th 

In 1918 the armistice that ended World War I came into force, bringing to an end four years of hostilities that saw 61,919 Australians die at sea, in the air, and on foreign soil.  Few Australian families were left untouched by the events of World War I - 'the war to end all wars'. Most had lost a father, son, daughter, brother, sister or friend. 

At 11am on the 11th of November we pause to remember the sacrifice of those men and women who have died or suffered in wars and conflicts and all those who have served to protect our country. This is an important observance that reminds us that the freedoms and prosperity that we enjoy as a nation have not come without a cost, and that we should be thankful to those who paid the price so that we may enjoy the wonders of this great country.

The Ode

They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old:Age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemnAt the going down of the sun

and in the morningWe will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Victorian Education Excellence Awards

Last Friday our leadership team attended the awards ceremony of the 2025 Victorian Education Excellence Awards. It was a great privilege to be in attendance with our School Improvement Team and have the efforts recognised as a finalist for the Dr Lawrie Shears, Global Teaching and Learning Award. 

Our School was the only bilingual school shortlisted on the evening and although we were not winners, we were proud to be considered for the award, shortlisted alongside Albert Park College (deserving winners) and Yuille Park Community College. It was a great celebration of public education and a testament to the work of primary and secondary school teachers and leaders around the state. 

Inspire

Our school values the learning and development of our staff, and the positive impacts this has on student outcomes and school improvement. 

We are proud to share that Sally Curlewis and Carolina Guzman Ramirez recently successfully completed the Inspire program at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership. This program equips educators with the confidence and skills to build leadership capabilities that make a difference in their schools and networks.  

Some of the key skills that our staff are bringing back to our school and classrooms include: 

• identifying and applying leadership learnings  
• building relationships and effectively engaging colleagues to achieve specific outcomes    
• working collaboratively with a network of peers to support leadership development.  

We look forward to working with our staff to implement the knowledge and skills from the program to continue to support student outcomes and wellbeing. I was proud to facilitate their involvement in this course and when I am asked why I commit to this voluntary work, it is to ensure that our classrooms and our students are supported by the highest quality teaching, learning and middle leadership that is available to us. It gives me great pride to see our staff commit to their individual and professional growth. 

Pick Up and Drop Off:

Over the last two days, I have had parents inform me of vehicles putting our students at risk during morning drop off. A reminder that parents are not able to drop off from a car in the prep car park area. Students run in to this area in the morning, under no circumstances should vehicles be dropping off students in this area.  

On Olive Street, please make sure vehicles abide by local laws, parking on the nature strip or angle parking is not allowed and can place other students or families at risk. Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

Sports Uniform

How exciting! Our Year 5/6 CPS sports uniform is off to the printers at Primary School Wear (PSW). We are delighted with the final product and have had a wonderful opportunity to work closely with Aboriginal artist Bayley Mifsud (Merindah Gunya) to design this piece for our school. This sports uniform will be an optional addition for our Year 5/6 students and an opportunity to celebrate Aboriginal perspectives in our school.  

Protecting against mosquito-borne diseases

Warm and wet weather can result in greater numbers of mosquitoes and an increased risk of illness from mosquito bites. While the overall risk is currently low, some mosquitoes may be carrying diseases that make people sick. 

The best protection against mosquito-borne illness is to avoid mosquito bites.

Families can protect against mosquito bites by: 

• covering up as much as possible with long, loose-fitting, light-coloured clothing  
• applying insect repellent that contains picaridin or DEET on exposed skin when outdoors 
• limiting outdoor activity if lots of mosquitoes are active
• clean up and remove containers and items around the home that may hold water where mosquitoes may breed.

Families with any health concerns should see their doctor or phone NURSE-ON-CALL: 1300 606 024 (available 24 hours).

Free Japanese encephalitis vaccines -  Japanese encephalitis virus is spread to humans through bites from infected mosquitoes and can cause a rare but potentially serious infection of the brain. A free vaccine is available to some individuals to protect Victorians at higher risk of the virus. For more information, including vaccine eligibility, refer to the Department of Health’s Japanese encephalitis webpage. 

Parent Payments 2026: 

To provide high-quality programs, our school relies heavily on the financial support of our community. These contributions fund essential items such as stationery, classroom materials, digital learning subscriptions, student devices, and photocopying. School funding is a complex topic that could fill an entire newsletter. Parent Payment information for next year will be circulated this afternoon via Sentral. We sincerely thank our families for your ongoing financial support, which enables us to resource the high standard of school experience delivered at CPS.

Leaving CPS – 2026

Every year, family circumstances can and will change. We understand that sometimes families relocate or move away from the area. In the event that you are moving away from the area or changing schools in 2026, could we please ask that you notify the school office so that this can be processed. This also assists us in preparing our 2026 classes. Please see Therese or Jess in the office if these are your circumstances or alternatively please book a time to speak to me further about your individual circumstances. 

Personal Belongings

The Department of Education (which includes the school) does not offer insurance for the replacement of personal items which are brought to school and are lost, broken or stolen. Sentimental or expensive belongings and toys, including sports equipment and electronic devices, are normally best left at home. Whilst every effort is made to ensure items are not taken or misplaced, students are encouraged not to bring items of value to school. 

Tidy Team

Just a shout out to some initiative demonstrated throughout the school from a group of students led by Remy B (Year 1/2B), Remy and his team including Finn (1/2), Jaxson (1/2), Oscar (1/2), Eugene and Gabriel G (Year ¾) are taking it upon themselves to tidy up our school. Doing so without ever getting asked to do so. Thank you so much boys! 

Enjoy the coming weekend and I look forward to seeing you around the school next week. 

Take Care, 

Edward Strain

Principal