A Message from 

Hannah & Keir

“We would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people, the first people to dream, create, wonder, dance, play and learn on this breathtaking land. This land was cared for and respected for tens of thousands of years. The First Nations people lived in companionship with the animals and the life on this land. We acknowledge that this is stolen land and we pay our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.” 

Rayma Atkinson (2023 Suzanne Peterson Award Recipient)

Looking to the Future

We have two weeks left of our very busy Term 3. We want to remind all families that our final day of term (Friday 20/09) will finish at 2:30 pm - please make sure you have made arrangements to collect your child early or have registered them for OSHC.

Next term we will be returning to SunSmart weather. Students are required to wear a broad brimmed hat during recess and lunch time, as well as any session that is held outdoors. The Cancer Council recommends wearing sun protection if the UV rating is over 3, which may include a hat, sunscreen or protective clothing - we encourage our kids to protect themselves no matter which term we are in!

We have loads of lost property accumulating and will try to display as much as we can during the next two weeks. If you have a chance, please check the clothing and belongings on the fence in our undercover area or in the lost property pile in the hallway of the main building (Foundies and OSHC have additional lost property piles too!)

Next term will be kicking off with a bang, with our Spring Magic Market on Saturday 19th October. Make sure you block out the day on your calendar and please give thought to how you might help support the market by volunteering for a shift throughout the day - it’s a wonderful way to get to know other members of our community and to celebrate all the things that make us so special.

Review So Far 

We have now completed two of the three days for our school review. As you may have read through last week’s newsletter, the first day involved analysing data sets of student achievement and learning progress, student mental health and wellbeing data as well as school climate data from staff and parent opinion surveys. The first day also included classroom observations to help ‘get a vibe’ of the school, as one of our panel members so enthusiastically described. This initial phase of the review helped identify patterns, themes and questions that we wanted to explore further in the second day.

The second day of the review was another opportunity to visit classrooms in action. The leadership team stepped through our instructional models for Guided Playful Inquiry, English and Maths, with a quick review of what Continuum Tracker looks like and how it can and will be used to plan for differentiated teaching and track student learning progress. Following this, the panel members focus groups of students, staff and parents and carers. After this, some of the panel members were able to attend the after-school staff meeting, which included professional learning from the Yellow LadyBug Conference. By the end of the second day there was lots to celebrate and a few clear directions for further improvements.

The third and final day of the review will be this Thursday; here we will focus on setting goals and targets for the next four years. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of the review with our families through the newsletter and our strategic plans.

Student-Led Conferences

Our next round of Student-Led conferences are on the first Wednesday of Term 4. We are working towards a new approach to our Student-Led Conferences that we hope students, families and teachers will find to be even more valuable than our current approach. The new approach will start with gusto next year but we are making some changes to this year’s conferences that we will share with you in the coming weeks.

Please remember that Student-Led Conferences are a different type of school day - students are not expected to attend school and no supervision will be provided by teachers on this day, while they are attending conferences. A whole day OSHC program will run for families who are unable to make alternative arrangements for their kids, which is always lots of fun!

Grade 6 Disco

Thank you to the parents and carers who shared their time and talents to organise the Grade 6 Disco that ran last Friday. By all accounts, our kids had a fantastic time, enjoying the opportunity to dress up, the music and celebrating their readiness to move onto the next stage of their educational journey.

This is only the second year of a Grade 6 Disco, which was started by a small group of parents last year. It is so lovely to see how members of our community can help shape the experience of not only their own children, but for many children to come.

School Saving Bonus

The School Saving Bonus will provide $400 in support for Victorian school-aged students in Term 4, 2024 for use on 2025 school costs. This includes parents and carers of children in Four-Year-Old Kindergarten who are enrolled to start school in Term 1, 2025.

Parents and carers will receive an email from the Department of Education with their $400 School Saving Bonus in November 2024. Families will be able to choose how they spend the $400 bonus – on school activities, or school uniforms and textbooks, or a mixture of all three.

For more information about the School Saving Bonus, you can download the flyer here or check the Department of Education website here.

LGBTQIA + Disco