Principal's Message

Hello Hillsmeade families!

WELCOME BACK!

It is so lovely to see all of your friendly faces around the school again as we begin 2023.

I trust you all enjoyed a well-earned rest and took the time to regroup and get ready for a jam-packed year ahead.

SCHOOL GATES and YARD SUPERVISION

As mentioned last year, this year we have employed a full-time maintenance/groundsperson - Tim Jones. Tim has many jobs and tasks across the school each day, however, one of these will be the locking and unlocking of gates. Gates are open approx. 8.15am and locked approx. 4pm. All gates except the Administration gate are locked during the day (9.30am-3.00pm) for child safety.

Yard Supervision by school staff before and after class time includes 8.35-8.50 and 3.15 - 3.30. On Breakfast Club Days please be aware that staff are serving food but not officially on supervision duty until 8.35am.

We see many students here early/late without parent/adult supervision, playing in the yard. Please be aware of our supervision times and that your child should be in OSHC if they cannot be supervised appropriately before 8.35am or after 3.30pm

SCHOOL COUNCIL

As you will have seen on Compass, School Council nominations are here again. I encourage you to nominate yourself or another community member if you are interested in representing the school families and assist in the constant improvement of our school. Council meetings are held on Tuesday nights, approx once a month from 6.15pm - both at the school and online.

HATS AND NEW UNIFORM

As you may have seen, we have new items available at the uniform shop! We have an upgrade in design and material for the school t-shirts and adjustable bucket hats with the school logo for all students. T-shirt size availability will slowly increase throughout the year and we look forward to all of our students being in the new uniform heading into 2024, as best as possible. The school hats will also be available for purchase from the school office as of next week.

A reminder that our main school colours are red and navy blue. Black and other colours are not acceptable school colours for pants, jackets, jumpers etc at HPS.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 14th February

Meet 'n Greet in classrooms 3.30 - 4.30

Tuesday 21st March

Family Fun Night on the synthetic oval

3.30 - 5.30

We are looking forward to seeing our HPS families at these events in the coming weeks!!

Please ensure all children are fully supervised by adults during these after school events, staff are not on supervision duties at these times.

ASSEMBLIES

Assemblies are held fortnightly on Friday afternoons 2.30 - 3.10pm. Families are most welcome to attend. We commenced assembly last week 3/2/23 and the next assembly will be Friday 17th February. See you in the gym!

DOGS ON SCHOOLGROUNDS

Please be aware that dogs should not be on schoolgrounds. They are more than welcome at the school gates, however please be mindful of staff and students who may have allergies or be frightened of dogs.

FUTURE PLANNING

To assist with your forward planning, please note the following large whole school events are being scheduled for Term 2 and beyond:

Term 2 Week 2  - Parent Teacher Interviews

Term 2 - Education Week, Mothers/Special Others stall

Term 3 - The Colour Run, Book Week. Fathers/Special Others stall

Term 3 - End of term - Parent Teacher Interviews

Term 4 - End of Year Extravaganza

More information will follow throughout the year, but it is good to know that we have these events in mind for 2023!

PREP-2 LITERACY

Please see information in this newsletter about the introduction and implementation of a new approach to teaching Literacy in our early years. Last year we commenced communicating with our community about the Little Learners Love Literacy approach. Staff have been provided professional training and are in the process of implementing this new approach in their classrooms. Please ensure you read the newsletter each fortnight and keep an eye on Compass for more information.

MOBILE PHONES/SMART WATCHES

Just a reminder to please ensure your child does not have a mobile phone or smart watch at school. If they choose to bring these items, phones must be handed to class teachers and smart watches must have all 'smart' features disabled such as messaging and phone calls. If you would like further information about the DET policy and HPS policy please click on these links:

Mobile Phone Policy HPS

DET Mobile Phone Policy

FAREWELL TO MR B

As some of you may be aware, Matt Bentvelzen announced his intention to leave HPS at the beginning of this year. We thank Matt for all of his many years of dedication to Hillsmeade and wish him well on his next adventure, with his last day being Friday 10th February.