Principal's Newsletter

What a wonderful change in the weather with some warmth and sunshine! Please make sure your child wears their hat each day. There is a lot of pollen and dust around. If your child has asthma or suffers from hay fever, please make sure you give them medication at home to help them through the school day.

Year 1 & 2 Healthy Living & Growing Sessions

Today an Operoo notice was released about the Year 1 & 2 Healthy Living Sessions. An online parent information session will occur on Wednesday 16 November, at 6.30pm. The online session runs for an hour.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86887134481?pwd=aUkvZ2Y2eHpDSHUzUmc4NVlmNmFidz09

Meeting ID: 868 8713 4481Passcode: 849368

Please note the session start time. For security reasons, and to ensure the session runs smoothly, anyone attempting to join the Zoom meeting more than 15 minutes after the scheduled start time will not be admitted.

The session is not recorded.

2026 School Terms

DET have asked that I share this information with all families. There have been changes to Victorian school term dates for 2026. This will provide an opportunity for Victorian communities to participate more broadly in the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will take place across regional Victoria from Tuesday 17 March to Sunday 29 March 2026, with Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland and Shepparton hosting a range of activities and events for 20 different sports and 9 para-sports.

The 2026 Victorian school term dates are:

Term 1: Tuesday 27 January to Friday 13 March 2026
Term 2: Monday 30 March to Friday 19 June 2026
Term 3: Monday 6 July to Friday 18 September 2026
Term 4: Monday 5 October to Friday 18 December 2026.

For the list of school term dates until the end of 2030, refer to School term dates and holidays in Victoria.

The Fathering Project

The school is considering implementing 'The Fathering Project'.

We would like families to complete a short survey about their interest in this. The survey can be found at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NR6F7SP

The Fathering Project is an evidence-based organisation that aims to promote positive fathering behaviours and fathers’ engagement with their infants, preschool, primary school and adolescent-aged children.

The Fathering Project recognises that fathers, and father figures, play a vital role in children’s lives. The evidence demonstrating fathers’ potential to positively influence their children’s health and mental health, social success and academic achievements is now robust, indisputable, and compelling.

The Fathering Project has a great website about what they do:

https://thefatheringproject.org/about-us/

Huntingdale Primary School is thinking of implementing The Fathering Program at our school.

To start the Fathering Project at our school we would have a ‘launch event’ (for example a pizza and paper plane making night or a BBQ), with the aim of:

· Father’s creating relationships between the other fathers in the school

· Brainstorming about supports fathers need

· Creating a network of fathers to organise other events later on for fathers/children with some support from Susan and the school

The Fathering Project has information on the sorts of programs they can help run which can be found at: https://thefatheringproject.org/programs/school-program/

If you have any questions, please contact the school.

2022 NAPLAN

DET have asked that I share this information with you. The 2022 NAPLAN national results have been published.

Of course, NAPLAN results are not everything. They focus on two particular aspects of learning – literacy and numeracy – not the full range of knowledge, skills and attributes that we seek to develop in our students.

While not everything, they are one important measure we can use to assess the progress of our school, and the learning of Victorian students relative to their peers across Australia.

While our key focus is on each of our individual students, you may also be interested in what the NAPLAN results show about Victorian schools overall.

The Department of Education and Training has analysed the results for Victoria and found that Victorian students have achieved some of our highest results ever, maintaining our place as one of the highest performing jurisdictions, along with NSW and ACT.

For example, in 2022, Victorian Year 3 students achieved their best ever Reading results and were again the strongest readers in the country.

Indeed, Victorian students performed particularly strongly at the primary level, with Victoria ranked first or second on eight out of 10 NAPLAN assessments, including all five assessments at Year 3.

There was also pleasing evidence of improvement at the secondary level, with the 2022 cohort recording the equal highest proportion ever of Victorian Year 9 students achieving in the top two bands of Reading. Writing results also showed improvement across Years 5, 7 and 9 students.

I do want to take a moment to recognise these achievements and acknowledge the very hard work of not only the teachers and staff in our school but in all schools across Victoria, especially given the substantial challenges of the last two years.

That said, the department has identified areas where further work is needed. These priority areas for improvement are shared with other states and territories facing similar challenges, such as lifting numeracy results.

My comments on these overall results don’t change the fact that we will continue to work together with you to do all we can to ensure every one of our students have a strong sense of belonging and connection to our school and that we continue to help each one reach their full potential.

Thank you for all your support and all the work that you do to help us ensure that our school, and Victoria as a whole, is one of the best places for children to learn.

First Nations Bedtime Stories

The First Nations bedtime stories is celebrated from 22-26 November. This project brings Dreaming stories as old as time into homes and classrooms around Australia. Every year they work with different First Nations creatives and communities to film five Dreaming stories. The films are shared online, and people come together to watch them over five days in November.

First Nations Bedtime Stories is for everyone - young and older, families and schools, or even workplaces. It’s a time for all people to come together on a journey towards deeper connection and understanding. To learn from and celebrate First Nations cultures and the profound wisdom they hold. Please visit https://www.firstnationsbedtimestories.com/ for more information.

Reminder- Planning for 2023

The school is well underway for planning the 2023 school year.

If you are planning on moving interstate, to another country or away from Huntingdale and are yet to notify the office please do so as soon as possible. Numbers have a significant bearing on our planning, and we appreciate early notification where possible.

If you hear of anyone wishing to attend Huntingdale in 2023, please send them to the office to enrol. If you have not enrolled any younger siblings, please do so as quickly as possible so that they can attend our kinder to school transition program.

If you have any further questions, please contact the school office.

Have a great fortnight!

Ruth Biddle

Principal

Assistant Principal's Newsletter

TECH girls Oct 31st 2022

A group of seven grade 6 girls spent a day at South Oakleigh Secondary college attending ‘TECH’ girls’ movement looking at the Design thinking process.

They discussed ‘WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP?’ and ‘Who is an ENTREPRENEUER?’ As a whole group, they listed what they thought were the major problems the world was facing. They then were put into mixed groups of 5 /6 students hailing from South Oakleigh Primary, Huntingdale Primary and South Oakleigh Secondary and listed a few problems that existed locally in their communities. Following the process of Ideate, Research, Build and Pitch they were to discuss in their groups and agree upon one problem they would like to tackle and had to come up with possible solutions. They had to use this information to build an app, using a story board format. They then had to give their app a name, design a logo and what would be the succeeding pages of their app. Finally they had to ‘Pitch’ it i.e. make a presentation to the rest of the group explaining how their app was unique and how it was to aid in solving the problem.

I think most of the girls were engaged, contributed to their groups and made a presentation at the end. The girls should have their booklets with them if you wanted to discuss it further with them. They were also given a pin and a T-shirt and a certificate at the end of the day.

A good day for the girls to do something different.

Thank you, Mrs Mathews for organising the special event.

Foundation Vegetable Garden

The Foundation’s vegetable garden looks good. They harvested today and tasted it. Students found a common bug called Armalillidium vulgare in their vegetable garden. Students learnt that this bug eats fallen leaves rather than their vegetables, which is a good thing. It was a great learning moment with real life connection. They also connected with the “eat well” message that “vegetables are good for our health”.

Trivia Night

The Huntingdale Primary School Trivia night is set to take place on Saturday 19 November. Now is the time to book your place at this event that is all about parents getting together with friends and the wider school community for an evening of fun, games and laughter. You can reserve your place through https://tinyurl.com/HuntingdaleTriviaThere are lots of fabulous prizes up for grabs on the night but event organisers are looking for more. If you have or know of someone with a business they would like to promote in the school community through the Trivia night please contact us at watashimo.huntingdale@gmail.com

NATIONAL SYUMPOSIUM

Our teachers, Dan Thomas and Ryoki Fukaya recently were part of a presentation at the NSJLE (National Symposium on Japanese Language Education) on 4th November.

The presentation was about the strategies for supporting holistic literacy improvement through collaborative practice between language teachers and English classroom teachers. They talked about our Bilingual Education (implications for language teaching outside of a bilingual context, strategies for overcoming challenges and supporting literacy through language teaching and benefits for students growth and literacy development).

Thank you, Dan and Ryoki, for advocating Bilingual Education and sharing the showcase of our teaching and learning.

Watashi Mo Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The AGM was held on Monday 7th November. It was great to finally have a meeting “face to face”. Thank you to Team Kids for providing the morning tea.

Also thank you to our following parents who have volunteered to take on the management rolls:

President: Katherine Ward

Secretary: Amy Fredrickson

Co-Treasurers: Jennifer Segref and Hiroka McGregor-Jones

We will have the next meeting on Monday 5th December. Please come along to join to organise the exciting events for next year.

A very big Thank you to Lisa Gleeson and Yi Chi Fan for your contribution to our community. Your contribution is very much appreciated.

Dental Van-Smile Squad

The friendly Smile Squad dental team will be visiting our school to do free dental checks in Term 1, 2023.

More information will be forwarded in due course.

Student Support (OnPsych)

I would like to share the good news that OnPsych’s service is back at our school again. Here is the information about OnPsych. If you are interested, please come and see me for further information. I’ll be very happy to pass the OnPsych Parent Information Pack. The service can be accessed at school during school hours.

OnPsych staff are experts in their field. They offer professional help with simple problems like making friends, to complex mental health issues, such as:

Dealing with bullying
Fears, phobias & anxiety
Behaviour problems at home and at school
Depression
The stress of exams and relationships
Attention deficit & hyperactivity
Social skills
Eating disorders
Grief and loss
Autism.

OnPsych also offers individual/group skills training in:

Communication skills
Problem solving
Stress management
Anger management
Negotiation skills
Relaxation
Social skills training
Motivation
Parenting

Childhood and adolescence can be a difficult and challenging time.

OnPsych offers services to students, their families and the school community a no out of pocket expenses (bulk billing) service. This is done under a range of programs, including the GP Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP) and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). The MHCP will entitle the child, adolescent or family member up to 20 therapeutic (counselling sessions) sessions per year with the psychologist or mental health social worker. NDIS services differ based on individual plans.

For MHCPs follow these easy steps to obtain a GP referral and fax or email it this directly to onPsych as soon as possible:

Complete the paperwork (titled ‘Information for your GP’)
Book a double appointment with your GP
Advise them of your concerns regarding your child’s emotional wellbeing
Obtain a referral under the Better Access Initiative (Item 2715/2700)
Have your GP fax the referral and the paperwork directly to onPsych on 1300 651 580, or you can take it to school and ask them to fax it to onPsych for you or alternatively, it can be scanned and emailed to contact@onpsych.com.au)
onPsych will then be in contact with you to arrange a meeting for yourself and your child.

For further information about onPsych services, feel free to contact your state manager on 1300 659 350 or visit our website www.onpsych.com.au

Sun Smart

Students need to wear a school hat when they are outside. If they don’t have it, they need to stay under the shade. Please make sure your child brings their school hat to school every day. Also, please ensure your child’s name is written on their hat.

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal

Student Achievements

Albert, 4B

Peter, 1B