Assistant Principal's Report

What a terrific start to Term Four our students have made! It's been a busy and exciting start to the term, but we've started in the most positive way possible. 

Art Show

A huge congratulations to all of the students who had work on display at our Art Show last Thursday. I was very impressed by the quality of art work and the creative flair our students displayed. There was a large parent presence and a good community feel at the event. Thank you to all those that attended, we hope you enjoyed it. Another highlight for me were the students who played the piano while we were viewing the artwork in the Junior Building. A huge congratulations to Pranov, Amelie, Adrina, Savannah and Isobel. You were very impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed your performances. Here are some pictures I took throughout the Art Show. The students look so proud having their work on display.

Peaceful Kids Program

Last week was the final session of the Peaceful Kids Program which has been running with selected Grade Five and Six students across this semester. The Peaceful Kids Program is a Mindfulness & Positive Psycholgy Program. The program helped build on students emotional literacy and encourage them to adopt a growth mindset, which will give them the coping strategies to thrive and flourish through life. The students who participated in the program thoroughly enjoyed it and found the sessions beneficial. 

Bushwahzee

We welcomed the Bushwahzee Bush Band back to DPS for the second time this year. This time they were working with our Levels Prep, One and Two students. Mrs Vesdrevanis and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Bush Dance on Tuesday night, it was spectacular. Well done to our Prep, One and Two students, great dancing!   

Grade Six Swimming Day

Last Friday the Grade Six students attended a whole day of swimming at Aquarena. Our School Captains have written about it in this newsletter as part of Captains Corner and here are some other Grade Six students perspectives. 

Max 6P - Swimming was a great way to start the term. I had an amazing time with my friends learning water safety skills and also having fun on the inflatables. My favourite water safety skill was swimming with life jackets in a big group. I was the leader of my group and I feel I led my group well. 

Yi Yang 6P - Swimming was really good, I had a lot of fun with my friends. What I most enjoyed was swimming with life jackets. It was an interesting experience and taught me how to stay safe in the water. I also loved swimming freestyle while we all had free time. 

Victor 6P - Our Grade Six Swimming Day was a lot of fun. My favourite part was enjoying free time with inflatables, however, I also enjoyed learning water safety skills such as the pin drop. It was also so good that Miss P and Mr Johnson got involved in a swimming race which I was part of. The race was neck to neck and extremely close. I had a great time.

Lulah 6J - I loved jumping off the side of the pool into the water. I also liked jumping off the inflatable blue slide.

Arta 6J - It was a fun day. I liked going on the inflatable and I feel like I got better at backstroke. 

Sofia & Fay 6C - We thoroughly enjoyed our swimming day. The best part was when we went on the inflatable at the end of the day. We also played volleyball with everyone. 

Benji 6C - At swimming we learnt how to do backstroke, freestyle and survival backstroke.  We learnt about safety skills and we used life jackets too. 

Here are some pictures from the day.

Attendance

School attendance remains a concern for a small portion of DPS students.  

Daily school attendance is important for young people to succeed in education and to ensure they don’t fall behind both socially and developmentally. Young people who regularly attend school and complete Year 12 or an equivalent qualification have better health outcomes, better employment outcomes, and higher incomes across their lives.

School participation is important as it maximises life opportunities for young people, by providing them with education and support networks. School helps people to develop important skills, knowledge and values which set them up for further learning and participation in their community.

Doncaster Primary School places great importance on all students being at school on time, every day to maximise opportunities.

We understand that sometimes getting your child to school may be difficult and the school is very happy to work with you to improve your child’s attendance. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me on 9848 1122.

School Tours

Every Tuesday I conduct School Tours which showcase our fabulous students, teachers, facilities and programs. If you know someone that is considering DPS as their child's educational setting, please let them know about these school tours. Likewise if someone has a child that is about to embark on their educational journey and begin Prep, DPS may be the place for them. For more information on tours and enrolments, please contact the School Office on 9848 1122.  

Virtual Assemblies

Please join us each Monday for our Virtual Assembly. The links are provided via Compass and it's a great way to stay connected with the school community. You will also see our four wonderful School Captains Lexie, Isobel, Weihan and Josh in action. They are great public speakers and really continuing to grow and extend their leadership skills.