Acting Principal's Message

It has been another great week at Toorak Primary School. Our Grade 6 students and staff have returned from the outstanding ski camp after attending three days of skiing. We continue to have enormous pride, in the grade 6s students in a variety of settings. Their achievements, participation and engagement whilst attending Mount Buller was outstanding. To have it reported to me, by an external person, who was present for some of the camp, that the responsibility, respect and kindness shown to themselves and others, brings our school great pride and happiness.

A huge thank you to the staff involved with the camp (Ms Heron, Ms Ratcliffe, Ms Paslis, Mr Chapman, Ms Rechner and Fraser), it is a huge commitment for them to make this event happen, putting their lives and families on hold to create this amazing experience for our students. Thank-you

Last week many students and parents attended the Lantern Festival creating stunning lanterns and singing German songs in celebration of this event. This was a joint venture between TPS and the German program with parent leaders Jaana Sahling (Henning and Frida) and Claudia Nold (Kai) and their associated team doing an amazing job cooking delicious food and creating the opportunity for the students to engage in lantern making, then singing songs accompanied by guitarist Greg Green (Isla and Sam). They evening was fantastic and we look forward to making this an annual event.

The rehearsals for the whole school musical continue with classroom teachers undertaking practice during class time and the whole cast coming together regularly during the week. With students singing and performing it’s clear to see that production preparation is in full swing.

Save the date – ‘The Lion King’ Thursday 14th September for both the matinee performance and night performance. Tickets will go on sale in the coming weeks.

A night not to be missed – How are you at trivia?

At present, we have a small group of parents working busily behind the scenes to organise a wonderful community night, our forth coming trivia night. A big thanks to Alicia Hanneberry, Alicia Brown and their team who are making this night happen so that we can reconnect, and at the same time raise some money for our grounds improvement plans.  I look forward to seeing you all next Friday.

Over the years the parent body has committed to raise funds for our school and we are happy to report that these funds have been used for:

• resurfacing the basketball courts (approx. $45,000), 
• $5000 for musical instruments for a strings program
• Purchase of ICT equipment
• $60 000  (we will be aiming for approx. 150000 -200 000) for a ground improvements in the prep play area (think playground and sandpit area) 

 100 Days of Foundation

Last week our Foundation students and staff celebrated a special milestone of reaching 100 days of school. This event offers students and teachers time to reflect on the outstanding work undertaken by students and lets us celebrate achievements and milestones over the last 100 days. It was great to see the students dressed up and to celebrate their education in a positive way.  

Congratulations to our Foundation students!

We Want our Parents/Caregivers/Guardians to tell us what they Think!

This is a reminder that our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents / caregivers / guardians think of our school. The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement.

The survey is optional but we encourage all families to participate. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.

All families are invited to participate in the survey.

The Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey will be open from Monday 7 August to Friday 8 September 2023.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the survey period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones.

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

The survey results will be communicated to parents / caregivers / guardians through annual reporting and through our newsletter and school council. You will receive an email on Monday with further instructions.

Student Safety

As the warmer weather approaches and more children are walking and riding to school it is important to remind your child/children about general safety as they travel to and from school.

Some tips for parents are, make sure children walk in groups, stay on the main walking paths, walk home at the same time as other school families, discuss where other families live on the walk home if they ever needed, come to school at around the same time as others and utilise our Out of home School care if an early start or late finish is required. 

Professional Practice Day

As you might be aware, every teacher is entitled two days per year release from their scheduled duties for a  Professional Practice Day (https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/practice/improve/Pages/ppe-practice-days.aspx). 

Through discussion with the school leadership team and through the Departmental advice, the school council has approved a whole school Professional Practice Day on Monday 6th of November (the day before Melbourne Cup Day) so students will not be required at school. The school’s, out of school provider, will provide their service on this day.

How do we Communicate with our Families

To keep you fully informed this is how we communicate with parents/carers:

NAPLAN.

From 2023, NAPLAN results are reported against proficiency standards with 4 levels of achievement to give teachers, parents and carers clearer information on how students are performing. To find information about NAPLAN results, including a video on how to read student reports, visit Results and reports.

Although not all data sets are available for schools to view, there are some general trends to note:

• Toorak Primary school continues to perform well in all areas; within a few % of all similar schools in the area in reading writing, spelling and numeracy
• We outperform all similar schools in Grammar and punctuation in Yr 3 
• NAPLAN maths results in year 5 indicate this area for improvement. This was previously identified as an area requiring support and changes to our maths program has been in progress since the beginning of this year.

Kind regards,

Sharon Wildermuth

Acting Principal