Week 9, 10 and 11 Term 2 2025

Dear CNPS Families,

I hope the last edition of the newsletter for Semester 1 finds you keeping warm, and more importantly well. The latter weeks of term has seen a lot of illness in our community, I hope the upcoming break provides students with a good opportunity to rest and reset for the second half of 2025. As I stated in the previous edition of the newsletter, it certainly has been a busy and productive first semester. I want to acknowledge the amazing students of CNPS for all their hard work in developing their learning and wellbeing knowledge and skills. Being principal of a primary school is a privilege, I thoroughly enjoy witnessing students thrive in tackling any challenges that lie ahead, including in times of uncertainty. We should be positive and optimistic about this next generation, whom I have great confidence in as our future leaders.

Smoking/Cleansing Ceremony

On Tuesday 17 June 2025 Carlton North Primary School hosted elder Perry Wandin, who conducted a special smoking ceremony to celebrate, acknowledge and cleanse our amazing school as we transition into the capital works upgrade. Perry greeted all students in the hall and shared stories of his ancestors and their connection, identity and place on country. All students, staff and community who were able, proceeded through the smoking ceremony, reflecting on our buildings as we know them today and their time and importance to the community of Carlton North. We look forward to welcoming back local elders to CNPS when we officially open our new facilities in 2026.

Learning

Assessment and Reporting / Parent/Carer – Teacher Interviews

Term 2 has been a busy term for our teachers. Throughout the term teachers have been working with students to assess their understanding of curriculum content and decipher future learning goals for Semester 2. Alongside assessment, teachers have also been working on formal reports, which were issued on Friday 20 June 2025. Throughout this week (Week 10) parents/carers have been invited into CNPS to attend mid-year interviews. Can I again thank all students for their hard work throughout Semester 1, acknowledge our dedicated and hard-working teachers for their diligent efforts and finally thank our parents/carers for your ongoing commitment to your child/ren’s learning and tremendous support of our school.

DAYS (Darebin and Yarra Schools)

On Wednesday 11 June 2025, Erin, Jane, Maddi and I attended the DAYS professional learning day. This was a special forum as one of our own parents - Dr Ryan Dunn - led two sessions exploring system reforms, primarily around the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 and explicit teaching (something we pride ourselves on at CNPS). The network day also allowed the leadership team to begin conversations about our strategic direction in the teaching and learning space.

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling
category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools.
consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools.
develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Jane Bilby – Assistant Principal - Wellbeing and Inclusion.

TeamKids Winter Vacation Program

Recently I met with Alex Guthrie our TeamKids partnership manager to discuss the pending winter vacation program. During our discussions it was decided that due to two building programs (maintenance and capital works) being on-site during the mid-year holiday break, TeamKids CNPS winter vacation program will not operate in July 2025.

I have been advised that CNPS families will be able to access TeamKids winter vacation programs at the following locations:

Princes Hill Primary School
Brunswick South Primary School
Clifton Hill Primary School
Flemington Primary School

CNPS and TeamKids apologise for the inconvenience and we anticipate the vacation program returning in Spring.

Year 5/6 Bike Education Program

It has been wonderful to again observe the exciting bike education program in action. In the first week of the program students acquire skills to ride that assist them moving around the school, before putting their skills in action on local bike lanes and paths. The second week of the program will also see a big bike ride around the local inner-north area. As a school we take safety seriously and I thank Chris, teachers and volunteers for their work in ensuring students are safe during these special events.

REMINDER Foundation Enrolments

If you have a child starting Foundation in 2026, please complete and return their enrolment form to the office as soon as possible. This will support the school to know how many sibling-based enrolments we have entering CNPS next year. If you have any questions regarding enrolment, please contact Gaby or a member of the office team.

Roof Maintenance UPDATE

The roof maintenance works continue. Over the last two weeks we have seen roof replacement commence on the outer building above the art room entrance, office and senior toilet block, painting of the fascia boards on the karawun building and repointing of some of the bricks on the marnerlong building. Next week we will see scaffolding moving into place around the marnerlong building in-readiness for roof repairs over the mid-year holidays. This will see the junior (South/East playground close). A reminder that safety is our priority and we ask all community members to exercise caution when moving around the school during building works (particularly in wet conditions). Can I again thank the community for your ongoing support and flexibility.

School – Home Partnership

The hallmark of a strong school-home partnership is open and respectful dialogue, that embodies the school values. Please feel free to reach out to Jane, Erin, Trish or I should you have any questions or queries.

Warm Regards

Matthew Ferguson

Principal

Beyond the Gates