MESSAGE FROM PRINCIPAL

Staffing News - Farewell to Ash De Neef! 

Ashley De Neef is an important person for all at Dinjerra. Ash has two Music roles with us: 

1. ACMF (Australian Children’s Music Foundation) Music teacher, where Ash has delivered an exceptional Music program for our students. Through this whole class program, Ash has motivated children’s interest into music, instruments, enjoying songs together, and even sparked their interest in artists, such as Michael Jackson. 

    

2. Ash’s Instrumental Music Program: Ash has started the program this year and has grown his program to cater for more students, embarking on their first experience learning instruments. 

Ash is a busy man. He is also currently studying his Masters of Applied Linguistics at RMIT University, which focuses on how languages work and how meaning is communicated. Ash has accepted a full-time position with RMIT as the student experience co-ordinator, which is fantastic news for Ash, but sad news for Dinjerra. I would like to congratulate Ash on this achievement. Unfortunately for us, this means that Ash will be leaving Dinjerra at the end of Week 6. 

This news is definitely a loss for Dinjerra. I am hopeful that in the future, Ash could perhaps one day join us again. For now, we are working on a replacement for Ash in the ACMF role, and also the instrumental music role. We are looking forward to farewelling Ash at our whole school assembly on Friday 29th May. 

Education Support Personnel Day! 

On Friday 16th May, we celebrated our ES Personnel Day! We have many Education Support (ES) staff, who work across the school, either in classrooms, intervention, wellbeing or administration teams. Our ES actually outnumber our teaching staff at Dinjerra, which shows how much we rely on them to support our school. Our ES support our students, staff and families, and on behalf of the teaching staff, I would like to thank them all for their dedication and hard work.

We celebrated in Dinjerra style, with a lovely morning tea and some special thank you.

Volunteer Induction Session 

We have rescheduled the Volunteer Induction Session that was scheduled for Tuesday 12th.

New Confirmed Date: Monday 18th May

Time: 9:15am

Location: Staff room

What: Volunteer Induction - if you would like to volunteer in any capacity at Dinjerra for 2026, you will need to attend a volunteer induction session where we will go through:

• Child Safe Standards
• Code of Conduct
• Ways you can volunteer at Dinjerra (classroom, library, excursions, camps, gardening, fundraising and community events).

There is no need to register. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Professional Practice Day - Assessment by Appointment

Monday 25th May is a student free day, as it is a Professional Practice Day - Assessment by Appointment. There will be no school for students, however there is an opportunity for students to individually attend a 30 minute assessment appointment. 

The assessment day is a great opportunity for teachers to meet with students individually to go through Mathematics and Reading assessments. 

These assessments are undertaken twice per year, and results from this assessment helps the teachers and students plan for the next individual learning goals. Also, results from these assessments support teachers in making judgements about Semester 1 achievement to be communicated in the upcoming Semester 1 Reports.

We will have only 13 x 30 minute slots available for families. If families are not going to be around locally on Monday, then please do not make an assessment appointment for this day. Your child will be assessed by the classroom teacher during school time. Your child's teacher will assess your child on another day during the week. 

When your child comes to the assessment, parents / carers can wait in our staffroom, or leave and return after 30 minutes. We are also requesting that families arrive 5 minutes before the commencement of your child's appointment time.

If your child is attending Kelly Club for the day, please do not book an appointment. If the teacher has some spare moments, he/she will collect your child from Kelly Club during the day for 30 minutes.

Assessment Appointments are now open and available for booking via Compass. Please go to your app. The Conferences reminder should pop up, but if it doesn't, please go to the Conferences tab.

NOTE FOR 3/4B Families: Bookings will need to be made with Mrs Leah Stork, as she is the classroom teacher on Mondays.

Congratulations to Ms Emily Fredricks! 

On Wednesday 13th, Emily Fredricks, classroom teacher of Prep A, participated in her Bachelor of Education graduation ceremony with Australian Catholic University. Emily is an outstanding teacher, and we look forward to watching her teaching career blossom. Congratulations to Emily! 

Mother’s Day Morning

Thank you to the mums, nans and special people for attending our Mother’s Day / Special Person’s Morning in classrooms on Friday 8th May. It was a joy to see our students performing for our visitors, sharing poetry and undertaking activities together. 

Thanks to all who helped us fundraise by purchasing gifts from the Mother’s Day stall. We raised over $1000 and our students were happy with their purchases! Thanks to Marta Rodrigues, our Engagement Leader, for organising both events.