Dear HPS Community,

What a fantastic turnout to our Father’s Day / Special Person Morning Tea this morning!

It was wonderful to see so many families joining us and to witness the special connections between our students and their dads, uncles, grandpas and other important male role models. Just as lovely were the many conversations and catch-ups happening between families as we came together to celebrate with our wonderful HPS community.

A very special thank you to our Community Engagement Subcommittee and all the wonderful volunteer helpers for organising such a successful event and making the morning such a welcoming experience for everyone.

We also appreciate the efforts of our school staff, including Sam and Jack from the office, along with our teachers and Education Support staff, who helped prepare the room, organise the sports equipment.

A big thank you to Sue, who coordinates our Breakfast Club, for all her work behind the scenes helping to organise the food and prepare the goody bags. Your contribution helped make the morning extra special!

To all of our wonderful dads, grandpas, uncles and male role models, we wish you a very happy Father’s Day for Sunday. We hope you enjoy a wonderful day and are treated to something special as you celebrate the love, care, encouragement and support you give to your families each and every day.

What a wonderful celebration of family, connection and community at HPS!

Foundation Breakfast

What a wonderful morning our Foundation students enjoyed this week at our Foundation Breakfast!

Arriving at school in their PJs, our Foundation students had lots of fun enjoying breakfast together with their friends and teachers. It was a lovely opportunity to build connections, share some laughs and enjoy a very special start to the school day.

After breakfast, our students showed fantastic responsibility and independence as they helped to clean up, pack everything away and get themselves changed into their school uniforms, ready for a day of learning.

A huge thank you to our wonderful Year 6 students who assisted throughout the morning. Their care, enthusiasm and willingness to help our youngest students was fantastic to see.

And, of course, a very special thank you to our fabulous Foundation teachers for organising and supporting such a successful and smooth Foundation Breakfast. Your enthusiasm and care made the morning such a memorable experience for our newest members of the HPS community.

Well done, Foundation! What a fantastic way to start the day!

Working together to share best practice

This week, I was invited to share our work at the Banyule/Nillumbik Schools Network (BNSN) principals’ meeting, where we presented the focus we have been undertaking on creating an inclusive, safe and supportive environment for every student.

This has been strongly supported through the work principals have been engaged with this year at BNSN principal meetings, which has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on, strengthen and align the way we support student wellbeing, inclusion and learning.

Our journey has been about much more than simply introducing new strategies or asking staff to follow a checklist. We have intentionally focused on building the knowledge, skills and confidence of our staff, to in turn support our students. Through staff professional learning linking the foundations of Berry Street Education Model training and our collaborative work to understand the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM), we have strengthened our understanding of trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches that support students to feel safe, connected and ready to learn.

This learning has sparked curiosity and thoughtful conversations across our staff. We have considered how this learning connects with the strong foundations we already have in place, including our School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) approach and our school values of Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Compassion.

We have explored data sets through Professional Learning Community (PLC) inquiries and the expertise of our Inclusion Outreach Coach to examine what is working well and where we can strengthen our systems. This has supported us to develop more targeted, collaborative and individualised plans for students, including Individual Education Plans, Behaviour Support Plans and Safety Plans.

Most importantly, our staff have been able to see and feel the impact of these approaches in their classrooms and across our school. We are seeing greater consistency, increased confidence and a stronger shared understanding of what it means to make reasonable adjustments to create an environment where every child feels safe, included, valued and able to learn.

We were incredibly proud to share this journey with our network of principals. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how far we have come and to celebrate the collective work of our staff.

Our next part of the work is an important one – strengthening our partnership with families and sharing our vision and narrative of inclusion more widely with our Heidelberg Primary School community. We look forward to continuing this conversation with our families and working together to ensure every student experiences our school as a place where they belong, feel safe and can thrive.

Parent/ Carer Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Carer Opinion Survey and is seeking your feedback. The survey, offered by the Department of Education, is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement.

Your opinions are important to us and will contribute to identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies.

The department will use the results from the survey for research purposes and to improve outcomes for students.

The survey will be conducted online and only takes 20 minutes to complete. It can be completed on any internet enabled device (desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.

The survey is available in English and 10 other languages: Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

If you require assistance in another language, resources may be available for you. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school if you require assistance in another language.

The Parent / Carer Opinion Survey will be open online until Friday 18 September 2026.

Please refer to the Compass newsfeed for further information required to complete the survey.

Icy-Pole Sales

Our Year 6 cohort will be selling Zooper Dooper icy-poles each Thursday.

There will be two types of Zooper Doopers on sale including regular and sugar free.

Students are welcome to bring $1 on any Thursday they wish to purchase an icy-pole.

Funds raised will go towards supporting the 2026 Year 6 Graduation.

As this event will run each week until December, don't panic if your child forgets their money one Thursday, they can always bring it the following week.

Royal Children's Hospital Appeal

We have a student initiated lunchtime club that run this week and will be held again next Wednesday, 9th September. Louis J and his crew supported participating students to learn the craft of paper plane building and provided opportunities to test their planes flight ability and then refine their design.

A competition will be run on Wednesday 9th September at lunch time where certificates will be awarded for Longest Flight, Target Landing and Longest Time In The Air.

Louis will be accepting gold coin donations with all proceeds raised being donated to the Royal Children's Hospital.

Heidelberg Tigers U11 Take Out the Grand Final 🏆

Congratulations to several HPS Grade 5 students who played in the Heidelberg Tigers U11 team, which won the YJFL U11 Div 2 Grand Final last weekend, defeating the Macleod Eagles, 3.3.21 to 2.1.13.

A fantastic achievement!

Well done to all the HPS team mates: Zach C, Ed, Josh H, Theo, Ari, Tate, and Shaman 🐯🏆

2027 Foundation Students

This year, we are excited to introduce a new initiative designed to support our future students and their families as they begin their journey with Heidelberg Primary School.

Prior to the commencement of our formal Transition Program in Term 4, we are inviting children enrolled to begin Foundation in 2027, along with a parent or carer, to join us for a relaxed Story Time session in our school library.

These optional, low-pressure opportunities are designed to help children become familiar with our school environment, begin building connections with staff and other future students, and feel a sense of belonging within our school community.

We understand that starting school can be both an exciting and unfamiliar experience. Through these informal sessions, we hope to provide an additional opportunity for children and families to connect with Heidelberg Primary School and help make the transition to school feel a little more familiar and welcoming.

Thank you to the children and families who came along to our second story time session, where a book titled Dear Broccoli, by Jo Dabrowski was read by our Assistant Principal, Monique. Children then got to decorate their own broccoli art piece. We hope you had a wonderful time like we did!

Our final story time session will be held next week :-)

Naming of the new gymnasium

Thank you to everyone who voted on the naming of our new gymnasium.

With just over half of the total votes, our new gym at HPS will be referred to as the YUMAGU CENTRE, meaning 'everyone' in Woiwurrung language.

Whole School Book Week Collaborations

Upcoming Dates
September
Friday 4	Father's Day and Special Person Morning Tea 8-9am
October
Thursday 15	Year 6 Graduation Photo Day
Thursday 29	Matsuri Day - whole school
November
Monday 2	Curriculum Day- No students at school
Tuesday 3	Melbourne Cup Public Holiday

2026 School Term Dates

Term 3: Monday 13th July- Friday 18th September (2.30pm finish)

Term 4: Monday 5th October- Friday 18th December (1.30pm finish)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Naomi Ivers

Principal

Heidelberg Primary School

9457 2259

naomi.ivers@education.vic.gov.au

Heidelberg PS - Capers

Respect | Responsibility | Resilience | Compassion

Term 3 - Issue 8 · 04 Sep 2026

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