Out and about at Surfside

 2026 - Here we come!

It has been such a thrill to welcome back our students, staff and school community for the start of the 2026 school year. It has been a settled start in and out of the classroom and the highlight of the start of a school year is always meeting our new Foundation (Prep) students on their first day.

We hope that our school community have managed to have a restful holiday break and we hope that you had the opportunity to spend some quality time together making new  memories - it has been fantastic to hear stories over the first few days from students, staff, parents and carers about holiday adventures. Our thoughts go out to those school communities and greater communities who have been impacted by fires and floods during the holiday break and for some this has impacted the start of their school year.

It has been great to see our students and staff settle in well to start the school year with a large focus on our Connect, Belong and Grow program. It has been fantastic to see students working towards, discussing and exhibiting our school values of Respect, Honesty, Teamwork and Achievement.This program is supported by the following aspects of our curriculum:

• Teaching & Learning program (especially the capabilities aspects of the curriculum)
• Behavioural Curriculum
• Social and Emotional Learning Program
• School Values system
• Berry Street Educational program
• Zones of Regulation

There is a lot of work that goes into our transition program to end and start the year and the opportunity to provide safe and predictable routines that enable for a less stressful and anxious transition back to school. It was great to see families visiting the school grounds during the break familiarising themselves with the grounds and classroom areas. We also hope families took the opportunity to use some of the tips and tricks to support transition back to school.

We would also like to welcome our new families to the Surfside community and we hope that you have all settled in well. We have had staff and families start who have relocated from Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and even New Zealand. We have also had families return to Surfside who have experienced big adventures with travel around Australia. We wish you the best throughout term 1 and hope you look forward to the year ahead

We hope that you take the time to engage with our newsletter content throughout the year as it is a great place to access the logistics of school, what is happening in the classrooms, how we can support student wellbeing and inclusion, what we are working towards as a school and community and celebrate the many achievements throughout a fortnight. We wish you all the best for the year ahead!

Peter Walsh (Principal) & Lynda Patterson (Assistant Principal)

 Student Leadership 2026

A big welcome to our school leadership team as they prepare for a big year ahead. They are definitely excited about their roles and responsibilities and planning for school based projects. We look forward to meeting our school captains at our first assembly next week and Ms Manning and Ms Henderson look forward to working with our leadership team every Tuesday.

Staff and Student Diaries - Cover Design

Our staff and year 6 student diaries received a work out this week as we were able to add in all of our important and exciting dates for 2026. We would like to acknowledge the work of Digby and Hugo who designed the front cover of our diaries in their Digital Art class in 2025. The focus of their lesson was perception and depth and they developed an amazing piece of Digital Art.

Student Attendance

Regular attendance at school is very important for your child's learning and social development. Very good attendance for a child is 95% and above.

It is important that children are at school as much as possible to ensure the BEST opportunity for learning growth. We need to utilise every available minute to ensure student growth academically, socially and emotionally, in and out of the classroom. 

If early collection for a shopping trip or to beat the traffic happens on a regular basis this can take away from valuable learning time throughout their schooling life. Please take the time to read the graphic below and to understand the long term affect this can have on student development. We understand that students are impacted by illness, injury or other ailments. If your child is going to be absent you are required by legislation to notify the school by:

• Logging onto Compass  and
• Enter the absence for full days only 
• If your child/children arrive late or are being collected early, the office staff will enter this onto Compass for you.

Annual Privacy Reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ privacy policy and the Schools’ privacy collection notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy (linked below), describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. 

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. 

School Council 2025/2026 Meeting

Our first school council meeting  for 2026 will take place on Tuesday 17th February in week 4. This will be our final full meeting with our current 2025 school council group. We look forward to welcoming our new school council following our upcoming Annual General Meeting in week 8 and returning members for 2026. Nominations will be communicated in the coming weeks via our newsletter and elections will take place if required.