Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the final newsletter of term 2. Winter holidays begin at the end of the day tomorrow. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and hope you can spend some quality time together doing fun things. We look forward to seeing the students back at school on Monday 21st July, with 3/4 Camp scheduled for the first week, on Wednesday 23rd July.

Leading Instructional Excellence:

Our school values the learning and development of our staff, and the positive impacts this has on student outcomes and school improvement. I’m pleased to share that Daniela Bird and I recently successfully completed Leading Instructional Excellence at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership. This evidence-informed program strengthened our capacity to lead the implementation of explicit teaching across the school. Some of the key knowledge that we are bringing back to share with colleagues includes:

Strategies to maximise student attention, focus and regulation
Increased awareness around models of memory, and how to support students to more easily retain their new knowledge
Proven approaches to support our staff to align their teaching with the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0.

We look forward to implementing the knowledge and skills from the program to continue to support student outcomes and wellbeing.

Teaching Excellence Program 2025:

Term 2 Update: We would like to show our continued support for our middle leaders’ (Jenna Davies, Georgia Cobbledick, Charlene Waldron and Rachel Parr) participation in the Teaching Excellence Program by providing the school community with an update on their learnings. Jenna Davies, Georgia Cobbledick, Charlene Waldron and Rachel Parr have attended 2 discipline days and 2 Teaching Excellence Learning Community days over the course of this semester. They have enhanced their knowledge and skills in their chosen discipline. They have learned collaboratively alongside colleagues from across the state and have brought back new understandings of contemporary teaching approaches and strategies to our school. We look forward to their continued success in Term 3! We are proud to have our middle leaders represent our school and support the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership in raising the status of this amazing profession!

Policies for Community Consultation:

Policies are an important element for any organisational setting as they set out the processes and rationale as to why decisions are made and what can and cannot occur within the organisation. In government schools, some policies are determined by the Department of Education and apply to all government schools such as the Mobile Phone Policy. Some require community consultation for feedback before going to School Council for final approval. In this newsletter I have included the following DRAFT policies: Homework Policy, Student Wellbeing and Engagement Policy, Visitors Policy and Volunteers Policy. Please take a look under "Policies for Community Consultations" and if you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please put it in an email or make an appointment to discuss it with me and we will incorporate these into the policy that will be presented to School Council at our August meeting. Feedback will need to be received by 25th July for it to be incorporated in the new draft of these policies.

Semester 1 Student Reports:

Students were given their report on Tuesday to take home to their parents and carers. We hoped you received them in good condition. If not, please contact the office and we can print one for you. If your child does not live with you on a fulltime basis, we can arrange to have a copy of the report sent or emailed directly to you. Please call the school on 9743 5818 to arrange this.

Parent/Teacher Interviews:

Thank you to the parents and carers who came to meet their teacher to discuss your child’s progress. It is an important part of communication between the school and yourselves, with the aim to support children to achieve to their potential. I would also like to thank the staff who put in a lot of preparation and such a long day of work.

Lost School Uniform:

This is a friendly reminder to clearly name all your child’s clothing in case it gets lost. Also, please check that your child is wearing their own clothing and not another piece of clothing belonging to another student. Sometimes children may come home with clothing that belongs to other students. Please return any item of clothing that has another child’s name on it so it can be returned to its owner.

We have many uniform pieces in lost property which are unnamed. If your child has misplaced a piece of uniform and you or they cannot locate it in lost property, please feel free to take anything that is unnamed and fits your child. Please leave the area in an organised way, so that it is welcoming for the next people to come in.

Prep Enrolments 2026 Open:

If you or somebody you know has a child turning 5 before 30th April 2026 they are eligible to attend school in 2026. All children have a guaranteed place in their local school, and some schools, like ours, can accept enrolments outside their designated area. If you feel they are ready to start school next year and would like to find out more about what we have to offer, please call the office to join one of our small group tour. These are fortnightly on a Wednesday from 9.30am or monthly in the evening at 6.00pm. To help with organising staff and preparing for an effective transition program, enrolments should be received by 25th July 2025.

Year 7 Secondary Placement Notification:

Year 6 students were given a letter about their year 7 placement for 2026 on Tuesday. If you did not receive this, please contact the office and we can print you another one. It is important that you follow the directions to confirm your child’s place at their secondary school. Information around the appeals process was included. Please reach out if you need any support with this.

High Levels of Learning for All

Michelle Costa

Principal