Principals Report

Time is disappearing fast as we are now almost halfway through this term!  Since the last newsletter, it’s been another busy and productive fortnight at school.

Cross Country

Last week at the recent SDSSA Cross Country at Mirrabooka Reserve, our students achieved an amazing result winning the competition. The students displayed great school spirit and sportsmanship by cheering each other on and the result exemplifies this. We had several students who performed extremely well and now qualify for the Monash Waverley Division Cross Country back at Mirrabooka Reserve next Wednesday.

I would like to make special mention of Imogen who won the overall medal in the Under 12/13 girls’ race and to Lucas who won the overall medal for the Under 12/13 boys. We are extremely proud of all our students that competed and represented our school so admirably. We wish all 17 students who qualified for the Division cross country, the best of luck! Go Syndal!

Mother’s Day Stall

The Parents Association held a fabulous Mother’s Day Stall last week. I hope all our mums enjoyed receiving their special gifts. A huge thank to all our wonderful volunteers who came and worked on the stall and gave snippets of advice to our excited customers. A special feature of the day for me is seeing all the students with their decorated carry bag that they had completed as part of their art lesson to hold their items in and for mums to enjoy. The total amount raised was approximately $1,500 which included approximately $390 raised from the Mother’s Day raffle.

Education Week

This week is the official Education Week but as swimming commenced this week, we have rescheduled our activities to the afternoon of Friday 6th June. Families will be invited to attend from 2.30 pm in the classroom for an activity based on a cultural themed book.

This year’s theme for Education Week, Celebration of Cultures highlights the diversity of our communities and the importance of every child feeling safe and welcome at school.

Next Monday, all students will have a special homework task to complete with their family. The task is to create a poster about their country of origin, this could include celebrations, food etc. We are hoping the completed posters will be back at school next Thursday the 29th May ready to be shared and displayed in the following week.

Swimming

The Year 3 and 4 students have commenced their swimming lessons this week at Huntingtower.  We have been grateful that the weather has been sunny for the walk down and back, fingers crossed it continues. Thank you to all our wonderful parent helpers, without you we couldn’t successfully run the program.

From School Council

Rolling Facilities Evaluation (RFE)

As you may have noticed there have been a lot of maintenance personnel working around the school. Roof repairing and replacement has been the major focus of the work with the complete replacement of the Art room roof. Other work has included the replacement of downpipes around the school, external door repair, and the replacement of windows in Block B. These repairs are part of the Rolling Facilities Evaluation (RFE) that was completed last year, all works completed are fully funded by the Victorian Schools Building Authority.

Annual Report

The 2024 Annual Report was completed last term, it has been returned from the quality assurance process, and we can now release the Annual Report to the public. It has been uploaded onto the school website, if anyone has any comments or questions regarding the content of the report please feel free to email me directly helen.freeman@education.vic.gov.au.

Policy Review

All school policies go through a review process with the timeline determined by the Department of Education. There are four policies which have now been reviewed; Complaints, Duty of Care, Inclusion and Diversity and the Yard Duty Supervision Policy, these policies are available on the school website.

On a Musical Note…

Put the dates in your diary!

Circus Splendida is the name of the whole musical that all the students will be performing in at the Alexander Theatre, Monash University on Wednesday 5th November and Thursday 6th November 2025.

Circus Splendida is a musical show filled with colour, humour, energy and a great story. It features clowns, jugglers, hula hoop performers, the tiny tumblers and lots more! It revolves around one night in the life of a circus troupe that is competing for the opportunity to go on a fantastic world tour. The circus ringmaster and his assistant Myra present the various performers who are vying to win this once in a lifetime opportunity. All of the various acts in the circus troupe try their best to present a fabulous performance but fall just short of the mark. To the surprise of everyone it's the bumbling quartet of clowns who emerge as the unlikely heroes of the show and along the way provide lots of laughter.

In previous years the school has presented a music concert. The format has been individual classes performing songs that have a common theme. The musical is a little different with one story line.

Curriculum Day

Finally, a reminder, that next Friday 30th May is a Curriculum Day, so no students attend school on this day. TeamKids are available from 7.00 am to 6.30 pm if you require this service.

Have an enjoyable fortnight.

Helen

Principal