Hello Newlands Community!

We had a wonderful meeting this week, touching on the excitement of recent events such as school camps, and of course the amazing Art Show, and also some discussion on the future plans for 2026!

Luke’s principal’s report as always was a great ice-breaker, with an outline of notable events. There was the regular update on ongoing teacher training, and celebration of the achievements as teachers constantly improve their knowledge base. We heard about the unfortunate situation with alarms sounding on the 3/4 camp, but they’ve reached out to support us with another event to compensate. Now, the Art Show! Such a wonderful night, as I know everyone will agree. Such a wonderful display not only of the high quality of work created by our students, but also such a strong sense of the Newlands Community! There were even wishes that Sentral could have been there to get such a wonderful glimpse of the school community for their re-branding work!

Then we broke into the reports from the various school subcommittees. Building & Grounds reported on the ongoing work with garden planting, and a reminder of the Working Bee coming up soon - please come and help us on the day if you can! We’re reviewing some quotes for new solar panels to support the school and its future power needs. We also discussed the Toilet blocks - an ongoing concern for many. They’ll be looking into the history of the behaviour when used, especially since the build and access to the newer facilities. This is an ongoing concern, and there will be further discussion on the best alternatives we have looking forward.

The OSHC subcommittee reported their anticipated projections for numbers for 2026, including staff support and the Induction process for new students next year. Regarding the recent assessment, we presented strong evidence for the high quality of our service, and we are certain of the quality, and the exceptional level of care provided by the OSHC staff.

The Parents and friends Association celebrated the recent success of the “World’s Greatest Shave” event, especially with Graeme going under the clippers to support it! We discussed the events for 2025, in their number and breakdown during the year. We’ve had a lot, and will be looking into event planning for 2026, both the number of events and how they’re spaced during the year. Subcommittees will meet soon to plan this all out. We have the school fete coming up in a few weeks, and due to the number of recent events have decided that there won’t be a Mango drive this year unfortunately - so many things on right now!

The Education, Wellbeing & Policy subcommittee had a great meeting with our new members. We had a valuable discussion of the challenges of support for neurodiverse students, and the common challenges being experienced by some students. We’ll continue this discussion in future plans to improve support, but there are already plans in place by the school for 2026 to support these initiatives. We also discussed the format of our school reports - how clear they are, what is the most valuable information to include for parents, and what we can do to improve. This discussion was based on the reports of the recent Parent Opinion Survey, however we had a very low response rate, so please consider completing these surveys when they’re available, to help inform future improvements.

The Spanish subcommittee discussed the Salsa night coming up soon - get your dancing shoes on and join us for a fun night! There’s a survey out for future interest in the Spanish Club - please look out for that if you’d like to be part of it. They also mentioned the interest in the Spanish Club for involvement in the school rebranding, to make sure it reflected that important aspect of the school community.

Speaking of the school rebranding, Seesaw came in and met with the students recently, and there was great discussion and feedback regarding the designs. We’ve also received lots of responses from parents about the rebranding. Seesaw will present at assembly this week, and give more info on what will be in the rebranding - it’s not just a refresh of the school logo!

To close off, we reviewed some further information on future school planning for 2026 - it’s amazing how quickly a year can fly by! More information on this will be published to the school community soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Craig Peebles, on behalf of Newlands Primary School Council

Working bee - 9/11/2025