Nigel's Natter

Hi HBPS Familes,

2025 Dates 

2025 dates, including student free days, have now been added to the Dates for the Diary Page to assist our familes with planning. 

2025 STUDENT LEADERSHIP

Check out the Student News page for all the details about the 2025 Student Leadership Selection process. 

TECHNOLOGY / BYOD UPDATE

You will have had a copy of our newly published Acceptable Use Agreement for Digital Devices at our school sent home by now. School Council have had robust discussions about the positives and challenges associated with the use of digital devices, particularly for primary school aged children.  

School Council and school staff are committed to our students digital technology learning – and as such, are please to share that from 2025 students will participate in a Technologies specialist subject at school. In this class students will explore all kids of technologies, including the safe and responsible use of a range of digital technologies.

School Council discussed at length the impact of young children having access to devices, and the ways in which increasing amounts of screen time is affecting young people’s social, emotional and physical development. 

Following these discussions, School Council voted unanimously to support the following decisions:

• Prep to Year 3 are NOT permitted to bring a device to school. 
• In 2025, the Year 4 BYOD program is OPTIONAL. Families that do not have a device are NOT required to purchase one.
• From 2026, the BYOD program will only be available to our Year 5 and Year 6 students.
• School will provide enough shared devices for students who do not bring their own device. 

PREP TRANSITION

Today we had the final transition session for our 2025 Preps - and we're excited to see them in 2025 ready to start 'Big Kid School'! Big thanks to our skilled staff for the care you show each and every one of our new students, and a shout-out for the absolute SKILL it takes to run a successful transition session. I spent some time in the learning space with our new students observing - and walked away feeling so very proud of our team. Honestly, close to 40 kids listening attentively, with required supports already being put in place for those who need them - WELL DONE!

STAFFING UPDATE - Marianne Spiranovic

I know many of you will know Marianne Spiranovic, and have been lucky enough for her to have taught your children. After some time to reflect during her leave, Marianne has decided to extend her leave through next year, with plans to retire at the end of Term 3. 

Marianne has been an important and much-loved part of our school for many years and has had a lasting impact on her students and colleagues over the years.  I know you will all join me in wishing Marianne well with this next chapter of her life. 

REMINDER - THANKS IS ENOUGH

Every year I have families reach out asking what they can get their child's teachers, and, this year our message is THANKS IS ENOUGH. We are all experiencing tough times financially, some more than others - and as a community - I don't want there to be any pressure to go out and buy a gift for any school staff. 

The most meaningful thing you can provide our team is recognition for the amazingly complex work they do with your children day in day out! A hand made card, a little note or a drawing is more special than chocolates in a mug.

I am sending this message to our teachers also. No staff will be handing out end of year gifts to classes this year. Rather, we'll be sharing with the kids what we love about them and why we're grateful to have taught them. 

SHARING WHAT'S WORKING

Last newsletter I shared how well our Year 3 students performed on NAPLAN compared to Similar Schools and our Network of schools in SPELLING. See below if you missed it! 

I also shared our Year 5 NUMERACY results. 

This week, I'm sharing our OVERALL SCHOOL PERFORMANCE REPORT OUTCOME. 

Every year, every school gets this report. It measures KEY areas including academic performance and learning growth, student attitude and attendance. Each indicator is given a rating and we then get given an overall performance rating.

Thanks to the outstanding dedication and hard work of each and every member of our team, I'm very happy to report that we have achieved IMPROVING for the 2024 school year. This is VERY HARD to accomplish and requires a school to be making significant gains across multiple indicators.   

The image below paints a picture. There are 41 schools in the state that are considered statistically similar to us. This means they serve similar communities and students, have similar resourcing etc.  

You can see below that we sit in the little green box (IMPROVING)

Blue = HIGH

Orange = MEDIUM

Pink = DEVELOPING

Gray = NOT ABLE TO BE GROUPED. 

So, out of 41 similar schools we are in the TOP 10 performers for 2024! GO HBPS!

One of the reasons for this has been the work we've done to transform the way we plan curriculum and instruct students. We've been very intentional about ensuring teaching is EXPLICIT and RESPONSIVE. 

The data below is from the Student Attitude to School Survey. This is a clear indication that the work we are doing as a school is making a difference for kids. 

95% of our Year 4 - Year 6 students reported that staff have HIGH EXPECTATIONS for their success, expects them to do their best and believes they can do well at school. 

This is an outstanding result - and one that I am deeply proud of.   

What's equally as pleasing, is that the result does not indicate a difference between the experience of boys and girls. Our team are holding ALL kids to a high standard, and the kids can feel the difference. 

SCHOOL SAVING BONUS  

Parent and carer School Saving Bonus code distribution  

The Victorian Government is delivering the School Saving Bonus – a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025. From Tuesday 26 November 2024, you will receive an email from the Department of Education with your unique $400 School Saving Bonus code. The School Saving Bonus will help families cover the cost of uniforms, textbooks, excursions, activities and more.

If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian government schools for 2025, you will receive one School Saving Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure to check your spam/junk email folder.

Parents and carers can use the School Saving Bonus code in store at school-nominated suppliers. Parents and carers can also choose to access the School Saving Bonus online system, where they can allocate part or all the $400 bonus to use at school nominated-online suppliers or for school activities.  

To learn more about the School Saving Bonus, visit School Saving Bonus | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au). A step-by-step user guide will be available on the webpage on 26 November.   

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au 

BOOK LISTS AND PACKS

 To order your Book Pack and make financial contributions, visit:

 https://www.wincschools.com.au/   Search for our school and enter the access key: 6YR8U 

Please note that if you order before the 6th of December 2024, you will get free delivery. After the 6th, a $10.95 delivery fee will be charged. 

BUILDING WORKS and ACCESS RESTRICTIONS

Big thanks for your continued flexibility while there are access restrictions at school due to building works. These will continue right through until the break. 

• The LARGE ramp to the Social Club room has now been fenced off. 
• The Year 6 portable has been fenced off. 
• Next week, the entry to the STEM room will be fenced off.

KELLY CLUB

We're switching Out of School Hours Care Providers in 2025. 

To register: www.kellyclub.com.au 

Service Coordinator  - 0467 770 079

Service email - hamlynbanks@kellyclub.com.au 

See you at the front gate. 

Nigel