Assistant Principal's Report

Welcome to Week Seven of Term Three. We have had another exciting fortnight at DPS with many special activities taking place the two main ones being Science Week and Book Week. 

Face to Face Assembly 

Thank you to everyone who attended the Whole School Assembly in the School Gym last Monday morning. It was great to see our School Captains thrive in their roles out the front and we all really enjoyed the performances too. A huge congratulations and special mention to Jude and Atrina who presented their Speech from the Rotary Competition held earlier this term. Thank you to Mrs Milanese for organising the agenda for the day, it was a huge success!     

Pyjama Day

A huge thank you to the JSC for organising one of the comfiest days of the year: Pyjama Day. We all really enjoyed coming to school in our pyjamas, slippers, robes, oodies and comfortable clothing. The JSC raised over $300 on this very special day. Well done JSC and well done to Miss Larsen for organising this event.  

Check out these pictures from the day.

School Tours

We have been hosting two School Tours a week due to the demand of families moving into the area and hoping to join us at DPS. It has been a great chance for our students to shine and show off the best parts of DPS and we have had a number of mid year enrolments as a result.  We are in the process of organising our Prep enrolments for 2024 and have a healthy number of enrolments already. If you have a child who will be attending Doncaster Primary School next year in Prep and you haven’t enrolled yet, we would encourage you to collect and fill out an enrolment form from the office and return it along with all of the relevant documentation as soon as possible. If you have any relatives or friends who are interested in enrolling Preps into Doncaster Primary School in 2024, can you please encourage them to contact the School Office. We’d love to take them on a School Tour and enrol them thereafter.   

Book Week Events

Book Week will run at DPS from Monday 21st August until Friday 25th August and students will have the opportunity to take part in some wonderful activities. One of my favourite Book Week activities in the Dress Up Day that we have each year. I was so impressed with the amount of effort and creativity that went into making this years costumes. I saw lots of Harry Potters, Wally’s, Wizards and Princesses at the parades on Wednesday. It was a joy to see so many parents sharing the excitement with us at the parades. Thank you for coming!   

Check out these pictures from our Book Week Parade.

Curriculum Day

Last Friday staff were involved in CUST training – Cultural Understanding and Safety Training. It was a great day participating and learning more about this topic. 

National Day of action against Bullying and Violence

Last Friday was the National day of action against bullying and violence. This week, students have been learning about bullying prevention. The theme this year is ‘Growing connections to help prevent bullying’.

Teachers were able to discuss the definition of bullying with their class. Bullying is not just when one person is mean to someone else once, but when it happens repeatedly and makes them feel like they can't stop it.

This week students have learned that when someone has many connections to people and places, they feel safe, happy and supported. The more connections they have, the better they are at coping with challenging situations in their life. Being connected and having people to talk to or to ask for help are great ways to prevent bullying. Students were able to identify they ways they themselves are connected.

SWPBS – School Wide Positive Behaviour

All classes have been busy learning the expected behaviours from our DPS Matrix. Teachers have been explicitly teaching these lessons through language, role plays and scenarios. Teachers have been hunting for students who are ‘being respectful’ while they are on Yard Duty. So many students have been excited and proud to be awarded wrist bands for displaying the appropriate behaviours. Soon the student body will get to decide on a whole school reward that they are working towards. We can’t wait for them to work together and practise respect to achieve this goal.

Athletics Event 

A reminder that next Monday  is our Level 3-6 Athletics Day. Mr Spinks and the team are really excited for students to participate in a range of events from discus, long jump, triple jump, vortex throwing, high jump, shot put and relays. Please see Mr Spinks or Compass for more information.

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS 

Kids Help - kidshelpline.com.au phone 1800 55 1800 

Parent Line - betterhealth.vic.gov.au phone 13 22 89 

Headspace - headspace.org.au phone 1800 650 890 

eSafety Commissioner - esafety.gov.au - Advice for parents and carers to help children have safe experiences online 

Have a great week ahead DPS families,

Carly Epskamp