From the Principal's Desk

As we near the end of Term 1, I would like to congratulate all students on the work and effort they have put into their learning so far this year. We have had a busy term with many events both academic and on the sporting field and our students as always, have thrown themselves enthusiastically into their opportunities.

Our new Preps, may not be able to be referred to as 'new' anymore have made a wonderful start to their educational journey and are well versed into the routines of school life.

This week our new School Council met which formally includes the following members-

Katie Chealuck- President

Zoe Engel- Vice President

Chris Holmes- Treasurer

Emma Campbell

Rachael Partridge

Erin Gleeson

Melissa Maccora

At our first school council meeting in Term 2, we will table our Annual School Report which will then be published on our school website for the whole community to view.

I thank all returning and new members for joining us on council and for the continued support of matters that relate to the functions of a school council.

In this issue and future issues, we have a page dedicated to the School Saving Bonus. This is to support families keeping up to date with the processes and procedures around this and Jess Peters will provide guidance on this page to support families when circumstances change as the number of calls and emails we are getting are higher in volume as we navigate this process. Hopefully this helps everyone with a central location of information.

Curriculum Day Thursday 27th March Wrap up-

The teachers were given the opportunity yesterday to visit schools in Geelong that implement a high quality Literacy Block as part of their English Instruction. We chose to visit Fyans Park PS and Hamlyn Banks PS as these two schools have shown great impact with learning outcomes and positive behaviour responses across the board.

We observed some great examples of work that is based on latest research to support schools with utilising a highly structured and responsive approach to teaching where students are engaged in tasks directed by teachers with many opportunities to respond.

As a staff we met back at school after lunch and began to make plans for anything we feel would benefit our students in this space.

Much of this work began in 2024 as we navigated the new English curriculum, the new Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 and we are now at the next stages of this work as a whole team.

CATs

Common Assessment Tasks for the Maths learning area and specialists will be made available via compass shortly. We always include these in semester reports for families as well in case you don't access them but it is a great opportunity to view how your child is going in particular areas of their learning in an ongoing manner. An email/compass post will go out and explain how to access them on Compass as well to support you.

Off-Site Evacuation Drill

This week we completed an offsite drill which seemed like a really big task as we planned for this, however upon reflection, we were so impressed with the responses from students as they made their way to our offsite safe spot. 

As you know, I have been messaging families about safe driving around our school and this was surely highlight even more with the recent tragedy in Teesdale where a young boy walking to school lost his life after being hit by a car. We cannot be complacent around schools and children often will behave and react suddenly at times in unpredictable manners which makes it even harder.

Crossing two roads at that time with 231 students was no mean feat and but the staff prepared the students well ahead of time and the response time was really impressive with all staff, visitors and students accounted for. 

We even found a new crossing supervisor- look out Wayne!

As this is our final newsletter for the term, I would like to wish all our families a wonderful school holiday period and Easter long weekend as well! It is certainly a strange set of dates for terms this year with us returning to school on Tuesday 22 April for only 3 days, to end the week with another public holiday- Anzac Day on the Friday 25 April. 

Enjoy the time with family and friends and please join us next Friday for a final assembly at 2:15pm to finish of the term.

Melissa Maccora