Principal Report

Welcome back, everyone, to the start of the 2025 school year!

Hopefully you got to do at least one of the quintessential Australian summer activities such as eating too many prawns on Christmas Day, taking a family trip via plane or long car trip, going to beach (near or far!), watching the tennis or cricket, or just enjoying the late sunsets in the local park or your own backyard. May those happy family memories sustain us through the year!

If you are beginning your time as part of the wonderful NLPS community with a new Foundation student, or if you are a parent of a child that is about to commence their final year in primary school, and for all of you that have students in between, it’s great that you can be a part of our fantastic school community and I hope you are all looking forward to an amazing school year. The school is happy to work with you to support your child/ren to ensure that this is the case.

As you may already appreciate, Newport Lakes PS is a great school and one where we will continue to educate the whole child - focusing on both learning and wellbeing and ensuring that all our students become happy, healthy, and curious humans. I want NLPS to be ‘the best in the west’ when it comes to kindness, inclusion and effort.

A Great Start to the Term!

It was lovely to see the Year 1 - 6 students' happy faces come through the gates on Wednesday morning and how easily they clicked back into the school routine, even in their new classrooms. Our teachers work hard to ensure consistency across classrooms and this is evident when you visit the rooms and see how comfortable and confident the students are with the activities and related expectations. This is further helped through our ‘First 10 Days’ curriculum, which is about helping students build positive relationships with their peers and teacher/s, as well familiarising them with classroom resources and procedures, and forming a classroom agreement around expected behaviours for learning.  

The students were also able to begin their Specialist classes and have enjoyed their first lesson of Art, PE, STEM, and Auslan/Library or Drama/Music. Your teacher will let you know your child/ren’s timetable, noting that we would suggest wearing runners for PE and bringing a bag for borrowed library books.

We are looking forward to welcoming our new Foundation students next Thursday, after they have all completed their 1:1 interviews with their new teachers over the first 6 days of school.

Upcoming Parent Communication / Events

Meet the Teacher Interviews - The 2025 ‘Meet the Teacher’ Interviews will be conducted for all year levels on Monday, 3rd March, between 2:00-7:00pm. 

Interviews will take place online, through Webex (or face-to-face upon request). Bookings for all classroom and specialist teachers will be available online via the Compass Parent Portal in the near future. Further information on the upcoming parent-teacher meetings, including how to book, will be sent out via Compass.

Contacting your Child’s Teacher – If you have any immediate concerns or would like to discuss an issue in regard to your child it is very important that you contact your child’s teacher. This can be done in a number of ways including; 

• arranging a meeting at a time suitable for both parties. This can be done by emailing the teacher directly via Compass, emailing the school (place teacher’s name in the subject box) or leaving a message and contact details at the school office for the class teacher to contact you
• dropping in to the classroom before school (between 8.50-9.00am) - note that this is only suitable for brief messages. Regarding after school, please also note that we often have meetings in the afternoon so this is not always a suitable time.

Parent Information re. Year Levels – We are currently finalising a new format of presenting specific year level information to parents. This information will be made available to parents in Week 4. Further details will be sent home via Compass and in the next newsletter.

Term 1 Open Afternoon - We will hold another one of our popular open afternoons, where parents can visit the classrooms with their child/ren to view and discuss the wonderful and engaging learning that is occurring in the classrooms, on Thursday 13th March, 3:15 - 3:45 pm (Week 7). 

Note that the Foundation Open Afternoon will occur earlier (Thursday February 27th) to coincide with the Foundation Family Picnic evening.

Parent Helpers

Parents are also often asked to assist on excursions and classroom activities where an extra set of hands and eyes is of invaluable assistance. Please discuss with your child’s teacher if there are ways you can assist in the classroom. 

All parents / carers etc. that assist with these activities will require a current Working with Children Card (WWCC), including volunteering to help out for school-based events such as breakfasts and fetes. We advise parents to apply for a WWCC to avoid the disappointment of missing out on being able to attend or assist with your child’s learning and fun at school. Once you have yours organised, feel free to come into the office so we can take a copy and keep it on file for any required occasion.

Sun Protection – Until April 30th 

In line with the Department of Education’s requirements, Newport Lakes Primary School is a ‘SunSmart School’ and has a Sun Protection Policy that all students are to wear an approved sunhat (bucket or legionnaire style) until the end of April. Students are to bring along their hats to school every day during that time and a ‘no hat ~ no play’ rule will apply. Parents are reminded to clearly label their child’s hat and to continuously check that the label remains legible. It is also recommended that all students have their own water bottle with them every day at school. This bottle will be accessible to the children during class and must only contain water. Please do not fill with juice, cordial, etc. Children are also requested to apply sunscreen before school and sunscreen will also be available in each classroom for children to apply if required throughout the day.

If the hot weather becomes extreme (e.g. above 34˚C and a strong northerly wind) there may be the need to restrict or reduce the outside play times during recess or lunch. In these situations, students will be supervised indoors where they participate in passive play such as board games and craft activities. 

Permissions & Agreements

Parents are reminded to please ensure they have processed all of the Permissions & Agreements in Compass Course Confirmation/Payments as soon as possible. This includes the ICT Code of Conduct,  Local Excursions, Photography and Recording. 

School Ground Supervision 

Parents are reminded that playground supervision (teacher on duty) is provided before school at 8.45am (when Gate B & C are opened) and after school until 3.30pm. Students should not be in the school grounds before or after these times unless supervised by their parents or an adult. Students should aim to be at school between 8.45 and 8.55am. This allows them to see their friends, chat or play a short game, before school begins at 9.00am. 

Students playing in the school ground or on playground equipment after school MUST be supervised by their parents or guardians. 

The school gates near the big tree and near the stage will be locked at 3.30pm when the teacher on duty has completed their yard supervision. Any children and parents remaining in the yard after this time will need to exit via the school gate near the office Gate A). 

Anaphylaxis 

I would also like to remind our school community that we have a number of children at Newport Lakes that suffer from the life-threatening condition anaphylaxis. These children suffer from severe allergies to various things such as nuts and nut products (especially peanuts and peanut butter), eggs, cow’s milk, fish and shellfish. We ask all our parents to assist in making our school a safe environment for these children by not including any of these products in your children’s snacks or lunches. 

If there is a child suffering from Anaphylaxis in your child’s class you will receive a letter notifying you of this and how you can assist in making the classroom a safe environment for all children. 

Looking forward to a great school year!

Have a wonderful fortnight.

Carly Bannon

Proud NLPS Principal