Ms D Principal Message

Parent Opinion Survey

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey and is seeking your feedback. The survey, offered by the Department of Education, is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. We want to know about and celebrate our current strengths as well as hear about ways or areas of improvement.

The survey is conducted online, and only takes 20 minutes to complete.  We have already had 18 of the 337 families respond to the survey and would love to have as many families participate as possible. All families are invited to participate in the survey: https://research.orima.com/parent  

School PIN: 417407. 

The survey will remain open until Friday 19 September 2025.

Grade 2 Sleepover

Last Thursday, our Grade 2 students had their very first ‘camp’ experience with an overnight stay at school – and what a night it was! Students set up their sleeping spaces, enjoyed dinner together, and finished the evening with a movie before settling in for the night. Most children managed to get to sleep at a reasonable hour (much to their teachers’ delight!), and everyone showed wonderful resilience being away from home for the night. We were so impressed with their excellent manners, care for each other, and the way they lived out our school values throughout the experience.

A big thank you to our dedicated teachers (who were very grateful for the early finish on Friday to catch up on some much-needed rest!) and to our families for preparing the children so well and encouraging them to take on this exciting milestone with confidence.

Bookweek

What a fantastic week of celebrating the joy of reading at Toorak Primary! This year’s theme ‘Book an Adventure’ brought our love of books to life through a range of fun and engaging activities.

We kicked things off with our Parent Open Morning, where families had the chance to walk through the school with their children and enjoy the creative and colourful Decorate Your Door displays — each class showcased a favourite story in such imaginative ways. 5A wowed us all with a live Orton-Gillingham modelled session, giving families a glimpse into how structured literacy is taught in classrooms. It was a proud moment seeing our students confidently lead and demonstrate their learning to a large adult crowd.

Today showcased one of our favourite events — the Book Week Dress Up Parade. The schoolyard was bursting with characters from treasured books, from classic favourites to modern heroes. The joy, colour, and creativity on display truly captured the spirit of Book Week.

A big thank you to our staff, students, and families for embracing the celebrations with such enthusiasm. At TPS, Book Week isn’t just about dressing up — it’s about strengthening a lifelong love of reading and reminding us all of the magic that books bring into our lives.

School Musical Update – A Night at the Museum 

Our school production is just around the corner, and excitement is building! Students have been working hard on their performances, and we are so proud of their dedication and creativity.

To help bring everything together, we have two full-school rehearsals onsite with Kinect to Dance on Thursday 28 August and Thursday 4 September. These sessions will allow students to polish their routines and fine-tune the production as a whole.

On Monday 8 September, we’ll be holding a full rehearsal at Lauriston Girls’ School (our performance venue). Students will be transported to and from Lauriston by bus on the day.

🎟️ Tickets are now available for purchase via TryBooking. We encourage families to secure theirs early, as this is set to be a truly memorable event for our school community.

Thank you for your support — we can’t wait to share this spectacular show with you!

Parent Contributions 

We are currently tracking at around 50% return from families with voluntary parent contributions—and thank you to those families who have contributed so far! We deeply respect parent choice, and we are so grateful for the generosity of those who are able to contribute. Your support makes a real difference to what we can offer beyond core funding.

Through your contributions we are able to supplement the funds allocated by the department to ensure that each child at TPS has the allocated classroom resources that they require, access to soft and digital resources to use such as PRIME maths textbooks and class sets of novels used in classrooms.  Your contributions also support the extra personnel such as Michael who oversees the grounds and building maintenance and the ability to staff the sick bay.

If you are in a position to make a contribution and haven’t yet, we warmly encourage you to do so. Every contribution helps enhance the educational experience for all children at Toorak Primary.

Families experiencing financial difficulty are encouraged to reach out to Roxy, our current Business Manager in Toni’s absence, or myself for a confidential and supportive chat. We are more than happy to help set up payment plans and installments if required.

Thank you again to all families who contribute—you truly help support the “extra layer” to what we can provide for your children.

School Uniform

At Toorak Primary, we take great pride in how smart and well-presented our students look in their school uniform. Wearing the uniform neatly and with pride not only reflects the high standards we set for learning, but also helps keep our students easily identifiable and safe when out in the community.

Over the next three weeks, we will be conducting a Uniform Blitz to support consistency across the school. Teachers will be checking that students are in the correct uniform each day and helping to reinforce our expectations. We encourage families to work with us in ensuring that all students are wearing the full school uniform correctly and with pride. Lately we have seen a large increase in students wearing different coloured running shorts/bike shorts and alternative jumpers.  Whilst I acknowledge the cooler weather and jumpers and jackets being lost, wearing alternative casual jumpers does not align with our school uniform policy. Each day I collect up to 10 garments from the school grounds and place them in lost property if they are not named, so if your child has lost theirs please take some time to sort through and retrieve it from lost property.

Leaving TPS? Moving House? Moving Overseas? Visa Expiring?

If you have any intentions to unfortunately leave TPS in the next 6 months, please let the school office know. Your decision doesn't need to be confirmed and doesn't mean your child loses their spot if you change your mind, but giving us a heads up is very helpful. This information is vital for the school to budget and plan for staffing in 2026. We don't want any children to be placed in classes that are too big or only have a few students, but this relies on us knowing who will be here. If you suspect you may be moving house, travelling overseas or you know your visa is expiring, please inform the school via email: toorak.ps@education.vic.gov.au at your earliest convenience.