Principal Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this newsletter finds you well as we approach the end of term 1. We have recently finalised our numbers for 2026, and we have reached 419.6 students (the 0.4 is due to part-time enrollment). Our capacity is 420. This is a growth from 307 students in 2020. We are close to being full. This is fantastic news and demonstrates the trust you have in our school teachers, wider support staff, and leaders. We appreciate every time you share with your friends and family how much you love our school.

Prep Tours

Our attention turns to 2027, with our Prep 2027 school tours already happening on Tuesdays. Tuesday's are now full, and we are starting to add in Friday tours. If you would like to participate in a tour, please contact the school office to book a date.

Prep 2027 Information Night

On Tuesday, 31st March, we will hold our 'Prep 2027 Information Night' here at school. We have moved it forward this year so that it aligns with the start of tour season, as well as hopefully still being light in the evening. We look forward to seeing prospective families there.

P&F Play Equipment

We have a plan for how we will spend the ‘huge’ funds raised last year by P&F. We will be redeveloping the play area between OSHC and the portables. This will be a shared project between Parents and Friends, the OSHC team, and the school. I have some plans from one company, and I hope to share more in the future. The aim is to install this in September/October, depending on the weather, as well as classroom spaces and places for 2027 being installed around the same time.

A reminder that P&F have their family day coming up on Sunday, 29th March at the school.

We also have a working bee tonight (Friday, 20th March) at 3:40pm.

Schools Goals for 2027

Successful schools set goals, resource them, and then work collaboratively to implement them. I am pleased to share our goals from our school's strategic plan for 2027.

Annual Implementation Plan for 2026

Improve student learning goals:

AIP Goal 1 - 1a. Leadership Domain - Develop middle level instructional leadership that supports improvement in teaching practice and student learning.

AIP Goal 2 - 1c. Teaching & Learning Domain - Further develop teacher capability to scaffold and differentiate learning for all students.

Improve student engagement goal:

AIP Goal 3 - 2b. Teaching & Learning Domain - Implement teaching practices that increase student voice and decision making to enable student agency in learning

Improve student wellbeing goal:

AIP Goal 4 – 3.b Foster student self-efficacy to build student intrinsic motivation.

Parking

This is just a friendly reminder to park safely when dropping off and picking up your children. We also have a few new families starting this term. If you are new, please take the time to read.

Parking at school

The parking bays at school are all used by staff. We do have disabled bays for families at the front and rear. We have passes for students who have extenuating circumstances through the year, like broken bones etc. These are available by email from Sam Younes.

Kiss-N-Go

In the morning we operate a Kiss-N-Go system after 8:30am at the front and rear. Please help us by having your child ready to hop out of the car with their belongings. For safety, they need to hop out on the curbside.

If you are using the system and find yourself needing to wait, we PLEASE ask that you be patient. We never overtake other cars.

If you are dropping off children for OSH care and need to sign them in, please make sure the ringway is clear by 8:25am if you park up.

We DO NOT operate a pick-up system due to the volume of children leaving school at the same time. The gates are closed at 3pm.

Roadside

We have lots of on-street parking, and lots of neighbours. When parking, please only park in marked car spaces. Let’s show kindness by not double-parking and by keeping driveways clear for the households to be able to enter and exit without stress.

Kinder Parking

We are lucky that the Kinder/council allow Rolling Hills families to park in their spaces. We do however, need to ensure that their families have access to parking at all times. Recently it has become a popular pick-up and drop-off spot and in discussion with them we need to ask you for some additional management.

We need our families to park on the far side of the car park, ensuring the bays nearest to the kinder are free for when their families pick up.

We want to continue to use their space. Working with them on this will allow us to continue. As a community we need to continue to show their families kindness while using their parking spots.

Please do not double park or block the entrance area to their car park.

Mooroolbark Maternal & Child Health Centre

We also need to be mindful that the council has its maternal nurses working on this site. They have dedicated bays that should NOT be parked in for any reason. They are clearly marked, and signs are to be respected at all times.

General Safety

Drive safely and slowly at all times. The speed is 40km outside of school and 5km inside. Please respect this and keep children safe.

We have recently received numerous requests to remind families that the safety of your children is of utmost importance. Please remind your child/children how to move through carparks by checking for moving cars (including cars reversing from car parks). We encourage you to please park your vehicle, get out of your vehicle, and supervise your child/children as they cross car parks.

Walking and riding

During our recent assembly, we reminded students to always walk on the pathways, rather than driveways, when approaching or departing school. It would be greatly appreciated if this could be emphasised at home as well.

If you find parking near the school during these times a challenge, we encourage you to park a few streets away and take a short walk to meet / drop off your child.

We would also welcome the safe use of bikes and scooters. Helmets are a must.

We do not allow e-bikes or e-scooters on school grounds.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

NAPLAN

I would like to conmgratulate the students in grade 3 and 5 for their dedication to doing their very best in their NAPLAN assessments. There have been a few tricky spots this year, however with a little bit of extra time and care we have managed to get through all the assessments. The results usually arrive in August/September. Thank you also to the teams for being flexible when we had to postpone some of the tests.

Over the last few weeks, we have had students attend House Athletics. Thank you to Miss Twentyman, all staff, and the many volunteers who made this a fun day for our students.

School events

Grade 56 have visited Quantum Science Centre (Charles LaTrobe University) and particpated in X and Y, as well as a trip to the Grand Prix where they not only watched the motorsport, they participated in lots of the trade stands from the Universities. Grade 6 leaders joined thousands of other school leaders at the Dream & Lead conference in the city. Thank you to Miss Peirce and Sarah Khoo for supporting the day.

Harmony Day - thank you to the SRC and Mr B Smith for organising a focus on Harmony Day. The SRC also organised Clean-Up Australia day. Thank you to those students.

Thanks,

Craig