Principal's Report

Welcome to our final newsletter of 2023. Thank you to everyone who reads our newsletter each fortnight. Our newsletter is an essential form of communication and allows us to share celebrations from our students and staff. I hope you have enjoyed the new format, and we look forward to sharing this with you again in week 1 of 2024!

Feedback is really important to us. At the end of each term since I commenced at the school, we have shared a short survey to ask you how we are going as a school. We have done the same today (link here), with a particular focus on gathering some feedback for our Parents Association. Led superbly by President Jess Tuszynski, our PA have contributed significantly to our school this year, running brilliant events, and fundraising to improve our learning programs in the school. For our events to continue running at the high-level they have this year, we need broad participation across our community. Don’t forget, our students reap the rewards of your support!

Our student placement process concluded with students meeting their 2024 teachers and classmates on Tuesday. In visiting each learning space, I saw highly-engaged students who were excited to be working in new spaces with different teachers and a new mix of peers. To support the transition to 2024, our new staff completed an induction into our school on the day and all staff participated in a ‘student handover’ session, ensuring pertinent learning and wellbeing information was shared between 2023 and 2024 teachers.

There has been some discussion regarding class sizes in Years 5 and 6. The class structure across the school was formed carefully and considerately, with weekly enrolment meetings having taken place since my commencement at the school. Across our school, we have an average class size of 23 students, with an average of 19 in the Prep to Year 2 area, both figures significantly below both the expected ratios in the Agreement that all Victorian Government Schools are funded for. Our larger class sizes are at Year 5 and Year 6, and to support that we have employed an additional teacher to work across both cohorts. This teacher will support learning and wellbeing for each cohort, as well as catering for learning needs and extension learning opportunities. To cater for any families who could not attend the online forum I held earlier this week regarding the Year 5/6 classes, I will open an additional event this coming Tuesday 19th December at 5:00pm. This will be hosted on Microsoft Teams (link here). As always and if you prefer, you can catch me on the gates in the morning or afternoon, via phone at the school office or on email (click here). 

We will farewell exiting staff members at our final assembly next week. In order from those teaching our youngest students first; best of luck to Jarrah Kitchen, who is taking twelve-months leave to travel. We look forward to Jarrah returning in 2025. Jan Minnet will take long-service leave in Term 1 next year, before retiring from teaching. We will officially farewell Jan with our community later in Term 1 2024. Best of luck to Shelley Dagan, who will teach at a neighbouring school in 2024. Best wishes to Janine Wright, who has transferred to a local school for 2024. All the best to Sam Mansfield, who will continue full-time with the school he has been working part-time at (alongside ours) this year. Best of luck to Zac Halliday-Bayly, thank you for your contributions across this year. Best wishes to Candy Qu and Georgia Lydeamore, from our Education Support team. Candy will continue working at a school closer to home, whilst Georgia has secured a position at a local school whilst she concludes her study. 

We will farewell our Year 6 student cohort on Monday night at their graduation ceremony. I feel honoured to have been Principal through their concluding year in the school and I am proud of all they have achieved. I wish all students the very best and know that they are always welcome back to visit us here at CSPS. Farewell too to our students who are leaving our school for another setting.

Finally, and on a personal note, thank you to our students, staff and families who have provided me with a warm welcome into the school this year. I am delighted with the progress we are making and am excited for what we can achieve together in 2024.

Best wishes for a safe and happy period across the New Year and I look forward to seeing everyone in 2024.

Regards,

Rohan Cooper

Principal