From the  Principal 

Diana Ellis

As we race towards the end of another year the momentum is still at full speed with lots of planned activities still to come including pre- school to Foundation transition visits, state wide transition, Year 4 camp and graduation.

One of the biggest events on our calendar is the highly anticipated Carlsruhe Fair. Firstly, I would like to express my huge gratitude and appreciation goes to the wonderful Carlsruhe Fair Committee. It is a pleasure to work with such positive people who are committed to our school and providing the best programs, resources and opportunities for our students. On the weekend a group of these dedicated people went out to the Carlsuhe Campus for a working bee. The success of these events simply cannot happen without these wonderful people.

How much do you value our Carlsruhe Fair?

Our bi-annual Carlsruhe Fair is our major school fundraiser. Many people rave about it and come from far and wide. People are always telling us how much they value our Carlsruhe Campus, the fair, and the opportunities our students get. For the last 12 months a team of around 15 people have worked tirelessly to comprehensively organise the event but sadly when we put out a call for volunteers, we have had a very limited and disappointing response. The success of the fair is based on the organisation and the people involved and I am hoping we can influence you to come and support one of our stalls for an hour. We are not asking you to manage the stall but just another pair of hands. Please see the Carlsruhe Fair information to sign up.

Celebrations

Last week we organised a food drive for Food Bank. The response was incredibly generous and the Food Bank people were overwhelmed with the goods donated. Thank you to all families who donated towards helping people in our community.

Class structures for 2025

At this stage, based on our projected numbers for 2025, we will be operating 16 classrooms and continuing with our 4 specialist programs of Performing Arts, Visual Arts, French and Physical Education.

In consultation with all of our staff, we have looked at our 2025 budget against staffing costs, funding received from the Education Department based on our per head enrolment from p-6 and the identified needs of students across the school. This year we have an enrolment of 410 students, next year our projected enrolment is around 379. Although we have a healthy number of 50 Foundation students coming into school, we have 65 Year 6 students moving onto secondary school and 14 of our current Year 4 students starting Year 5 at Braemar, this will have significantly decrease our funding in 2025 by around $310,000.

This week myself and our Assistant Principal will meet to work on the final structure for 2025.

Victorian High Ability Program

Each term, we are notified by the Victorian High Ability Program of students within our school that have been selected for the program. Based on student achievement data, students are selected by the Department of Education for either the online Mathematics or English program or both. The students meet online for 10 weeks with a teacher from the High Ability Program division of the Department of Education, as well as selected students from across Victoria.

This week we were notified by the Victorian High Abilities program that 10 of our students have been selected to participate in the Term 4 program. The program aims to extend these students by giving them problem solving activities and opportunities to discuss their thinking and strategies with other participants. Congratulations to the selected students.

School facilities projects

Up until now our Shelter in Place project had come to a grinding halt.  We have received notification from the Victorian Schools Building Authority that our works will resume again on the main campus in the next few weeks. After the Carlsruhe Fair, the identified works at Carlsruhe will occur. It is hoped that the works on both campuses will be completed by the end of the year.

Recently we also had a “ramp audit”. The audit identified that a number of our ramps need to be replaced or modified to meet updated regulations. The works will begin in the near future and anti-slip surfaces will also be part of the scope of the project.

Remembrance Day

This week our School Captains attended the Woodend R.S.L for the Woodend Remembrance Day Ceremony. Our School Captains Lacie and Alita laid a wreath on behalf of our school. Around the school, our students were learning about Remembrance Day and why we commemorate all of the service men, women and animals that have been died or been injured (physically and mentally) to fight for the freedom we have today in our great country.

Vale

This week our local community was impacted by the devastating news of the death of teacher aide - Eleanor Bryant who was tragically killed by an out-of-control truck that veered into the Macedon Ranges Montessori Pre-School at Riddell’s Creek. Our thoughts go to her friends, family and colleagues who have been impacted and the emergency services personnel who attended the scene. We go to work each day with the expectation that we will go home to our families at night. 

Year 5/6 Fundraising Day

Today our Year 5/6 student provided a variety of novelty activities and games for our students to participate in throughout the day. The purpose of the day was to raise funds for their end of year Celebration Day at Bendigo.

Principal

Diana Ellis