Education Week 2026

18/5-22/5

Showcasing Surfside

Our school is celebrating Education Week 2026 from Monday 18 May to Friday 22 May.

This year’s theme is ‘Showcase your school’, encouraging school communities to celebrate what’s great about their school. Well what a fortnight to celebrate and showcase everything that happens at Surfside. With our continued and relentless focus on teaching and learning at Surfside this is supported and underpinned by a strong sense of engagement and wellbeing and community connection.

There are so many great things about Surfside Primary School, from our people to our school facilities, our learning programs and our supportive school community.

It's all here at our school!

It has definitely been a busy start to the term with some major events, announcements, a continued focus on learning and enhanced engagement opportunities for students.

We were pleased to welcome the Education Minister and Deputy Premier the Hon Ben Carroll and Member for Bellarine Alison Marchant this week to showcase what is happening in and out of our classrooms and make the official announcement of our $11.65million upgrade.

Below are some recent snapshots which definitely showcase what has been happening at Surfside Primary School and how we are supported by an amazing community.

Gymnasium and Refurbishment Community Engagement

The Victorian Government is investing record funding in our schools to make Victoria the Education State and give every student access a great local school and education.

Our school has been allocated $11.65 million in the 2026 State Budget to build a competition size gymnasium and refurbish some identified areas. This funding will help our school to build community engagement and connection as well as provide our students with a modern space to showcase their learning and ommunity connection.

We will work closely with our School Council and the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) to deliver an outcome that will benefit the entire community.

To prepare for the upgrade, we will complete an Asset Management Plan 1 (AMP1) over the next 6 weeks. The AMP is a long-term document that helps to plan for a school’s future. The plan identifies, organises and prioritises the building works required at a school – ensuring students have access to educational facilities that prepare them to thrive in the 21st century. This will help ensure our building plans support our educational direction and long-term vision for the school. We will be sharing updates on this and will be coordinating different avenues to gather input from our staff as well as parents/carers and surrounding community. We will also involve our students to listen to their unique and very important perspective.

Following the AMP1 which will identify the vision of the school we will work through term 2 to develop AMP2 which will outline the strategic planning of the facilities and placement.

Education Minister & Alison Marchant Visit to Surfside

We were extremely pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Deputy Premier the Hon Ben Carroll, the Member for Bellarine - Alison Marchant, Regional Director - Chris Thompson, Acting Area Director - Shelby Papadopoulos and School Council President - Sabrina Lunn to Surfside Primary School this week. Our School Captains, Isaak, Sybilla and Leo absolutely shone as they proudly shared the story of our school with the Minister and visitors.

It was a great opportunity for our school leaders to showcase the amazing work that happens in and out of our classrooms, including a Prep class who were participating in their Sound Pack literacy session and a year 6 and year 4 kitchen and garden session.

It was also a great opportunity for the Minister for Education Hon Ben Carroll and Member for Bellarine Alison Marchant to offically announce the allocation of funding to sustain our school growth and support our school community with the announced build of a new gymnasium and refurbishment.

A big thank you to our amazing Assistant Principal Lynda Patterson who coordinated the formalities and logistics while I was on leave this week. She does an amazing to lead our school in so many areas.

Industrial Action Update

It was announced early this week that the Australian Education Union and the Department of Education have reach an in-principle agreement for a new Victorian Government Schools Agreement. There is still a lot of work to be undertaken before this process is finalised and we thank everyone for their continued support of our teaching and learning and education support staff profession. This means that all current industrial action will be suspended. Therefore, the planned half day stop work action scheduled for Tuesday 26th May will no longer occur.

The AEU had included a ‘ban on all aspects of work related to the provision of written comments on student reports that will be provided to parents’ in the industrial action.

While this ban has now been lifted, the department recognises and supports that general comments will not be included in semester 1 reports - please refer below to details regarding semester 1 reports.

Student Reports Semester 1

We will be providing student achievement reports for Semester 1 this year as usual.

The reports will be distributed on Friday 26th June as scheduled.

The reports will continue to provide important details about student learning attainment, but full descriptive comments will not be included as a result of industrial action taken earlier this term by the Australian Education Union.

We will of course be pleased to discuss with you your child’s progress at our next parent-teacher interviews scheduled between Monday 20th July to Wednesday 22nd July, or, as always, you can contact your classroom teacher to discuss student progress.

The Department of Education is making changes to Report formats to support parent friendly formats and place a greater emphasis on the parent/carer/student/teacher conference and this will be explained further prior to the release of our semester 1 reports via Compass and our upcoming newsletters.

Education Support Staff Appreciation Day

Education Support Staff Appreciation Day was officially celebrated on May 16th. This day honors the vital contributions of administrative staff, education support staff, inclusion leaders, and teams who keep schools running smoothly. We celebrated our amazing education support staff with a special lunch and a collection of kind words and appreciation from our students and staff. Our education support staff profile has grown considerably over the past 7 years and allow for the amazing support strategies required for our classrooms and in the yard to be effectively in place:

In every classroom, hallway, and in the yard,

You work each day with a caring heart.

With gentle words and helping hands,

You guide and support the learning plans.

You calm the worries, share the cheer,

And help each student persevere.

With endless patience, grace, and tact,

You keep the classroom on the smooth track.

You fix the boo-boos, mend the tears,

And wipe away the deepest fears.

Behind the scenes, you keep things running,

With kindness, wisdom, and a warm smile.

Schools shine brighter because of the work you do,

Education Support staff — we truly thank you!

Please check out our Engagement and Wellbeing page for student reflections of our education support staff

OGFNC Pink Day Fundraiser & Acknowledgement

For those within our school community who had the privilege of attending Pink Ladies Day on Saturday alongside a wonderful group of our Surfside staff it was a great opportunity to continue to raise awareness and funds for a cause that continues to impact our school community – Breast Cancer awareness. It was an incredibly moving and inspiring event, made even more special by hearing the shared and incredibly individual experiences of two of our remarkable women on staff, Gill Hodgson and Diana Wright.

Both spoke so openly and honestly about their cancer journeys including the challenges they faced, the strength of their support systems, the range of emotions they experienced along the way, women supporting women, and ultimately, their road to becoming cancer free.

Their courage, resilience, humour, and authenticity shone through every word! Over $30,000 was raised - wow what a community! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who supported the event and all of the amazing women within our school community who have battled or continue to face a battle of breast cancer, you are all an inspiration to us and others – as was the theme for the day – not all heroes wear capes – but on this day our amazing women wore a cape to highlight their journey.

For those within our school community who had the privilege of attending Pink Ladies Day on Saturday alongside a wonderful group of our Surfside staff it was a great opportunity to continue to raise awareness of a cause that continues to impact our school – Breast Cancer awareness. It was an incredibly moving and inspiring event, made even more special by hearing the shared and incredibly individual experiences of two of our remarkable women on staff, Gill Hodgson and Diana Wright.

Both spoke so openly and honestly about their cancer journeys including the challenges they faced, the strength of their support systems, the range of emotions they experienced along the way, women supporting women, and ultimately, their road to becoming cancer free.

Their courage, resilience, humour, and authenticity shone through every word! Over $30,000 was raised! Congratulations to everyone who supported the event and all of our amazing women within our school community who have battled or continue to face a battle of breast cancer you are all an inspiration to us and others – as was the theme for the day – not all heroes wear capes – but on this day our amazing women wore a cape to highlight their journey.

I would especially like to highlight the journey of one of our school leaders – Gill Hodgson. Gill has been an integral organiser and contributor to the annual Pink Ladies Day at the OGFNC for the past 15 years and before her time at Surfside was an Oncology nurse. 12 months ago she would never have thought that she would face a battle that would see her on the other side and require all of the support that she previously supplied others. Below is an article that recently appeared in a few news outlets that highlighted the work Gill has done and the battle she has fought. At Surfside we have been extremely proud of Gill and Diana and we know that have had an amazing support crew around them and we are so grateful to have them both recently return to work to support our school community and most importantly announce that they are both – CANCER FREE!!

I would especially like to highlight the journey of one of our school leaders – Gill Hodgson. Gill has been an integral organiser and contributor to the annual Pink Ladies Day at the OGFNC for the past 15 years and before her time at Surfside was an Oncology nurse. 12 months ago she would never have thought that she would face a battle that would see her on the other side and require all of the support that she previously supplied others. Please take the time to read an article that recently appeared in a few news outlets that highlighted the work Gill has done and the battle she has fought. It can be accessed on the next page.

At Surfside we have been extremely proud of Gill and Diana and we know that have had an amazing support crew around them and we are so grateful to have them both recently return to work to support our school community and most importantly announce that they are both – CANCER FREE!!

If you want to support the OGFNC Pink Day and Breast Cancer you can still donate at this page:

https://pinksportsday2026.bcna.org.au/ogfnc-pink-day-2026

GRIP Student Leadership Conference

Last week our Year 6 Student Leaders spent the day at The GRIP Student Leadership Conference in Geelong. The day concentrated specifically on training our students in their role as a school leader, and the impact that they can make. They left feeling very inspired and eager to involve others in bringing new ideas to life here at Surfside! The students then put some of the ideas and actions in place during their weekly leadership session on Tuesday and we look forward to hearing more about their goals for 2025. A big thank you to Mrs Catchlove, Mrs Manning and Mrs Henderson for supporting our student leadership team throughout this experience.

MOPA Foundatuon Excursion

MoPA is founded on the belief that more play and creativity in our children’s lives will paint a brighter, happier future. The exhibits and PABLOs (Play & Art Based Learning Outcomes) are crafted to provide rich opportunities for play-based learning and creative exploration.

The very minute a child is born, they begin learning patterns of behaviour that shape how they’ll eventually manage life’s biggest challenges and opportunities. For decades some of the world’s brightest minds (Einstein, Picasso, Montessori, Malaguzzi, just to name a few) promoted the importance of play and creativity in early learning, but only recently have their philosophies been adopted into modern teaching. Our Foundation to Year 2 students activiely particiate in investigative play opportunities through investigations and our Foundation students recently headed to MoPA Geelong to experience what the museum has to offer. The students had a day full of fun and incidental learning opportunities and many of the Foundation students said - "It was the best day ever!"

Digital Tattoo - Cybersafety Awareness

Following strong student engagement in the recent Digital Tattoo sessions for our Year 4 and 5 students, Surfside also welcomed families to a parent workshop focused on supporting children to navigate the online world safely, confidently and respectfully.

Across both the student and parent sessions, important themes included online safety, digital footprints, respectful communication, emotional wellbeing, gaming, social media influences, algorithms, and the increasing role technology can play in children’s daily regulation and connection. Conversations also explored the idea of devices and iPads becoming the “new pacifier” for many young people, and how families can support healthy balance, boundaries and real-world connection in an increasingly digital world.

It was wonderful to see such thoughtful student participation and strong family engagement around the opportunities and challenges young people experience online today. We thank all students, staff and families involved in supporting these important conversations and helping to build safe, responsible and connected digital citizens at Surfside.

Book Fair

We thank all who visited our Book Fair this week and most of all a massive THANK YOU to our staff and parent/carer helpers who supported throughout the week. This is a valuable fundraiser that is paid back to the school through the addition of new books for our library.

Emergency Management Drill

On Wednesday we conducted our term emergency management drill, which involved an evacuation to the oval. Practising a range of emergency procedures is an important part of ensuring our students and staff are prepared and confident in responding safely in different situations.

Our students did an excellent job, demonstrating respect and responsibility by moving calmly and cooperatively throughout the drill. We were very proud of the way they followed instructions and supported one another.

We encourage families to have a conversation with their children about the experience, particularly if it has raised any anxious or nervous feelings. These discussions can help reassure students and reinforce the importance of practising safety procedures in a calm and supportive environment.

Trivia Night 2026

Our annual Trivia Night is taking place this evening and we hope all of the attendees have a great night full of fun and entertainment. This is always a popular event and the 2026 edition was a sell out in only a couple of hours. We thank our administration team for their organisation and all the best to those competing tonight for the championship table and best dressed table.

State School Spectacular

Rehearsals for the 2026 State Schools Spectacular are well underway. The annual Victorian State Schools Spectacular program is an invaluable performing arts opportunity for Victoria’s government primary and secondary school students.

The program showcases and unites government school communities through working towards a common goal of more students reaching the highest level of achievement in the arts, ensuring kids are happy, healthy and resilient, and building pride in our schools.

The Spectacular has become an invaluable rite of passage for Victoria’s top young talent, and a cherished, memorable education experience for all participants. Surfside students thoroughly enjoyed their experience in last years spectacular and have already been busy preparing for the 2026 edition. As a school we look forward to supporting the 2026 edition with some fundraising efforts through snack shack and casual dress days throughout term 2 and term 3.

SSV Winter Lightning Premiership

Our students represented the school with pride and showed a great collection of our school values in the recent Lightning Premiership competition. The students participated in a range of winter based sports and resulted in a few of our teams qualifying for the next round. Our year 3-6 students all participate in a further 60 mins of

SSV District Cross Country Championships

The students who qualified for the District Championships ventured out to Geelong Racecourse again to test themselves against the best across the Bellarine. The standard of competition was high and the Surfside students performed strongly and were well supported by parents and carers. A big thank you and well done to all students who competed and we look forward to cheering on Levi and Zoe who have qualified for the Western Region Championships.

2027 School Tours and Enrolment Time at Surfside

We recently welcomed approximately 60+ families through Surfside over the past 2 weeks as part of our 2027 enrolment tours. Families experienced an overview of the school program and a tour of classrooms and school facilities. It is a great opportunity to allow new and prospective families an opportunity to develop a feel of the school and it's community. Enrolments for 2027 are now open and close on Friday 31st July. Please check out our Enrolment Time at Surfside page in our newsletter.

School Council 2026 - May Meeting Overview

Our school council met on Tuesday to undertake our May meeting. Some of the highlights included the following:

Finance updates
Policy updates and development - updated policies will be communicated via our newsletter and website when completed
Stage 1 of our AMP1 (Asset Management Plan 1) and steps toward comp
Various correspondance from department and government organisations
Progress and development regarding Surfside canteen - updates to be made following confirmation of building availabilities and refurbishment

School Council 2026 - June Meeting

Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday 16th June

Finance Meeting - 5.00pm
School Council Meeting - 5.30pm

It is an exciting and busy month ahead with school camps for year 6 and year 4 so please continue to keep an eye on our dates for your diary page as well as compass updates as required. Below is a snapshot of the next few weeks ahead:

May

Tues 26th- Fri 29th - Year 6 Camp - Roses Gap

Tues 26th - Thu 3rd - Somers Camp (selected students)

Thu 28th - Breakfast Club @ 7.45am in the kitchen

Year 3 EcoLinc Incursion - Mega Bugs

Fri 29th - Assembly @ 2.30pm - courtyard

Year 1 Science Incursion

June

Mon 1st - Dental Van Visit Begins

Thu 4th - Breakfast Club @ 7.45am in the kitchen

Year 4 EcoLinc Incursion - Circle of Life

Fri 5th - Curriculum Day - Students Not at School

Mon 8th - Kings Birthday Public Holiday - Students Not at School

Tues 9th - SSV Division Soccer

Wed 10th-Fri 12th - Year 4 Camp - Burnside, Anglesea

Thu 11th - Breakfast Club @ 7.45am in the kitchen

SSV Division Netball

Fri 12th - Assembly @ 2.30pm - courtyard

Student Attendance

Regular attendance at school is very important for your child's learning and social development. Very good attendance for a child is 95% and above.

It is important that children are at school as much as possible to ensure the BEST opportunity for learning growth. We need to utilise every available minute to ensure student growth academically, socially and emotionally, in and out of the classroom.

If early collection for a shopping trip or to beat the traffic happens on a regular basis this can take away from valuable learning time throughout their schooling life. Please take the time to read the graphic below and to understand the long term affect this can have on student development. We understand that students are impacted by illness, injury or other ailments. If your child is going to be absent you are required by legislation to notify the school by:

Logging onto Compass and
Enter the absence for full days only
If your child/children arrive late or are being collected early, the office staff will enter this onto Compass for you.

Teaching & Learning Page

Ms Charleston & Mr Chapman (Learning Specialists)

How High Frequency Words Can Be Learned