Principal Team's Report

Parent Payment Information - 2024

Parents have now received the Parent Payment information for the coming year on Compass.  A hard copy will be sent home to all families next week.  We encourage all families to assist in organising prompt payment so that our fabulous programs can be planned and school improvements locked in for the future. 

Some of the school improvements we are currently planning include secure fencing around the perimeter of the school, ventilation and cooling to the Gym, a netting system in the Gym to stop our equipment from being caught in it, as well as the addition of new play areas for our students.  Your generous contributions make it possible for us to continue improving our school for the students.

Springers Community 

It has been wonderful to have so many opportunities for our school community to gather together lately, with Springfest and our Junior Athletics Carnival being two highlights.  We do have an additional whole community event coming up that we would love to see everyone attend - our Christmas Celebration Afternoon (with carols and a sausage sizzle) is happening on Wednesday, December 6th from 3:30pm - 5:30pm.  We invite all families to bring along a picnic rug or fold-up chairs and join us on the basketball court for this fun event.  

Heading towards the end of the year

The end of the year is a hectic time, where emotions are often running high and we can sometimes be a little overwhelmed or feeling anxious.  We encourage all families to acknowledge these feelings in our students and assist them in staying resilient, calm and seeking help when needed.

Our 2024 class transition sessions will take place on Wednesday, December 13th and Monday, December 18th.  It is incredibly difficult to form class groups and we understand that students may not get every one of their friends in their new class with them.  Again, we urge families to encourage students to be resilient and look upon this as an opportunity to make new friends and expand friendship circles.    

Springfest 

As mentioned above, our Springfest Celebration was a fabulous evening where we saw so many of our families coming together to celebrate learning at the Springs.  A massive shout-out needs to go to our Specialist team who organised such a fantastic event.  Many hours of work go into making these things happen and I am incredibly proud to lead a school where our staff are so dedicated and committed to ensuring all of our students have a chance to shine!

Step into Prep

We have welcomed our newest Springers to school over the past couple of weeks, with our Step into Prep program kicking off with classroom sessions.  Our 2024 Prep students settled well into their activities and we're looking forward to having them join us again next week to take part in some of our Specialist classes. 

Christmas Raffle

We appreciate the efforts of all families in selling a book (or more!) of tickets.  We are currently looking at a number of major upgrades to our school, and any money we raise will make these upgrades bigger and better than we could ever imagine!  

Smile Squad coming in 2024

Advance notice - the Smile Squad School Dental program will be visiting Pakenham Springs early in 2024.  Information will be sent home regarding how this voluntary program works, and the scope of its operations.

2024 Planning

If you have a student leaving the school at the end of this year (apart from our Year 6 students), please let us know as soon as possible.  Accurate student numbers allow us to budget and employ the correct number of staff. We have already commenced our recruitment activities this year due to the state-wide teacher shortage to ensure we lock in the best staff for our students. 

Hats - Term 4

It's time to look in the back of those cupboards and begin finding hats!  These are required from Day 1 of Term 4 - students will need to remain in a hard-covered area if they do not have a Sunsmart hat at school. Not only does this affect their play times, but it also has an impact on their ability to participate fully in PE and Year Level Sports activities.  A cap or hood is not sun-smart and is not acceptable at Pakenham Springs. 

Supervision before school

Students are not to arrive at school until 8:30 am on school mornings.  Staff do not begin their workday until this time, and there is insufficient supervision available in the mornings.  Any student arriving before 8:30 am will be asked to sit at the office and wait. We ask for your support in this matter.  Likewise, under no circumstances are students allowed to leave the school grounds in the morning and go across to the shops.  Not only is this incredibly unsafe, with them crossing the busy Heritage BLVD road unsupervised, but a small number of students are also coming back having purchased items inappropriate for the school day.  Please contact OSHClub if you need to organise care and supervision for your child/ren outside of 8:30 am - 3:30 pm.

Enjoy the fortnight ahead!

The PSPS Leadership Team