First Day arrangements

A reminder that term starts for all students next Tomorrow (30th January)!

Students in years 1-6 will start at 9am and our new Foundation students will begin at 9:15am to allow for a calmer beginning to school life!

Our teachers can't wait to start working with their new classes.

On the first morning, staff will be on duty in the yard from 8:45am.

Class line locations will be marked in the yard in chalk and students are asked to find their class line and line up when the music plays at 8:55am. In 2025, classes will line up each morning as follows;

Foundation - Quadrangle
Year 1 & 2 - In front of the flagpoles and sports shed
Year 3 & 4 - basketball court (please note that, sue to basketball court resurfacing, for the first few days Year 3 and 4 classes will line up in the quadrangle)
Year 5 & 6 - In front of the sandpit and ropes playground.

At the end of each day, your child's teachers will bring them back to these locations for pick-up.

Exciting Building Developments

In addition to all the exciting learning initiatives we have underway this year, we are thrilled to share some progress on our school’s building projects that have been taking place over the summer.

The major renovation of our Art Room and Kitchen Dining Room is moving along smoothly, and we’re hopeful that these spaces will be ready for use within just a few weeks. However, for the start of the year, these areas remain closed, so we’ll be showing some flexibility in how we run our Art, Italian, and Kitchen Garden programs. These sessions will operate in alternative spaces around the school as we await the completion of the renovations.

Our long-awaited new basketball court is also under construction, and while it won’t be ready quite yet, we are excited to report that it should be accessible by Monday. As the photos show, it’s already looking fantastic, and we can't wait for our students to enjoy it! In the coming days, we will also be installing new water bubblers, generously funded by the proceeds from our 2024 Walkathon – a big thank you to our community for your support!

Once all the building projects are finished, we’ll be updating our basketball backboards and hoops, as well as resurfacing the area in front of our two ‘stand-alone’ hoops. We're also upgrading our school gates—front, side, and rear—including automating the front vehicle gates to enhance security and safety, ensuring that cars and vans are unable to drive onto the school grounds during school hours. We are truly excited to see these projects come to life, and we look forward to having the upgraded facilities and school grounds that our students and community truly deserve.

Thank you for your patience and support as we work to make these improvements!

School Assemblies

In order to maximise peak learning time, this year our school assemblies will take place on Friday afternoons at 3pm.

We invite all parents, families and friends to join us in the quadrangle each week to celebrate our wonderful school. Our first assembly for the year will be on Friday 31st January at 3pm.

SKiPPS 2025 calendar on Compass

We know that one of the challenges for our school families is knowing when our many school activities and events are taking place.

From school camps, to curriculum days to graduation ceremonies we understand the challenges of co-ordinating these around our busy lives and the need to know this information a long way in advance.

For this reason, this year we will be using the Compass calendar feature to provide you with easily accessible information about what is happening at SKiPPS.

On your Compass homepage, you will see the above 'day' calendar view, letting you know what is happening today. By toggling through the dates, you can also see what is coming up in the coming days.

By clicking on the calendar icon in the Compass toolbar, you will then have access to the entire 2025 calendar and can choose to view this in day, week, month, or term layout.

This will easily allow you to see when school photos, NAPLAN tests, school camps and end of term is taking place.

We will add to this throughout the year as further events are locked in so please keep an eye on the SKiPPS Compass calendar.

Our 2025 staff

We are so excited to get going for the year. A reminder that our 2025 staff looks as follows;

Role	Staff member(s)
Principal	Neil Scott
Assistant Principals	Michelle Bove & Jac Morphy

Foundation	Natalie Gallucci & Jess Bethune
Year 1	Lil Wymant, Prue Robbins & Shanee Mashood
Year 2	Jess Allender & Joe Masci
Year 3	Louisa Di Pietro & Bianca Langenberg
Year 4	Joe Gardiner & Jane Bennetts
Year 5	Mel Borella & Amy Salter
Year 6	Ange Golden & Louise Moore

Visual Arts	Chantel Jose
Performing Arts	Tanya Sleeman
Italian	Dearne Sliskovic
STEM	Tom McKenzie
Philosophy	Susan Bishop
Cover and Support	Stephanie Hamilton

Kitchen Garden program	Chantel Jose & Allison Shanahan

Business Manager	Nova Whitehead
Office Manager	Wendy Chan

Integration Aides	Brooke Cairns, Carolyn Hill, Molly Cleveland, Prue Donaldson, Sunday Davies-Fleet, Julie Fage, Marni Rivers, Jenny McCoy, Mani Miller

Last minute reminders

With the school year starting tomorrow, a reminder to ensure

Your child has a wide-brimmed sun smart hat to wear when playing or learning outside. Our Sun Smart policy requires all students to wear a hat from the 1st September - 30th April. Hats are available to purchase from the school office and we strongly encourage you to write your child's name in their hat.
We also ask that you ensure your child applies sunscreen before school each day and has a small roll-on sunscreen in their bags to reapply before breaktimes.
Please ensure that your child brings a water bottle to school. This allows them to stay hydrated on warm days.
Wear sturdy, appropriate footwear with closed toes and backs. Crocs may be comfortable but are not school-appropriate.
Ensure that shoulders are covered at all times - strappy tops or singlets do not provide the sun protection required when playing outside.
Ensure that any hair that reaches the shoulders is tied back when at school. This reduces the risk of headlice spreading whilst at school.

Team Kids

Team Kids Holiday Program