We’ve enjoyed a great couple of weeks around the school and much like the Melbourne weather, no two days are the same in and around our school. I have really enjoyed seeing so many of our families around the school over recent weeks, supporting our welcome picnic, our leadership assembly, our swimming carnival and helping your child to start the year so smoothly.

Thank you to all families for supporting us during the storm on Tuesday afternoon. There was some significant damage to houses in local suburbs and I hope that your own homes were not impacted. I am happy (touch wood) to report that our school was not damaged at all. I have heard many stories from school leaders around us of damage that occurred in playgrounds and buildings with some schools having to close or obtain approvals to be open. On this occasion I am happy that we escaped relatively lightly. It is uncanny that these events always seem to occur right on 9am or 3:30pm.

Hats

A gentle reminder to families that school hats are compulsory throughout Term 1. All students must wear a hat for recess, lunchtime and any learning outside. Please help your child to make sure that the school hat is worn as is. School hats should not be decorated with stickers, accessories or other items. The school hat is part of our uniform and dress code policy, which means all students’ hats should look the same across all year levels. An element of our dress code is aimed at allowing students to have a sense of pride in their school and promoting the identity of the school in the wider community.

Student Leaders

It was a great pleasure to present our student leaders with their 2024 badges and formally welcome them into their leadership roles for the year ahead. I look forward to working alongside our Year 5/6 leaders throughout the year and I am incredibly impressed with their initiative and their willingness to jump straight into their leadership work. Thank you to our families who also took the opportunity to attend, a special moment for our families and a great highlight for our students.

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to our Year 3-6 students who participated in a very successful CPS/WPS swimming carnival on Wednesday. Participating alongside students from Windsor Primary School, our students represented themselves and our school with a true reflection of our school values on display. Well done to our students who achieved ribbons and will go on to represent the school at the district swimming carnival. Congratulations to Miss Molloy and our staff for supporting such a wonderful day for our students.

Junior School Council Fundraising

This week our 2023 Junior School Council (JSC) fundraising efforts were rewarded with the addition of a new drinking tap installed at the school. Our students worked hard to raise these funds through the Teach the Teacher project in 2023. A great achievement by our students and it was a popular addition to our school grounds during the very hot start to the week.

Our Team

Our artistically talented Year 1/2s, 3/4s and 5/6s were busy putting some staff profile drawings together over the last week. These are always a popular activity for students and our staff enjoy seeing how they are portrayed and drawn. It is a nice way to introduce our staff to our school community, our 2024 teams have a visible presence in our school as detailed in the images below.

Road Safety

The Glen Eira Council have put together a great little video reminder of the importance of safety in and around our local streets, our pedestrian crossings and traffic management around our schools. It is important that we all play a part in following parking and traffic rules as this can have a direct (and significant) impact on student safety. Please watch the 3 minute video link here.

Leadership Coaching

Our full leadership team met on Thursday morning as a group to engage with educational consultant, Mandy Dunn of Growth Coaching International. Throughout this year, we are working in two full leadership sessions on a solutions-orientated approach to school improvement. This will include collective discussion and individual coaching for our leadership team throughout the school year. On Thursday, we set a base around targeting improvements in leadership organisation and leaning into a positive and effective culture.

School Council Elections

Letter	Event	DATE
a)	Notice of election and call for nominations	Thursday 15 February 2024
b)	Closing date for nominations	Thursday 22 February 2024
c)	Date by which the list of candidates and nominators will be posted	Monday 26 February 2024
d)	Date by which ballot papers will be prepared and distributed	On or before Wednesday 28 2024
e)	Close of ballot	Thursday 7 March 2024
f)	Vote count	Friday 8 March 2024
g)	Declaration of poll	Friday 8 March 2024
h)	Special council meeting to co-opt community members(the principal will preside)	Tuesday 19 March 2024
i)	First council meeting to elect office bearers (the principal will preside)	Tuesday 19 March 2024

Further to the SchoolStream that went out on Thursday morning, we are in midst of our school council election process. I extend my sincere thanks to Candice Clynk, Kyoko Isono, Emma Mattock and Chris Sargent (Parent Members) and Miharu Morioka (Department of Education Member) whose terms on school council will be finalised. You can nominate yourself or someone else for a two year term by collecting a nomination form. We are very fortunate to have a very strong school council who are supportive and welcoming to new members. It is a great opportunity to have an influence and an impact on our school. Please come and speak to me if you have any questions or wish to find out further information.

Welcome Picnic

Thank you to our families that joined us last Friday for our welcome picnic, it was terrific to see our students perform their dances for an audience. Thank you for supporting our staff and our students on making such a positive start to the school year. It was nice to celebrate this with all of you last Friday.

School Visit

Last Thursday we had the pleasure of hosting our Senior Education Improvement Leader (SEIL), Kevin Murphy to the school. Kevin attended our School Improvement Team meeting and undertook a school tour, meeting many of our staff and students. He was very enthusiastic about our school and looks forward to working with our staff, Morioka sensei and myself moving forward.

As I put the finishing pieces together for our newsletter, I can hear the buses rolling out for our Year 5/6 excursion to Scienceworks, a great end to the week for them. Next week, we return to a regular student led assembly on Monday morning. I look forward to seeing you around the school, have a great weekend.

Thanks,

Edward Strain

Principal

Caulfield Primary School Newsletter

Excellence, Respect, Diversity, Responsibility, Kindness, Honesty

Issue 2 · 16 Feb 2024

In this issue