Principal's Report

Dear HPS Community, 

It's been a great week of collaborating and learning here at HPS! We welcomed Steve and his team from Evolve, who worked with each class to explore online safety, digital literacy and responsible online behaviours.

An online parent/carers session will be held on Monday from 6.30pm, which will outline what the social media delay changes mean for children and young people, how platforms have responded, and how to support your child at home. A Q&A session will follow.

The webinar supports our ongoing focus on digital wellbeing and safe, responsible online behaviour and we strongly encourages parents and carers to prioritise attending the session.

Respectful, safe, engaged: shared expectations to support student behaviour

At Heidelberg Primary School all students are expected to be respectful, safe, and engaged. These behaviours help make our school a place where everyone can achieve their best. As a parent and carer, you play a vital role in helping your child to understand and meet shared behaviour expectations. 

Students meet behaviour expectations by being:

Respectful 

• Following staff instructions and school rules.
• Caring for school property and others’ belongings. 
• Using respectful language. 

Safe

• Keeping themselves and others safe from harm. 
• Speaking up or seeking help from an adult if they or someone else is being treated unfairly.
• Only bringing safe and necessary items to school.

Engaged

• Going to school every day, being on time, and ready to learn.
• Taking part, doing their best, and asking for help when they need.
• Knowing and following the school’s policies, including the mobile phone policy.

Through implementing initiatives and programs such as Create, Connect, Explore (CCE), Respectful Realtions (RR), School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS) and our school values, HPS is supporting our students to meet these expectations by being:

Respectful

• Teaching and demonstrating school rules and positive behaviour expectations to students. 
• Explicitly teaching, modelling and acknowledging expected respectful behaviour.
• Engaging collaboratively and positively with all students, parents and carers.

Safe

• Having clear policies and procedures to prevent and respond to bullying and keep students safe.
• Offering additional supports to students proactively and supporting students to speak up and seek help.
• Proactively identifying and addressing problems to maintain a physically, socially and culturally safe school environment.

Engaged

• Delivering evidence-based, inclusive education that meets the needs of all students.
• Empowering students to have a say in decisions that affect their learning and school life.
• Building strong, trusting relationships to ensure all students feel seen, heard and valued.

How parents and carers can help

By modelling and encouraging positive behaviour, you help your child build the skills and habits they need to be successful at school. This can include: 

Respectful

• Knowing the school’s rules and supporting them at home.
• Modelling respectful behaviour in how you speak to and about school staff, families, and others both in person and online.
• Making use of the school’s processes to raise and resolve concerns early.

Safe

• Working together with staff if your child is having problems at school to understand and resolve the issue.
• Ensuring your child knows it is okay to ask for help from a trusted adult at school.
• Ensuring your child stays safe online by talking with them and addressing concerns early.

Engaged

• Helping your child to attend school every day - every day counts.
• Communicating with school staff and working together to support your child’s learning and wellbeing.
• Talking with your child about their day and how they are feeling and encouraging their learning by noticing their effort and progress.

The Respectful, safe, engaged: shared expectations to support student behaviour statement is available on the department’s website.

Further information, resources and support are available at Supporting positive behaviour in Victorian government schools. 

Setting our children up to optimise their learning and wellbeing at school includes;

• Having a healthy breakfast to start the day! We offer Breakfast Club from Wednesday-Friday from 8.40am to support this. Please discourage your child from bringing cans of fizzy drinks, bags of lollies or huge share packets of chips to school. We do not want children to be sharing food with others from their lunchbox or school bag.
• Getting a good night sleep!
• Setting a routine of arriving at school between 8.40-8.55am (unless attending SAC earlier) to allow for a calm and settled start to their day! 

Child Safety

We understand that there are times when adults or pre school children associated with HPS students may require the use of bathrooms. To meet our Child Safety requirments, we ask that you use staff bathrooms rather than student bathrooms.

If parent, carers or younger siblings need the toilet please DO NOT use the student bathrooms You must ask school staff for directions to the nearest staff toilets.

Another matter we take seriously in line with Child Safety requirements is not having parents or carers approach other children to resolve issues for their child. As you can imagine this can be a threatening and intimidating situation for a child. Parents and carers are always enccouraged to raise any concerns or issues with classroom teachers or school leadership, who can listen to understand the issue and then put strategies in place that align to school policy and values as well as protect the wellbeing of all children.

Thank you for your understanding and support in keeping all our children safe.

Ramadan

As a school community, we are proud to celebrate and acknowledge the rich cultural and religious diversity of our families. Across the coming weeks, many of our students will be observing Ramadan, a significant and sacred time in the Islamic calendar.

Ramadan is a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community. Students who are fasting will abstain from food and drink during daylight hours, breaking their fast at sunset. While many children may only fast for part of the month or on selected days, it can still be a meaningful and sometimes physically challenging experience.

We are committed to supporting all students during this time. Staff will continue to show understanding and flexibility, particularly during physical activities and meal times, ensuring that students who are fasting feel comfortable, respected and included.

We wish our families observing Ramadan a peaceful and blessed month and thank our community for continuing to foster an environment of respect, understanding and care for one another.

3 Way conferences - Goal Setting

Goal Setting Conferences provide valuable opportunities for the teacher, student and parents/carers to share and learn more about the student socially, emotionally and academically. They are a good way to establish and maintain collaborative relationships between school and home, with a focus on the student’s academic achievement, learning and wellbeing.

Conferences provide opportunities for:

• building positive relationships
• sharing information about the student’s interests and learning behaviours
• sharing information about the student’s health and wellbeing
• student agency, through showcasing their work
• providing specific feedback on student achievement and progress
• understanding more about how to support the student in their learning
• establishing goals for improved learning and achievement in the future

We will be inviting parents/carers to book a 10 minute interview with their child's classroom teacher for either Tuesday 10th March between 3.40-5.30pm or Wednesday 11th March between 3.40-7.00pm.

NB: If you have a Student Support Group (SSG) meeting this term you do not need to book a Goal Setting Conference as student goals are discussed at SSGs.

If you would like to arrange a conference time with specialist teachers, please email them directly to arrange a suitable time.

Bookings will open on Compass at 5.00pm Monday 23rd February and close 5.00pm Friday 6th March. If you will require interpreting services for your appointment, please let the classroom teacher know asap. This is arranged free of charge.

In the conference teachers and students will discuss the wellbeing and learning goals that have been determined and students, teachers and parents/carers will discuss the strategies for home and school that will support them achieve success. Teachers will ask parents/carers if there's any information or questions they wish to discuss.

School Council Elections

Notice of election and call for nominations:

An election is to be conducted for members of the school council of Heidelberg PS. 

Nomination forms may be obtained from the school and must be lodged by 4.00pm on 06/03/26. The ballot will close at 4.00pm on 13/03/26. 

Following the closing of nominations, a list of the nominations received will be posted at the school. The terms of office, membership categories and number of positions in each membership category open for election are as follows:

If the number of nominations is less than the number of vacancies, a notice to that effect and calling for further nominations will be posted in a prominent position at the school.

2026 School Term Dates

Term 1: Thursday 29th Jan- Thursday 2nd April (2.30pm finish)

Term 2: Monday 20th April- Friday 26th June (2.30pm finish)

Term 3: Monday 13th July- Friday 18th September (2.30pm finish)

Term 4: Monday 5th October- Friday 18th December (1.30pm finish)

Naomi Ivers

Principal

Heidelberg Primary School