Dear Parents, Carers and Community Members,

A very warm welcome to the start of the 2025 school year! It’s wonderful to see so many familiar faces, as well as new ones, joining our school community. As we embark on this exciting journey together, I would like to take a moment to share just how proud we are of how well our students have settled into their routines. They have quickly adapted to their classes, and it is clear that they are already eager to learn and grow in a supportive, positive environment.

This year, we are focusing on two key areas in our Annual Improvement Plan (AIP): Teaching & Learning and Wellbeing.

Teaching and Learning Focus:

Literacy: In 2025, the Department of Education has mandated all primary schools to implement 25 minutes of systematic, synthetic phonics each day in the Foundation to Year 2 classes. We are in a fortunate position as over the last four years, we have been teaching systematic, synthetic phonics through Multisensory Structured Language (MSL) approach in our English Enhancement sessions daily in the F-2 space. Our focus this year is on strengthening this work through refining our Literacy Block in the F-2 space. We have introduced Heggarty as an explicit phonemic awareness session to start our literacy block as well as introducing fluency pairs this year.

Knowledge-Rich Curriculum: Additionally, we will be exploring the use of novel studies across F-6 and working on refining our integrated curriculum to create stronger cross-curricular links. Research into how students learn best shows us that background knowledge is at least as important to reading comprehension as literacy skills. This year, our staff will be engaging in professional learning on how to build a knowledge-rich curriculum that supports the growth of student vocabulary, comprehension, writing and critical thinking skills.

Numeracy: We are working closely with a Community of Practice comprised of local schools to develop a common curriculum map and scope and sequence for numeracy. With the changes to Victorian Curriculum 2.0, we are refining our learning continuums to ensure that they are meaningful in identifying student learning needs and next steps. Our future goal is to make this visible to students and families to promote a strong sense of learner agency about their goals and a connection with families to be more involved in their child’s learning.

Wellbeing:

Positive Classroom Management Strategies: This new Department resource was released last year and is based on cognitive science into how to best support students to learn from a wellbeing perspective. After surveying our staff on this resource, we have identified a focus this year on classroom routines and procedures. Mrs Argent’s post in the newsletter will provide more information on the work in this space.

Multi-Tiered System of Supports: With a strong inclusion lens at the school, we are constantly looking for ways to best meet the needs of our students. While we have English and Maths Enhancement sessions that provide tiered intervention for learning as needed, we also have Tier 2 and 3 programs to support student wellbeing. We have a Mental Health Youth Worker on site once a week as well as running Lego Therapy, Cool Kids and UR Strong (Friendology) to support students in the wellbeing space. We have also introduced the Wellbeing Wagon at lunchtimes in the undercover area for another quieter space to play outside, supervised by staff, to support social interactions.

We will continue to build on our efforts to provide engaging and challenging learning opportunities for all students, ensuring that each child has the tools and support they need to succeed. These areas will remain a major focus throughout the year as we work towards achieving high academic standards.

For our Year 5 and 6 families, I encourage you to visit the Open Nights at the local secondary schools. These evenings are a fantastic opportunity to explore what the schools have to offer and to help make informed decisions about your child’s transition to secondary school. These visits play an important role in ensuring your child is ready and excited for the next phase of their educational journey.

We are also excited to share that there are several volunteer opportunities available for parents and carers throughout the year. Volunteering is a wonderful way to become involved in the school community, and we welcome your support in making this year even more enriching for our students.

Additionally, we are offering school tours for prospective families in the coming weeks. We already have 17 families booked in for tours which shows how strong the interest in our school is. If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining our school community, please let them know about these tours. It’s a great chance for them to see our school in action and learn more about what we offer.

Finally, the Department of Education provides a range of valuable resources for parents, including advice and support about learning at home, wellbeing, and education. I highly encourage you to visit their parent support websites listed below for further information and helpful tips to assist in your child’s education and development.

Parents Victoria – the ‘Think, Wait Communicate’ tip sheet provides common expectations regarding interacting with schools.
Department of Education - New Year Learning Webpage
Department of Education - Building Positive Relationships with your child’s school

We are looking forward to another fantastic year ahead, filled with growth, achievement and a strong sense of community. Thank you for your ongoing support and involvement.

Warm regards,

Stephania Johnson-Turner

Acting Principal

Secondary School Open Nights