Principal's Blog

Good Afternoon Parents Students, Staff and Friends of Derinya,  

I can’t wait for our senior production of ‘Colour My World’ to hit the stage this evening. The children have worked so hard under the careful guidance of our Performing Arts teachers and are set to wow our audience with many superb acts. Production is always a highlight on the Derinya calendar and one that I know students look forward to. 

Congratulations Matilda and Boen 

I am beyond proud to share that Matilda M’s work was selected to showcase on the Virtual Schools Victoria (VSV) website following her participation in the Victorian High Abilities Program. This is a program run by VSV. Children are selected based on both their teacher judgement and NAPLAN scores and then offered the opportunity to participate in a series of online classes. This is just one of the examples of high abilities opportunities that we provide. Other examples include high abilities STEM classes supported by James our engineering student, participation in a range of competitions including First Lego League and the Maths Olympiad. Congratulations must also go to Boen X who received a distinction in the Australian Maths Trust competition.  

To view Matilda’s piece ‘Her Piercing Blue Eyes’, please click on this LINK.  

Semester 1 Reports  

First semester reports will be published next week. Teachers engage in ongoing formative assessment throughout the semester as well as conducting summative assessment tasks that are triangulated and then marks determined through a process of moderation twice per year.  

This year with the implementation of the Victorian Curriculum 2.0 you will notice a change in the way mathematics is reported on. Rather than the three areas that have been assessed in the past, the VC 2.0 has seen a shift to one progression point only for mathematics. This will mean you will not be able to see the growth made from 2024 to 2025. For further information please see the letter contained in this newsletter. 

Home Reading  

 A reminder that whilst we don’t promote a lot of homework as the evidence suggests that at the primary school level, it does not create a significant positive impact we do ask that you prioritise home reading. We know that there is a direct correlation between the amount of words read per year to student learning and achievement. Signing the home reading diary is helpful to teachers in not only monitoring this but also promoting healthy home reading habits. Your assistance with this is appreciated.  

Well done Preps 

Our beautiful prep children recently celebrated ‘Milo Monkey’s Birthday Party’. This is a lovely acknowledgement of their achievement in learning the entire alphabet through our systematic synthetic phonics program Little Learners Love Literacy. This program aligns with the State’s position on reading and is demonstrating excellent results. In just 6 short months, it is astounding how well our youngest learners and reading and transferring their knowledge in to writing. Keep up the great work everyone! 

This will be our final newsletter for the term. Wishing everyone a wonderful, safe and happy holiday break. I look forward to welcoming you all back in term 3. A reminder that Monday 21st July is a curriculum day and students are not required. Term commences on Tuesday 22nd July. DACE will be held on the first weekend back, so don’t forget to purchase your early bird tickets by clicking HERE. 

Warm Regards, 

Nadine Pye on behalf of the Derinya community