Principal's Report

Term 3 Comes to a Close

It certainly has been an action packed and productive 10 weeks, so well done and thank you to anyone that has helped in any way. Some of the highlights have included:

The concert of course, which was a fabulous community event, which drew on the efforts and talents of a large number of staff, parents and students. A big thank you to the many immediate and extended family members who purchased tickets and supported the event.
Kicking off the term with a celebration of Naidoc Week.
Our NAPLAN results landed and were very pleasing. So much so that the department featured us in a media release highlighting our strong results.
More Young Authors & Bulldogs Read workshops and Think Tank activities.
First aid training/updates for most staff.
Participating in the South Street Debating Competition.
Celebrating 100 days of school for the preps…some of the role play from the preps was outstanding!
A very successful Book Week.
Fathers Day Stalls and breakfasts, giving our kids the opportunity to show appreciation to their dads.
The usual array of sporting events, with our kids doing well as always….and more to come.
We administered student surveys and are looking forward to workshopping the results with student focus groups.
A bit of fun with ‘Principal for a Day’.
Some great sessions at Earth Ed.
Each of the Scholarship programs are gathering momentum and continue to be very popular with the kids.

A very successful 5-6 Halls Gap Camp.
The EBT Team have enjoyed the lunch time, before and after school practice sessions and will enter this year’s competition in a much stronger position.
We made it through a fortnight of swimming.
The Japan trip, which is still going and is a significant undertaking.
We know to expect a large crowd at Wednesday’s Celebration of Learning Evening. It’s always nice to see the kids proudly showing and explaining their work and to see the parents appreciating the opportunity to come in and learn more about what’s happening in the classroom.
And we’ll finish off the term with our Footy Colours Day, sausage sizzle, staff v students contest of some sort and Mphatso fundraiser on Friday, which will be a nice way of finishing up.

We wish all of our families a safe and relaxing holiday break and we look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday, October 5th for an action-packed final term of 2026. Don’t forget to dig deep into your cupboards at home to find any school hats, so your kids attend ready for a sun smart start to the term.

We have lots to look forward to in term 4, including the P-2 Sports Day, our Pre-Schooler Program, continuation of the Young Authors and Think Tank Programs, the Energy Breakthrough event, more inter-school sport (cricket, tennis, regional aths), Grandparents & Special Friends Day, a Karuta Competition, grade 2 sleepover, Scotsburn whole school sleepover & grade 1 late stay, Orientation Day, Scotsburn Christmas Concert and Grade 6 Graduation. A calendar of events for term 4 is attached.

Families Term 4, 2026 event schedule.docx (2).pdf

Footy Colours Day

Don’t forget that on Friday we will finish off term 3 with a Footy Colours Day. This is always good fun. Students are invited to come along in the sporting colours of their choice (any code of sport).

Students are also invited to bring along with some coins, with the money going to Mpatso, a village in Africa that our school has supported for a number of years.

And of course, the day wouldn’t be the same without a sausage sizzle and staff Vs Grade 6 students sporting contest of some sort.

Parent Surveys

Last week Nicole sent a Compass message reminding parents of this opportunity to provide some feedback, as we haven’t many responses as yet. The more surveys completed, the more reliable the data will be, so we’d love you to take a few minutes to help us out and thanks to those that have already completed this survey. The closing date is September 18. Please check your Compass notifications with all the relevant login details.

Holiday Jobs

It’s going to be very busy around the school over the break, as you can see by the list below.

Half Court at Scotsburn - All going well, a half court will go in at some stage over the break. This will be fabulous for Scotsburn and will entertain the kids for many years to come.
Replacement of Blinds - A number of non-functioning blinds across the school will be replaced. This work is long overdue and will be nice to have done.
Painting - We’re making good progress getting around classrooms across the school. For this break our attention will turn to the BER. Over the summer break we’ll finish the BER and then head to the quad.
Irrigation System - A new irrigation system will be installed at the main entrance of the Buninyong Campus, extending to the surrounds of the 5-6 playground. This will enable us to keep this area green all year round, providing a much nicer space for the large number of kids that enjoy playing in this area.
Replacement of 5-6 Playground Retaining Walls - Some of you would have noticed that these retaining walls have been gradually falling apart over the past decade. Simon has completed many patch ups, but it’s time to have the existing retainers removed and replaced. The timbers will be replaced by rocks, a great long-term solution.
High Risk Trees - Recently we had an arborist in to take a look at trees across both campuses. It’s looking like they will be back over the break to deal with any trees assessed as being high risk.
Fence Extension - A contractor will be in to extend the height of the fence behind the goals at the north end of the Buninyong oval. The extension will be similar to the one we had installed out the front of the school where the little kids play on the patch of synthetic turf. The extension won’t stop all balls making their way out onto Yuille St but will stop a good percentage of them.
Ramp Works - The team of contractors has been making great progress. Up until now their focus has been on demolition, and it will be nice to see their attention turning to the construction of new ramps. The next ramp to be demolished is the one at the front entrance of the Buninyong Campus. Given the busy nature of this area, it will be nice to get this work completed during the holiday break.

2027 Prep Enrolments

We’ve actually got a good number of prep enrolments for 2027, which is nice (63 at this stage). A reminder that if you have a child to enrol in prep for 2027, please access an enrolment form from the website or from the office, fill it out and send it in ASAP. Once your child is enrolled, you’ll be on the mail out list for transition updates, which includes information about our Preschooler Program and Orientation Day.

Please pass this message on to anyone else who may be in the same situation and feel free to give us a call if you have any questions.

Department Scholarships for Students

The Department of Education manages a range of student scholarships, which are completely separate to the scholarship program run at Buninyong PS. Department scholarships are available for students who:

complete Grade 4 to Year 11 in 2026
are enrolled in Year 12 in 2026 and plan to do tertiary studies in 2027.

The department will evaluate applicants on their:

academic achievement
participation in school and community activities
financial need.

Scholarships are either one-off payments or cover the duration of the student’s course.

Applications for these scholarships open on Thursday 1 October 2026 and close on Monday 1 February 2027.

To view all available scholarships and for more information on each, including how to apply, refer to Student scholarships.

Emergency Drill

Each term we practise an emergency drill to ensure our students and staff know exactly what to do and feel confident responding safely and calmly in any situation. This morning our students, staff and visitors practised an offsite evacuation. Congratulations to our students who listened carefully, followed instructions calmly, and moved quickly to the safe assembly area.