From the Principal

Whole School Multicultural Day

This is a friendly reminder our Whole School Multicultural Day will be held next Wednesday, 4th June.

Beginning at 9:15 am to 3:15 pm, students will be placed in multi-age groups and rotate

through five 50-minute sessions, each designed by our specialist teachers to showcase cultures from around the world.

The exciting activities planned include:

Performing Arts – Bollywood Dancing (Miss Hong and Mrs Gayathari Gomatam)

STEM – Scientific Inventions from Around the World (Mrs Vinar)

Physical Education – Skipping and Basketball (Mr Stillman)

Visual Arts – Indigenous Art (Mrs Newstead)

French – French Board Games (Mrs D'Souza)

We encourage all students to come dressed in traditional clothing that represents their cultural background as we celebrate the wonderful diversity of our school community.

Students who have pre-ordered a multicultural morning tea treat from Bakers Delight will receive it at recess. Orders can still be placed via Compass Canteen until 9:30 pm on Sunday, 1st June.

We would like to thank the Specialist Team for coordinating this very special day for our school community.

Foundation 2026 Enrolments

Enrolments for Foundation 2026 are now open. If you have a child born between 1st May 2020 and 30th April 2021, now is the time to enrol, using the departments online portal (Click here: Home)

We have recently been informed by the Department of Education that we now have an

enrolment cap of 66 students in Foundation. This enrolment cap has been put in place to ensure that we don’t grow too big in student numbers and exceed the physical resources (classrooms) that we currently have.

It is wonderful recognition of our school that the Department has placed this enrolment cap on our school. We are a sought-after school, and this is due to the efforts of our students, parents and staff at Camelot Rise Primary School.

If you have any questions pertaining to enrolment, please call the office. Ph (03) 9803 5344.

Finally, please be aware of the order of priority for enrolments:

Students residing in the Camelot Rise Primary School zone.
Students residing outside the zone, but who have siblings already attending.
Students residing outside the zone in order of proximity to the school ( according to www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au ).

National Simultaneous Storytime

A special shoutout to Mrs Giannopoulos for coordinating our school’s participation in the

National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday. It was a joy to see our students engaging in this nationwide celebration of reading — a fantastic way to build a love of literature across all year levels.

2025 Government Schools Principal Conference

Ben Heys and I will be attending the Government Schools Principal Conference on Tuesday 3rd June and Wednesday 4th June. The theme for this year’s conference is Excellence in Every Classroom.

This is an excellent opportunity for Victorian government school principals and assistant principals to:

hear from renowned thought leaders in education
discover new ways of thinking about leadership excellence
learn and reflect from one another.

For these two days Mrs Giannopoulos will be Acting Principal.

New seating area for our school

We are thrilled to inform you all that we have recently ordered some new seating, umbrellas and synthetic grass for the ‘garden bed’ area next to the netball court. This area was not a functional area but with the removal of one of the sleeper walls, the installation of synthetic grass, seated areas and heavy-duty umbrella this will hopefully become a great passive play / seated area for our students and members of our school community.

We expect installation within the next three months.

The photos below provide an indication of what this area will look like once the works are completed.

Reading is Everything!

As the colder months descend on us and the days get shorter, there is no better time to grab a book and curl up under the doona or in front of the fire. By any measure, reading for more than 15 minutes per day has enormous benefits for life outcomes. Fifteen plus minutes of active reading helps students achieve higher academic growth than their peers. 30 minutes is even better, and 60 minutes has enormous benefits. Studies show that only 18% of students read for 30 minutes per night and that at 60 minutes, student growth is on average 48% higher than the average, no matter what the child’s background. The table also shows the correlation between high reading engagement against international student rankings. Those coming from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds achieve well above the international average if they read regularly. If we compare a student from a low socioeconomic background who does not read daily, with a student from a high background that does, the difference is massive. That difference is cut dramatically by high reading engagement. The evidence could not be clearer. If you want your child to succeed, read to them and give them plenty of opportunities to read. If you still have pre-schoolers, the research shows how significant being read to is, enabling students to start school with reading skills well above their peers. From my own experience, when my own children wanted to stay up later, our first negotiation led to bedtime being extended by 30 minutes, on the proviso that they read in bed for those 30 minutes. Not only did it help them fall asleep as they disconnected from devices, but it boosted their reading time. Win-win-win! As I have said many, many times, reading is everything and is the key to your child enjoying a successful future.

I have included an article below that further outlines the importance of reading daily.

WHY READING EVERY NIGHT IS SO IMPORTANT:

The following article again illustrates just how important the practice of reading nightly is.

Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?

(Source Unknown)

Let us figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week.
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins. /week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x approximately 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year

Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.

Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end of Year 6 if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance.

How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to be the more proficient reader?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write with greater proficiency?
Which student would you expect to have a broader vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?

Attitudes to School Survey

Each year students in Year 4 – 6 participate in the Attitudes to School Survey, a survey completed by all Victorian Government schools. We are currently in the process of

administering this survey working with our students to support them. The de-identified data and responses provide our school with a great understanding of what is happening in our school and an important piece of student voice and agency in their school. This data helps the school establish strategic targets and identify areas for improvement, it also allows us to focus in on things that the school has improved or done well over the last 12 months

King's Birthday Public Holiday June 9th

A reminder to all families that the school will be closed due to the public holiday on Monday, 9th June.

Students will attend school on Tuesday, 10th June.

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys