Principal's Report

BIG WEEK AHEAD

We have quite a bit happening this week, including:

Kinder Visits - Some visits from the local kinder started today, with another happening on Thursday.  These visits are the first step in the transition process for many of our 2026 preps.  The next step will be our Pre-Schooler Program, which runs across weeks 1-4 of next term. 

And then of course we have Orientation Day on December 9.  By the end of that, our preps for 2026 will be feeling comfortable and confident in the school environment and ready to successfully transition in prep at the start of next year.  

Principal for a Day

We’ve had a large number of expressions of interest at the Buninyong Campus, which is fantastic.  We’re lucky to have so many students keen to give everything a red hot go.  Narelle, Nicole and myself will be taking a good look at the submissions and will be selecting the lucky three later today.  All that have applied will be acknowledged in some way.  I’m sure Mr Morgan will also be managing plenty of interest at the Scotsburn Campus as well.

School Disco  

We finish off the week with a bang….the school disco.  We have lots of kids booked in, so already know the event will be fun.  A big thankyou to both staff and parents who are volunteering their time to help out on the night.  Bookings are made through Compass and close tomorrow.

STATE CROSS COUNTRY 

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the state cross country event and watching Milla H and Lenny T compete against students from across the state.  The event was held at the Yarra Valley racecourse, and as you can see from the photos, it’s a big event.  Each had 80-90 competitors in their field and did an excellent job.  As you would imagine, the competition was tough, but both were undaunted and ran really well.  Congratulations to Lenny and Milla on an outstanding effort.

PREP ENROLMENTS FOR 2026

If you have a child starting primary school in 2026, it’s time to enrol.  Please make sure to submit your enrolment application as soon as possible, as soon we’ll begin planning for next year, which obviously is based on student numbers.  Knowing prep numbers also helps us to plan for transition activities and ensures your child has the best start to school.

The following message was left off the initial version of last week’s newsletter, so those that read the newsletter on Tuesday will not have seen it.  As such, I thought it would be a good idea for a repeat appearance.

SHORT TERM REPLACEMENT OF TEACHERS

We thought it might be timely to explain the approach we take to the short-term replacement of teaching staff, given it has been a while since this information has been communicated and given the landscape in this space has changed quite a bit in the past few years.

We know that students do best when they have solid routines and certainty at school, and this underpins the approach we take to the replacement of teachers.  When a classroom teacher is absent, we are conscious of managing the situation in a way that allows students to feel comfortable through known routines and a continuation of their learning.  This also needs to be dealt with in a manner that is manageable for staff.

When a teacher is absent, our first option is to replace them with a CRT (Casual Relief Teacher) or with a member of staff that is without classroom teaching responsibilities (usually Mr Georgiou, Mr Rodgers or a member from the leadership team). 

Obviously, we want our CRTs to come in and do a good job, both in terms of the learning and wellbeing of students.  To achieve this, all CRTs participate in an induction process and all efforts are made by neighbouring classroom teachers and leadership to ensure CRTs on a given day are well supported.  We have a small pool of trusted CRTs that we use where possible, which helps keep everything settled when teachers are absent.

Unfortunately, the pool of Casual Relief Teachers is limited at the moment, which means that sometimes we’re unable to find the number of CRTs required on a given day.  In these instances, we go to our secondary groupings, which is where the students are distributed (split is a term you have probably heard the kids use) to other classes (usually 3 or 4 per class). 

This is managed at the start of the school day by a member from the leadership team and there are no surprises for the kids as they know which class they always go to when their class is reorganised. Where possible students go to a class at the same year level, but this is not always possible. 

Host teachers for students on these days make every effort to ensure the learning continues for any additional students they have on these days. 

To stay within budget, there are times when an absent teacher is not replaced, but this is not something that happens on a regular basis. To give everyone a sense of how often classes are re-arranged because teachers have not been replaced, in the term just gone, this occurred 30 times across the school at an average of just above 1 per class.

We closely monitor where classes have been re-organised into their secondary groupings, making sure no individual class or year level is significantly impacted.

All of the above relates to short term absences, which is quite different to the way longer term teacher absences are managed.  In these cases, every effort is made to have one of our trusted CRTs in place for the entire period that a teacher is absent.  Unfortunately, this is not always possible, but we do our best to minimise changes and disruption for the kids.

Hopefully what I’ve explained above makes sense and please feel free to give me a call at any stage if you’d like to know more.