From the Principal

Mrs Courtney Hoffmann

Dear Karoo PS Community,

Welcome to Term 4! We have an exciting term ahead, with many special and community events, which we look forward to sharing with you.

Buildings and Grounds Updates

Wow! It has been wonderful to see our students already enjoying our newly resurfaced basketball courts! The completed upgrade has given the courts a fresh, new look and created an improved space for our students to play, practise their skills and enjoy being active with their friends.

Our basketball courts are such an important part of our school grounds and are enjoyed by so many of our students each day. We are thrilled that, thanks to the support of our school community, we have been able to invest in upgrading this space for our students to enjoy for years to come. Thank you to our school community for helping make this wonderful improvement possible!

In the coming weeks our School Council Fundraising Sub Committee will be requesting feedback from our community for our next fundraising focus - so keep an eye out to make your vote count!!

Staffing Update

It gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome back to our Karoo PS community.

Ms Rebecca Barton
Mrs Hilary Cheng

Ms Barton, and Mrs Cheng are very excited to be back at Karoo PS and seeing all of our students and families! Ms Barton has stepped in the Science specialist role for the remainder of the year, replacing Mrs De Parada, and Mrs Cheng has stepped back into the Mandarin specialist role.

Teacher Absence/Time in Lieu - Monday 2nd November - Reminder

At Karoo PS, we run a large range of opportunities for our students to take part in such as camps and State School Spectacular (SSS). However, to run these events in out of school hours, we need to ensure that our teachers have 'Time in Lieu' for working outside of their standard weekly hours. Therefore, to manage this effectively the following teachers will not be present at school on Monday 2nd Nov:

Miss Tiana Dias (FD)
Miss Karla Markovic (1M)
Miss Sarah Dobson (1D)
Mrs Fiona Marker (3M)
Mrs Brooke Kennedy (3SG)
Miss Michelle Davies (4D)
Mrs Robyn Harris/Mrs Kim Seng (4SH)
Mr Joshua Edwards (5E)
Miss Tia Beagley (5B)
Mrs Jacinta Travaglini (5T)
Ms Gemma Wild (6W)
Mrs Jess Cole (6C)
Mrs Alisa Hardware (6H)

As a result, on Monday 2nd Nov, students from the above classes attending school on this day will be engaging in an alternate learning program. Therefore, parents can choose to send their children to school or not on this day. This option also gives our families the opportunity to make the most of the long weekend and for our students to have a rest day in the middle of a busy term.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher, Sub School Leader or myself.

Classes for 2027

The construction of new classes for any year is a dynamic and strategic process, which ensures that children are thought of both individually and collectively. When we are working to organise class groups many factors are taken into account including academic ability, individual needs, gender, student relationships, social and emotional traits, behaviour, working relationships, influences (the influence a child has on others, how others influence them) and previous class placements/teachers etc. All these elements are considered in building the new “learning community”, as we make decisions about what is in the best educational and learning interests for students. At all times we make decisions that support the learning environment for your child, based on our expertise as educators.

As students at Karoo PS progress from Foundation to Year 6, it is expected they will learn to work and relate to a range of teachers and students. As with all school decisions, the aim is to offer the best possible learning experience for all our students.

In 2027, the composition for classes in our school will be:

Foundation – 3 classes

Year 1 – 3 classes

Year 2– 3 classes

Year 3 – 3 classes

Year 4 - 2 classes

Year 5 – 2 classes

Year 6 – 3 classes

Student and Parent requests

Students are supported at our school to reflect on their personal growth over the past year and will work with their teacher to confidentially nominate learning partners that they feel they work best with in the classroom environment for the subsequent year. Teachers spend time reviewing a social story to support students to identify their best learning partners. This is also done as a whole cohort, so that students can consider all students in the year level, not just their current class. When developing new classes for 2027, student feedback on their effective learning partners is an essential element and how students are able to request key students in their following years class.

For parents thinking of making a request for their child's class in 2027, it is important to consider if your request is supportive of the best learning environment for your child, as well as their growth in expanding their friendships.

Requests do not include names of requested teachers (to have or not to have). Instead, these requests need to articulate the learning environment in which best supports the learning for your child and the type of teacher which supports this classroom culture (eg: warm and nurturing, firm and fair etc). Names of specific teacher requests will not be taken into consideration when formulating student classroom placements for 2027.

Please also note a new request needs to be submitted for each schooling year. Previous requests will not be taken into consideration for 2027 as each year situations change and students develop.

Parent requests must be email to the below email by Friday 30th October for consideration. Any submissions after this date, unfortunately cannot be taken into account in our grade formulations for 2027.

All requests need to be emailed to: karoo.ps@education.vic.gov.au

KPS Working Bee and Term 4 Pupil Free Day

Our KPS Working Bee is coming up on Sunday 8 November (weather permitting), and we would love to see our school community come together to help make our school grounds even more beautiful!

The focus of the day will be on mulching, gardening and planting - a wonderful opportunity to lend a hand, connect with other families and have some fun while making a positive difference to our school environment. And of course, there will be a BBQ and icy poles for everyone to enjoy! 🌭🍦

Whether you can stay for the whole morning or just pop in for a little while, every helping hand makes a difference. To express your interest and help us plan catering, please complete the Google Form here: https://forms.gle/drZw4QgyVPoAiXb56

We look forward to seeing lots of our KPS families there!

Our last Pupil free day for 2026 is to be held on Friday 20th November. As per previous pupil free days, no children are required onsite. OSHC will be running a program for students who are booked in.

Have a wonderful fortnight and I look forward to seeing you around our sensational school!

Courtney Hoffmann

Principal