Caulfield Primary School Newsletter

Principal's News

Today is the final day of education week and it was great to celebrate such a vibrant and positive week throughout the school. This year’s theme Celebration of Cultures highlights the diversity of school communities and the importance of every child feeling safe and welcome at school. It is a theme that transcends education and can be carried over into the outside world. Primary schools in particular are one of the more harmonious, respectful environments within our community. The respect children display for varying attitudes, beliefs, cultures, languages and backgrounds can and should be bottled and replicated in the outside world. 

 

Education week has provided an opportunity for us to celebrate the many aspects of our work and our students. We have enjoyed a great fortnight around the school and really appreciate the time taken to read over some of these highlights from around the school. 

 

Open Classrooms

 

Our Open Classrooms on Monday and Tuesday afternoon were so well attended, thank you for finding time to visit our classrooms and support these learning environments and the work that your child is doing. It is a great connective piece to build and strengthen that relationship between home and school. 

 

School Review

 

Over the last few weeks, we have continued to work towards our school review that will be held on the 16th, 17th and 24th June. We have recently submitted our Pre-Review self-evaluation which is a really comprehensive document that celebrates the work undertaken in the previous four years whilst also evaluating the school’s performance aligned to FISO 2.0 (Framework for Improving Student Outcomes) and the elements of assessment, support and resources, engagement, teaching and learning and leadership shaped by the two focus outcomes of learning and wellbeing. In addition to this, the review asks the school to share evidence, documents and outcomes that demonstrate and support a thorough evaluation of this work. 

 

The school then engages with an experienced review panel that provides a critical and evaluative measure for the school to identify performance strengths and areas for improvement and establish a new strategic plan for the 4 years ahead. We have a really experienced panel to support our work led by Kevin Murphy (Senior Education Improvement Leader), Brian Mills (Reviewer), Rohan Cooper (Challenge Partner), Bronwyn Ryrie Jones (Challenge Partner), James M (School Council President), Sarah B (School Council Vice President) and our own leadership team including Miharu Morioka, Krystal Ryan, Takako Morita, Asami Onda. We are excited about celebrating the work of our school over the three days. 

 

Further to that, over the next few weeks I was asked to provide support to Knox Gardens PS as a Challenge Partner for the three days of their school review. The role of a Challenge Partner is to provide an independent level of advice and support focused on learning, wellbeing and leadership. It is also a great opportunity to see another school in operation and celebrate the work occurring within our government school system.  

 

Cross Country 

Congratulations to our CPS Cross Country team that competed last Friday. The training undertaken both at school and out of school hours was a great reflection of the efforts of our students and their attempts to try their best representing our school. 

 

Classroom Cuisine

 

Exciting news! We are working with Classroom Cuisine to offer another day of lunch orders with families now able to order on Wednesday and Friday each week. We hope this provides families with some added flexibility and students with an occasional (or regular) special lunch to end the week. 

Classroom Cuisine will also offer a special fundraising day each term with $1 from every order coming back to the school. This term that day will be the 25th June. Friday lunch orders will begin next Friday and continue on Wednesday and Friday for the remainder of the year and moving forward. 

 

Academy of Teaching and Leadership: Inspire

 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with 30 emerging leaders within the Bayside Peninsula area on the Academy of Teaching and Leadership: Inspire Course, a program designed to support emerging leaders in schools and help support their leadership journey. I am working as a facilitator for the course working alongside four other experienced principals. I am really proud of Sally Curlewis and Carolina Guzman-Ramirez who are participants in the course which is a great reflection of their initiative and ambition. 

 

2026 Enrolments

 

A reminder to families that we are a month into the enrolment window and that if you have a sibling that will be attending CPS next year, you will need to complete an enrolment form and hand it in to the office prior to July 25th. I would encourage local families to submit their applications as soon as possible. This allows the school to begin planning for the year ahead.

 

King’s Birthday Public Holiday

 

The King’s Birthday public holiday is on Monday June 9th. The school will be closed on this day.

 

2025 Government Schools Principal Conference

 

Miharu 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.

We look forward to undertaking two days of learning and coming back to the school to share with staff and the school community. 

 

National Reconciliation Week 

 

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is celebrated across Australia each year between 27th May and 3rd June.  The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey - the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision. National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to the national reconciliation effort.

 

Department of Education – Mathematics Position 

The Department of Education has this week provided an updated reference point guiding all schools on the stated position on the teaching of Mathematics. It is recognised that numeracy is a fundamental life skill. The development and application of mathematical knowledge and skills builds students’ conceptual and imaginative worlds, supports problem solving attributes and skills and provides capabilities that contribute to full, participatory citizenship and career pathways. You can read the statement position from the Department of Education that is linked here. It provides a great guidance piece for schools in the teaching of mathematics and follows on from updates over the last 12 months on the teaching of literacy and prep – year 2 approaches to systematic synthetic phonics. 

 

National Simultaneous Story Time

 

A big thanks to Takako Morita and Krystal Ryan for coordinating the National Simultaneous Story Time for our school on Wednesday afternoon. This is a great activity that allows for literacy to be celebrated in all classrooms simultaneously throughout the state with the reading of the same book. Here at Caulfield PS, we also work incredibly hard to also provide this story as a translated piece in our Japanese classrooms and literacy lesson, ensuring that our bilingual immersion approach allows us to celebrate language and literacy in both English and Japanese. How fantastic! 

 

Premiers Reading Challenge

 

The premier’s reading challenge is in full swing and a big thanks to Jess Matthews (Year 1/2C) for coordinating this throughout the school. As of last Friday, we were getting busy reading, having amassed 622 books read. 

Our leaderboard was as follows: 

  • 1 - Grade 3, 121 books
  • 2 - Grade 1, 119 books
  • 3 - Prep, 111 books
  • 4 - Grade 6, 81 books
  • 5 - Grade 2, 80 books
  • 6 - Grade 5, 64 books
  • 7 - Grade 4, 46 books

Well done to our Year 3’s who are leading the way, let’s keep turning pages and reading together – well done everyone! 

 

Boys Toilets

 

We continue to remind students that the toilets are not a play environment, it is challenging to keep these areas clean, hygienic and welcoming when students are using this area in the school in a way that is disrespectful to others. We have continued to speak with students about the use of bathrooms which is somewhat disappointing. We are hopeful that our student bathrooms are used and treated in the same way that bathrooms and toilets are treated at home. I was proud of some of our Year 5/6 students who came to me last week when they identified some unwanted behaviour in the toilets. 

 

Working Bee

 

We are looking to put together a team of helpers to get stuck into our working bee on the 28th June. If you are able to assist and/or have any trade experience that would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to offer your support by completing the form linked here that would be fantastic. Last year we had a very comprehensive landscaping concept put together for our junior school playground area. We would really like to assemble a team to work on an element of this project, namely a stage and platform area (see image). We would love your help!

 

Open Day

 

Our first Open Day of the year was a fantastic success, it was well attended and a great level of engagement by prospective families. A big thank you to Aya Hughes, Krystal Ryan and Miharu Morioka for supporting this event. Additionally, a big thanks and congratulations to 11 of our student leaders who hosted our introduction session and welcomed families to the school, doing so in both English and Japanese. Our final open day of the year is scheduled for the 14th June. 

 

Recruitment

 

I extend a warm welcome to Aparna who has joined our Education Support team, Aparna is working in our prep classrooms four days per week and has made a wonderful contribution to our prep classrooms. Welcome Aparna and thank you for your efforts. I also am delighted to welcome Theo to our school, Theo will begin in the Year ¾ classrooms, three days a week beginning next week. Welcome Theo! 

 

AtoSS

 

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. 

 

Children’s Day Lunch

Last Friday, our students were treated to the most beautiful lunch to celebrate Children's Day. This lunch was kindly organised and coordinated by our Parents and Friends Club and a number of volunteer helpers. We had over 200 orders on the day. It was such a wonderful way for our students to learn and celebrate Children’s Day and couldn’t have happened without the kind support of our families and volunteers. Thank you for making the day so special for our students.

 

It really felt like the weather dropped this week, we encountered some cold mornings and we’ve had some (much needed) rain today. Sunday is looking really nice with next week looking wet, please keep this in mind when your students are attending school. Enjoy a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you around the school next week. 

 

Many Thanks, 

Edward Strain

Principal