Principal's Report

2025 Dates

School Council has approved our student-free days (also known as Curriculum Days) for 2025. We always attempt to plan these to minimise child-care pressures on families as much as possible.

The student-free days for 2025 will be:

• Tuesday 28th January
• Wednesday 29th January
• Friday 6th June (before King's Birthday Public Holiday)
• Monday 21st July (First Day of Term 3)
• Monday 3rd November (Day before Melbourne Cup Public Holiday

The focus of our student-free days in 2025 will predominantly be on the implementation of the updated Victorian Curriculum and Victorian Teaching and Learning Model. We will also be looking at our assessment models throughout the year as well as First Aid & Anaphylaxis management training. Some time is also going to be spent on Restorative Practices and School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support.

Note that as a result of the above dates, the first day of school for students in 2025 will be Thursday 30th of January.

2025 Classes

Next Tuesday, December 10, is our annual 'stepping-up' morning for all students, where they will have a double session with their 2025 teacher and classmates. This also coincides with the Year 7 transition day for public schools.

Staff have spent many hours sorting, re-sorting and refining the class lists and teacher allocations, making every effort to ensure a balance of friendships, behavioural needs and academic skills.

Students will bring home information on the day including the name of their teacher and their class name. As always, we will hold our annual 'meet the teacher' meetings for parents and carers in the early part of the 2025 school year.

Year 3/4 Camp

Thank you and congratulations to the staff and students who have attended the Year 3/4 Camp to Camp Manyung this week. The weather was mostly hot and sticky but didn't interrupt our activities beyond a small shower of rain on Tuesday morning.

Student behaviour was excellent and a great time was had!

Many thanks to all staff who attended for this time away from your families and regular beds, including Hannah from TeamKids who once again attended camp as a volunteer.

New Year of Learning Website

A new school year is an exciting time for students and families, but it can be a big step – particularly for those starting Prep or moving to secondary school.

The Department of Education has published a webpage with resources and information to help you prepare for the new school year.

During the school holidays, please consider reading through the resources, which include:

· tips to help transition between kinder and Prep and primary to secondary school

· what to expect at school

· help with school costs and fees

· health and wellbeing guidance to support children’s mental health. Please refer to the New year of learning webpage.

Numeracy Local Leaders

Our school values the learning and development of our staff, and the positive impacts this has on student outcomes and school improvement.

We are proud to share that Cameron Batt recently successfully completed Numeracy Local Leaders at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership. 

This program equips educators with the confidence and skills to strengthen content knowledge and build strategies to lead numeracy improvement within their school or network. 

Some of the key skills that Cameron is bringing back to our school and classrooms include:

• improving student confidence and outcomes in numeracy 
• leading and supporting numeracy improvement within the school setting 
• designing and implementing effective assessment strategies.

We look forward to working with Cameron to implement the knowledge and skills from the program to continue to support student outcomes and wellbeing.

Peter Watson

Principal