Principal's Report

What a busy term it has been! We have had a lot of events including 5/6’s RoboGals incursion, school athletics tryouts, visitors from Nakamura Gakuen University, Principal’s Day, Clare O’Neil visiting the Year 5/6’s, Science Week, Oakleigh Education Plan Japanese Learning Walks, Go Girls for IT Day, ICAS competitions, Book Week, soccer clinics, district athletics competition, Literacy & Numeracy Week, Father’s Day morning tea, 5/6 friendly sports morning against Clarinda PS, visit from Caufield PS and Share and Show Night! Phew!

Taiko Performance

On Sunday 4th September our Taiko group performed at the 2022 Melbourne Taiko Matsuri, hold at South Oakleigh College. Our performance was simply stunning! With COVID restrictions over the last 2 years, our taiko group have had limited opportunities to perform publicly. Nevertheless, their performance was wonderful, with clean drumming and well executed transitions. Taiko Captain Leila and School Captain Hanna, spoke confidently to the audience about their experiences playing taiko. Thank you to Hanazono sensei for teaching and guiding our taiko group so they can perform at such a high level. A number of audience members approached me during the interval to say what a high-quality performance the group displayed.

Another highlight of the day was watching the performances of Wadaiko Ringo and our very own 5/6 teacher Shoya sensei is a member of this group. She was in a number of performances, and she displayed such ‘power drumming’. I marvel at the level of fitness needed to play the drums. It was lovely to see ex-students Rei and Yoshi also perform in this group and see their passion for taiko drumming continue. Another of our current students, Johnny (2A) did his first taiko performance as part of the Wadaiko Ringo Kids Class. Well done, Johnny!

I hope that our taiko students could see the possibilities with taiko drumming and that this ignites them to want to continue this musical journey.

Share and Show Night

It was lovely to see so many families attend our Share and Show Night yesterday. For many families it was the first time they had been back at the school for such an event. It was a lovely time to connect with one another, visit classrooms, see the STEM room and library and view student’s art work.

Students proudly showed their parents around the school, show them their work and talk about their achievements. Well done to all of our students for their hard work this term!

Supervising Children After School

After school is a very busy time! We have a number of extra-curricular activities on most nights including Team Kids, Soccer X and Fizz Kids, as well as students meeting parents in the car park, the basketball court or the near the kinder next door. We also have students who wait to meet parents at the office. We ask that all parents who are collecting their children to ensure they are within eyesight of your children, including younger siblings, at all times. subcommittee Students are often not with their parents, and it is unclear to the teachers on yard duty if they are still waiting to be collected, need assistance in finding their way to after school activities or still waiting for their family. Teachers are on duty until 3.45pm and we need to ensure that students are collected after school. We thank you for your cooperation.

NAPLAN Results

The school’s NAPLAN results were released recently. Parents of Year 3 and 5 students have been asked to collect their child’s results at the office.

Child Safe Standards

The new Child Safe Standards came into effect on July 1, 2022. This newsletter we will look at standard 4.

Child Safe Standard 4 – Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

At Huntingdale Primary School we have:

Asked families for feedback on our new child safety policies.
Made the child safe policies accessible to families online, in hard copy at the school office and up in the window on the ramp as you enter the school office.
Included the child safety and wellbeing policy in our enrolment packs.
A welcoming environment for our school community, especially at the school office where Gill and Rosella, Naomi and I are willing to help our families.
Events to welcome our families into the school, such as assembly, open mornings, Mother’s/Father’s Day morning teas, share and show nights, parent/teacher interviews and so on.
Consistent engagement with our families so they can talk about their children. This can be in formal settings like parent/ teacher interviews, or during chance meetings at pick-up and drop-off.
Provided parents and carers with information about children’s rights and safety via the newsletter.
Regularly engaged with parents, carers to discuss the needs of students through parent/teacher interviews, individual education plan meetings and student support group meetings.
Provided frequent opportunities for parents and carers to engage with staff to discuss their children’s experiences at school. This can be done on the phone, via webEx, See Saw or face to face.
Organised interpreters and translations to engage families from non-English speaking backgrounds in conversations about the school’s child safety strategies.
A communication plan for all families so they know who best to talk to about different issues that arise.
Reminded the school community about the shared roles of parents, carers and school staff in creating a positive environment for learning by promoting the Respectful Behaviours in the School Community Policy.
Displayed the PROTECT poster on school notice boards around the school that are accessible to parents and the community.
Child safety as a standing item at School Council meetings.
Acknowledged the important role that families and communities play in monitoring children’s safety and wellbeing and helping children to disclose concerns.

Reminder- 2022 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey

The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department Education and Training (DET) that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. We encourage all families to participate in this survey. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. While previously a random sample of parents/caregivers/ guardians have been selected to participate, this year, all families are invited to participate in the survey.

I ask you to please take the time to complete the survey as your opinions are important to us and will contribute to the future management and organisation of our school.

The survey will be conducted online and should take 20 minutes to complete.
- The survey can be completed on any internet enabled device (iPad, Desktop or Laptop, Smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.
The survey will be open from Monday 15 August to Friday 16th September.
The survey is available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, Somali and Punjabi.

Please be assured that your responses are completely confidential. The survey is conducted anonymously, and it is important to us that you complete the survey as honestly as possible.

Please follow the instructions below to complete the survey. NOTE: Only one parent/caregiver/guardian from your family is invited to complete the survey.

To complete the survey, simply:

Click on the link below or copy and paste the text into your browser. This link will take you directly to the survey.

https://www.orima.com.au/parent

Select the School and Campus name below.

School Name: Huntingdale Primary School

Campus Name: Huntingdale Primary School

Enter the School PIN below.

PIN: 499302

When complete, please click on the tick button at the end of the survey to submit your answers. Please note that the survey will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity.

Questions?

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you have any general queries about the survey. For specific technical or participation-related queries, you may also contact the department or the supplier administering the survey, ORIMA Research.

Should you have any technical queries regarding the Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey, please do not hesitate to contact ORIMA Research on 1800 654 585 (toll free), or by email: pos@orima.com
Should you have any participation or survey-related queries, please contact the School, or the department by email: school.surveys@education.vic.gov.au.

Thank you for taking the time to participate. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Dress Code Policy Consultation

Yesterday I sent via Operoo the updated Dress Code Policy. The school’s policy has not changed, just the format of the policy, which is based on DET’s policy guidelines.

Families are able to give feedback via the school email address huntingdale.ps@education.vic.gov.au until Monday 3 October. Any feedback will be discussed at our Education & Future Directions subcommittee on 4 October and then at School Council the following week, 11 October. I have attached the policy here.

I hope families have a restful holiday break. I am off to Cairns and Port Douglas for some needed warm weather.

Ruth Biddle

Principal

Assistant Principal’s Report

It has been a busy term in Term 3. It was a great celebration at the Show and Share night on 13th September. I hope you are all proud of your children’s achievement on the night. It was so good to see everyone onsite and to feel the great vibe of our school community.

Japanese Play

I was invited to see the Foundation (FA) children’s play. I was surprised at how confident our children are in speaking Japanese and performing their play. These oral performance activities are very important for children as a sign of them enjoying using their new language skills. You should be proud of their achievements.

We were lucky to have the Leadership team from a Queensland school also watch their performance. They were very impressed at the language outcome and of our parent’s involvement as many parents had come along to watch.

After the play, parents joined the session and learnt the Japanese song from their children in Japanese. I am so pleased that parents shared the belief in Bilingual Education together.

Buddy Session

Grade 3A&3B and Grade 2C&1C had a buddy session today. Grade 3 students watched the Grade 1 and Grade 2’s Bilingual performance on TV and Grade 3 students read their book which they created in English and Japanese. They enjoyed playing the game together and had a picnic outside afterward. Other year levels are having their buddy session this week.

Foundation Math Activity in Japanese

Foundation C students were practicing their counting skill on the basketball court today. It was nice to see students engaging well and enjoying the maths activities in the outdoor space.

Fathers' Day breakfast

Team Kids organised a fabulous breakfast for our fathers and grandfathers in our school community on Friday 9th. Everybody enjoyed the food and the company. Thank you to Team Kids for organising the event.

Student Support

One of my main roles in the school is to coordinate the student support services in the school- academic, social and behaviour services. This includes programs we offer ‘in house’ as well as external services provided by the Department of Education and other external agencies.

Generally the process happens in the following way:

A teacher may have a concern with your child and will discuss it with you or you as a parent may have concerns about your child which you discuss with the teacher.
These concerns are then usually discussed with me so a decision can be made on which service can be accessed and is the most appropriate for your child. Permission forms are then signed.
Contact is made to the service provider who will then discuss the referral with parents and/or the teacher.
A decision will be made on what sort of support the child will need. This could be an assessment, therapy, home program, referral to another agency or in school support.

This process is confidential with only the key stakeholders- myself, the classroom teacher/s and service providers involved.

Often parents will show concern about other children in the school. We as a school cannot discuss the educational, academic or social circumstances of other children who are not your own or detail support services they may be accessing. This is confidential. Please be rest assured that all efforts are made to support students in the school as much as possible.

The cherry blossoms are beautiful on the street. Please enjoy the time with your children during the school holiday!

Naomi Mori-Hanazono

Assistant Principal

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