Principal's Report

2020 - a year like no other!

Thinking back to January, if we had said that in the year ahead, schools would close, students would be learning from home and we would all be communicating via Webex, we would have shaken our heads in disbelief! 

2020 started off in the usual Springs fashion, with the Senior Students Conference for our Year 6 students held on a very hot 42-degree day.  In February, we held our Year 3-6 Athletics Carnival down at Casey Fields and in March we had our Japanese Sports Incursion day.  We hosted Martin from The Resilience Project and were also lucky enough to have the Channel 10 weather presented from our Garden area.

Who would have thought that things would change so much from the end of Term 1? 

We began Remote and Flexible Learning from Term 2 and we all had to get our heads around working from home, using Webex to communicate and also be isolated from our friends.  The resilience shown by all students during this time was amazing!  We are so proud of how every single one of our students adapted to the changes and were still able to produce some fabulous learning.  Throughout this time, our PSPS community still had lots of fun – we had our weekly house battles, our Trivia sessions, we had our Dreamtime at the G Webex and we also celebrated our Prep 100 days of school.  We held a virtual PJ day as well as a virtual footy dress-up day.  Once we FINALLY returned to onsite learning, we hit the ground running!  We have achieved so much together this year – totally different to what we would have expected though! 

I cannot thank the staff enough for their support and hard work every day as we continue to work towards our school’s mission. The leadership team, office staff and all our teachers and Learning Support Assistants are true professionals who work tirelessly to get the best results for our students.

I would like to thank our School Council on behalf of the community.  They have been an amazing group of parents and teachers to work with.  They provide valuable input into the school and work with us to provide great opportunities for the students.  This year Alisha Keyzer continued on as our School Council President - she has worked closely with us sharing the views of the parent community and working to achieve the best outcomes for students. 

Most importantly thank you to the students.  They are the reason I come to work each day and why we work so hard.  They have worked to achieve their goals and I am exceptionally proud of the progress they have made.  I have enjoyed reading reports and hearing all about the academic progress that has been made throughout the year.

Staff Changes

In 2021 we will welcome Sally Coote, Ellen Williams, Kendall Wilkie and Chelsie Selleck to our PSPS teaching team.

Each year we farewell staff who head off to a new stage in their lives and careers.  This year we will farewell Samantha Lane, Jemma Garratt, Nikki Swan, Hosay Babak, Steve Harber, Bernie Gridley, Amber Edwards and Crystal Hollow.  We thank them for their wonderful contribution to our Professional Learning Community. 

2021 Structure

In 2021, Ms Kerryn Baillie will return to the Principal position from Monday-Thursday.  I will continue to be Acting Principal on a Friday.  Jane King will join me as Assistant Principal and Scott McKinnon as Assistant Principal (Friday) as the school Leadership team.

In 2021, we will again have 35 classroom groups. 

Prep: 

Brooke Bartlett, Jessica Bakker, Emily Landolfo, Sally Coote 

Natalie Higgins/Deb Sanderson (Term 1 only)

Year 1: 

Kirsty Manning, Heather King, Anna Dougall, Amanda Parnall, 

Amanda Lyons, Kendall Wilkie

Year 2: 

Corrin Warn, Taylor Evans, Wendy Turner, Lauren Cameron 

Ashtyn Price/Lucy Hoogenboom.

Year 3: 

Kate Bucknell, Jen Bradford, Bec Kotzur, Janet Marki 

Sarah Watson/Melanie Breadon.

Year 4: 

Vonnie Cole, Leanne Jager, Bryoni Lloyd 

Ash Windley/Sarah Godfrey.

Year 5: 

Kelly Utting, Ellen Williams, Chelsie Selleck, Natalie Coxon 

Michelle Salt-Watson/Dylan Harris.

Year 6: 

Amy Jewell, Bernadette Monckton, Samira Rahimi, Ben Howlett 

Jackie Pope/Bree McKenzie.

SPECIALIST STAFF:

Media Arts:

Teague Rook and Esther Priestley

Visual Arts (one semester only):

Nadean Griffin

Physical Education:

Scott Holmes and Rhys Davie 

LOTE:

Mel Breadon

STEM:

Tanjil-Lea Delport 

Chaplain:

Tere Harry

Learning Tutor:

Carolyn Brown, Deb Sanderson & Scott McKinnon

Congratulations Year 6 Graduates!

On Wednesday, we celebrated the Graduation of our Year 6 students.  This cohort of year six's has brought us much pride as they have excelled as role models.  I'd like to make special mention of our School Captains, Indi & James, who have lead our students throughout a really unique and tough school year. 

Congratulations to our 2021 School Leaders!

It gives me great pleasure to announce our 2021 School Leaders:

School Captain: 

Jude & Janay

School Vice-Captain: 

Callan & Ruby K

STEM Leaders: 

Tauave & Gurmaan

Media Arts Leaders: 

Ajeya & Jassnoor

Arts Leaders: 

Lina, Romy & Tayleen

Library Leaders: 

Tia, Sweeti, Chelsey, Kaylee, Kira & Gemma

Wellbeing: 

Emma, Yekta, Amanat, Michael N & Sabah

School Community Ambassadors: 

Lillie, Chloe, Zander, Viran, Shontay, Maddie, Mikayla & Stephanie

Grounds & Maintenance Leaders: 

Noah, Harshith, Lachlan T, Harley, Thomas W & Kaiden

Jamieson House Captains: 

Briella & Tyson

Toomuc House Captains: 

Paige & Cooper

Henry House Captains: 

Sienna & Hayden

Edward House Captains: 

Atiel & Farshad

Enjoy the holiday break!

I'd like to again thank the entire Pakenham Springs community for your support throughout this crazy year!  Stepping into the Principal role has been a massive challenge, but one I have enjoyed immensely.  There's never a dull day at Pakenham Springs and I do love being part of such a vibrant and supportive community.  Make sure you enjoy some well-earned family time over this holiday break and relax and recharge ready for a huge 2021!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Renee Cotterell

Principal (Acting)