Principal's News

Dear Parents/Guardians,

School Performance Report

The Department of Education has recently released the annual School Performance Reports which provides schools an opportunity to review outcomes,  and to celebrate the work undertaken whilst, importantly aligning improvement priorities for the coming year. 

School are categorised in four domains – High, Improving, Medium and Developing (see image) comprising a 50% weighting on learning outcomes and 50% on wellbeing outcomes. 

Our school has achieved a High overall performance rating which is a wonderful achievement and a great credit to the work that occurs in our school. Well done to everyone involved in this great result - teaching staff, education support, administration and leadership team. 

Grade 3/4 Camp

Good luck to our grade 3/4 students and staff who head to Malmsbury for their 3 day camp on Monday. We can't wait to hear about your experience and see the photos. 

Grade 2 Sleepover 

The Grade 2 students are looking forward to their Bendigo excursion and school sleepover which will be held on Thursday 5th December. The students are very excited.

School Savings bonus 

All  Parents should have received an email from the Department of Education by Friday containing a Bonus code to access the online system -

The $400 Bonus helps cover cost of uniforms, excursions, and activities. It cannot be allocated to student school fees.  

More information can be found -https://www.vic.gov.au/school-saving-bonus 

If you have not received your School Saving Bonus code via email by Friday 29 November, please contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au

Whole School Transition Day

The State-wide Transition Day falls on Tuesday 10th December this year. On this day our students from Grades 1 to 6 will step up to their new grade for the morning and meet their new teacher for next year. Our 2025 Preps will also be joining us on this day. Please mark this day in your calendar.

Final Assembly

We are excited to invite families to a special awards assembly on Monday 16th December at 2:00pm to celebrate the end of the year. The assembly will be held on the front lawn (weather permitting) so please bring along a chair (or a shade). This will move to the undercover court if needed.

End of Year arrangements                                                                                                                  

As we near the end of the year we have some notices and dates for your diaries-

Monday 16th December - Final whole school assembly 

                                                  Final day for normal classes.

                                                  Student Reports live on XUNO.

Tuesday 17th December- Xmas family event 5-7:30pm

Wednesday 18th - Thursday 19th - Clean up, mixed-age activities.

Friday 20th December - Last Day, Dismissal at 1:20pm.

*If your child's last day at school will be the Monday and they are starting their holidays early please let the office know so we can record this correctly on XUNO and can make sure we send home your child books and other personal belongings.

2025 Class Structure

In 2025 we will have the following class structure: 

Prep/one (two classes) 

Grade two (one class) 

Grade Three/Four (two classes) 

Grade Five/Six (three classes)

Monster Raffle: Please collect from office.

Raffle tickets are available for our 'Rochester Primary School Monster Raffle'. Check out the great prizes up for grabs! Families are asked to collect a book to sell. These are available for pick up from the office.  All funds raised will go towards supporting students, programs and activities at our school. This will be drawn at our final assembly on Monday 16th December.

School Council Meeting

Our final school council meeting of the year occurred on next Tuesday, 26th November. I acknowledge and thank our school council members for their support and time commitment throughout this year. Participating in meetings and leading valuable discussion and influence throughout the year. 

Our school council members will continue for our final meeting of our current team early in 2025 before our AGM towards the end of Term 1. I extend my sincere thanks to Tom Emma, Merryn, Shannyn, Linda, Dylan, Alana, Steve, Janine and Sarah. 

Kate Whitford