Mr Bainbridge's Bulletin

Earlier this week I attended the Bayside Peninsula Area Principal Forum for Term 4. It’s a chance for Principal Class members from South Melbourne to Portsea and everywhere in between to meet and learn about educational system updates and future directions within the Government School system. 

Key points from the day included:

• A reminder of the Student Mobile Phone Policy that is applicable to all Victorian Government Schools. The policy states that any student mobile phones or cellular devices (smartwatches) brought to school are to be handed into the school office before the start of the school day and collected after school. Where Secondary Schools have individual student lockers these may be used as they provide safe storage.
• School Culture and Transitions are vital aspects of an orderly, safe and positive school environment. We are approaching the formal Transition milestone sessions encompassing Kinder to Foundation and Grade 6 to Year 7. We also have our internal ‘Up Day’ for Foundation to Grade 5 students on Tuesday 12th December. This is an opportunity for our students to meet teachers from the year level above, participate in some activities and also move to a different part of the school. As a staff we complete student information documents to pass to next year’s teachers to give a rounded summary of each child’s academic, social and emotional progress. 
• Early Childhood reforms are part of Government planning for the future with the rollout in coming years of free 4 year old kinder and an increase to hours of this ‘Pre Prep Year’. This will be staggered across the state, beginning in rural areas before being implemented in metro Melbourne in the years to come.