Messages from the Principal - Mr. Barclay.

Welcome to the 2025 School Year! 

Hello and welcome to our wonderful NPS families and wider school community for 2025! 

I trust that you all had a terrific Christmas break and have had a great start to the new year. 

Over the break, I was able to get away to Sydney with my family which was a great trip away. My wife and I (for reasons still unknown to this day) decided to drive there which actually went better than we thought it would with 6 of us crammed into a Ford Territory surrounded by suitcases and luggage! Having spent time at Bondi Beach (and getting stung by Jellyfish), visiting the Blue Mountains, Manly, Taronga Zoo, and then coming home along the NSW/Vic Coastline was a great experience. It certainly highlighted just what a great country we live in and the access we have to some truly amazing places. 

On Tuesday of this week, all of our staff returned where the scene was set for the year ahead. As a staff, we were able to identify that although we have work to do on our journey towards continual school improvement, we have much to celebrate which is always worth spending time reflecting on. 

One of the biggest ticket items for our school this year is that we will be undertaking our 4-year school review in term 2. An independent evaluator from DET, along with regional office staff, local school principals, and of course opportunities to engage with and from our students, staff, and families, will all help to set our school's strategic direction for the next 4 years! The review process is always intense however offers fantastic opportunities for us to reflect on where we've been, what we have been doing, and what we will do for our students and their learning and growth. 

I would like to thank those families who over the break took time out to look out for our school. Thankfully we were not targeted and received almost zero damages and or issues over the break which is great, and a relief! 

Finally, there are a few items that I'll quickly and importantly address for the year ahead. 

Student Attendance.

• Being at school is critical for your child’s learning and their mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Every day of attending school counts.
• You and your child are important to our school’s community, and we are looking forward to welcoming your child back to school from the start of Term 1.
• As a school, we want to support all of our students to have a positive start to the year. We will do this by:
  • helping your child to re-establish positive school attendance routines. 
  • working with you concerning your child’s well-being and learning needs.
  • ensuring we understand where your child is up to with their learning and social-emotional development, where required providing targeted support to help them progress.

We want our students here every day, on time, and ready to learn, and are willing and wanting to work with our families where needed to ensure this happens as best possible. 

Hats / Uniform

• You may recall that in 2024 we undertook a uniform review and from that we have some new and exciting items coming our way.  
• The expectation, as is also outlined in our policy, is that our students are coming to school in full school uniform each and every day. Our school uniform plays a large part in students developing a connectedness to our school and variations of our uniform are simply not permitted. 
• Students who need to attend school out of uniform, for whatever reason, are expected to provide that reason to their child's teacher. 
• Students repeatedly out of uniform for no reason will be sent home with please explain slips for parents/caregivers to sign. 

Nude Food / Sustainable Lunchbox Practices

• This year we are wanting to really increase our focus on our sustainable practices and for that to happen successfully, we need your support. 
• Packing lunchboxes can absolutely be a burden and as a father of 4, it is easy to throw packaged items into their lunchboxes quickly and easily! What we are asking from our families is simply to be mindful when packing lunchboxes about the amount of waste going in there. 

2025 BYOD iPad Program

• Mr. O will shortly be sending out information regarding our iPad program in years 3-6 as well as information relating to our new iPad management software - JAMF School. For those who this impacts, please take the time to read the information when it is released.  

That was a lot of information for a "finally" sentence! 

Thank you for taking the time to read this, have a great weekend, and here is to a magnificent year for every one of our students for 2025! 

Thank you! 

Principal

Newtown Primary School