Hamilton (Gray St) Primary School Newsletter
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Principal's Message

End of Year Message to Families

As we come to the end of another wonderful year, I would like to take a moment to sincerely thank the staff, parents, and wider Gray Street community for their continued support, partnership, and trust. It has truly been a year filled with many great events, special moments, and meaningful progress in our school improvement journey. Particular areas of growth have been our work in inclusive practices, disability inclusion, and student wellbeing, while maintaining our strong commitment to high-quality teaching and learning. We are very proud of all that has been accomplished this year and excited about the progress we have seen across our school. As the holiday season approaches, we wish you and your families a safe, happy, and restful break. May this time be filled with joy, relaxation, and special moments together. Thank you once again for a fantastic year. We look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2026 and continuing to learn and grow together.

 

New Staff

 

We would like to share a staffing update with our school community. As Mr Watt increases his classroom teaching role, his Physical Education allocation  will be reduced to two days per week. To support this change, we are pleased to be able to add a new Physical Education teacher to our team. We are excited to announce that Stacey Stewart has been appointed to this role. Stacey is a familiar face in our school, working regularly as a CRT, and is also a valued parent within our community. She brings great enthusiasm, experience, and skill to the role, and will be working with our Grade 3/4 classes each Wednesday.

 

Please join us in welcoming Stacey to her new role.

 

2026 Student Leadership Positions

 

As 2025 draws to a close, we acknowledge our current Grade 6 leaders for the wonderful job they have done throughout the year. We wish them every success next year as they begin their secondary school journey. Collectively, they have helped bring our community together and supported our school to operate successfully. We are proud of all you have achieved. Our focus now begins to shift to 2026 and our new student leaders. While our current Grade 6s have set a very high standard, there is also a strong calibre of leadership within our newly elected leaders that includes the following appointments: 

 

School Captains – Olivia Schulz and Harvey Bennett

Student Voice Captains – Will Iredell, Sophie Stewart and Ruby Rankin 

 

House Captains – 

  • Wannon: Shayla Francis-Evans, Georgia Lewis and Aiden Smith 
  • Nigretta: Hamish White, Ella Nepean and Charlotte Alexander 
  • Glenelg – Will Meikle, Layla Kearney and Arcadia Kahukura Apuwai
  • Grange – Harper Brian, Jobe Lewis and Lincoln Gerring

 

  • Art Captains – Ruby Elder and Grace Harris
  • Music Captains – Selina Perera and Emme Keen
  • STEM/ICT Captains – Harry Perkins and Thomas Yates 

  • Environment Captains – Emma Sanders and Zavier Heath 

     

The following students have also been selected as School Monitors to carry out several important roles specific to our day-to-day operations:

 

  • Bell  – Emmerson-Rose Higgins and Ayyan Ibrahim
  • Facilities  - Louis Crane, Luca Holmes-Davison, Gus Simson 
  • Library – Lucy Johnson and Heidi Milligan 
  • Pets – Taige Field and Jordan O’Sullivan 
  • Operations – Hunter Blacklidge, Indy Daly, Bentley Sutherland, and Ariana Wood
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Semper Sursum Awards

 

Each year, our classroom teachers select two students from their grade to receive a Semper Sursum Award. These awards recognise students who consistently demonstrate an “always upward, always our best” attitude in their academic work, their level of endeavour, and their citizenship within their classroom community.

 

Our 2025 Recipients: 

 

•Prep A (Mrs Riddle and Mrs Murray) – Jagger Brewer and Harvey Roberston 

•Prep B (Mrs Hawthorne) – Harriet Bradbury and Hailee Evans 

•1/2A (Mrs Clark and Mrs Dickson) – Polly Broad (Grade1) and Victoria Osmond (Grade 2)

•1/2B (Mrs Beaton and Mr Watt) – Heidi Connelly (Grade 1) and Lila Thomas (Grade 2) 

•1/2C (Mrs Smith) – Frankie Riddle (Grade 1) and Rosie Tcheng (Grade 2)

•1/2D (Mrs McCulloch) -  Madison Douglass (Grade 1) and Amy Johnson (Grade 2) 

•3/4A (Mrs Smith and Mrs Murray) – Lachlan Howe (Grade 3) and Matilda Brown (Grade  4)

•3/4B (Mrs Harms) – River Doheny (Grade 3) and Oscar Phan (Grade 4) 

•3/4C (Miss Callaway) – Scarlett Wade (Grade 3) and Archie Sewart (Grade 4) 

•3/4D (Miss Hannah) – Leila Muhktar (Grade 3) and Thea Hibberd (Grade 4)

•5/6A (Mr Stephens and Mrs McGinley) – Olivia Schulz (Grade 5)

•5/6B (Mrs Brabham) – Ruby Elder (Grade 5) 

•5/6C (Miss Paton) – Will Meikle (Grade 5)

 

School Dux

The Dux award is awarded to a male and female recipient based on their consistently high academic results throughout the year. This year our Dux recipients were:

  • Sophie McAdam 

  • Lucas Trimnell 

     

Daniel Hodgson Award

The Daniel Hodgson award was introduced in 1982 in memory of a former student who died in tragic circumstances. It is a highly prestigious award and is also announced at the Grade 6 Graduation.  The Award is open to any Grade 6 child and is awarded for “citizenship”. This is an independent staff voted award and was this year presented to:

 

  • Connor Crawford

 

Start of Year 2026 

 

As we begin the new school year, students in Years 1 to 5 will take part in some initial assessments on Wednesday 28 January and Thursday 29 January.

 

Our Prep students and Year 6 students will attend school for a full day on Thursday 29 January.

 

All students will attend school on Friday 30 January 2026 as we start the year together.  We are looking forward to having everyone back at school.