Principal's News

Dear Clayton North Primary School Community

We are two weeks away from the end of Term 2, six months into the year! 

The school continues to be a busy place with a variety of engaging learning and wellbeing activities occurring right across the school! 

The Suburban Rail Loop visited this week to run a workshop with 22 of our Year 2 children relating to the underground railway project. Students were excited to create a model train from a cardboard cutout, and even more excited to have a go at sitting in the driver's seat of a mini excavator! Despite the cold, they patiently waited for their turn to get their hands on the various handles and levers of the machine, some having to stretch to reach the pedals! 

The main purpose of the SRL visit was to obtain our students' preference for a name for one of the four Tunnel Boring Machines that will be used in the project. Presented with three options, children selected 'Belinda', which did not come as a surprise, as many of them would have had Belinda as their teacher last year or in 2024!

School Attendance

I regularly reinforce the importance of school attendance as a precursor to children's future success, be it at high school, university, or the world of work. Missing school can have a major impact on a child’s future – a student missing one day a fortnight will miss four full weeks by the end of the year. By Year 10, they will have missed more than a year of school. There is no safe number of days for missing school – each day a student misses puts them behind and can affect their educational outcomes. From an early age, if children are taught that they need to ‘show up’ for school and make a commitment, this positive mentality aids academic and career success and benefits in adulthood. 

Our most recent data, monitored by the department of education, shows about 20% of students having had more than 8 days absences in 2025. Chronic absenteeism is deemed to be 7.5+ days. I cannot emphasise enough how vital it is for children to attend school all day, every day, and on time. Please avoid allowing your children to have ‘casual days’ off from school. 

Semester 1 Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews 

Your child’s Semester 1 report will be available in Compass on Monday June 30. 

Parent-Teacher Interviews will be offered on Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st July. These interviews provide an important opportunity for you to discuss your child’s progress and to build communication between parents and the school. The Compass booking portal will open at 4pm on Wednesday 2nd July. Please note that Compass online bookings are preferred. If you require assistance with logins and passwords, please contact the school.

Semester 1 Awards

Teachers are finalising their nominations for the Principal's Awards, which will be presented at the final assembly on Friday 4th July. Attendance and Punctuality awards will also take a prominent portion of the assembly. All parents and families are invited to attend at 1.30pm. Students will be dismissed at 2.30pm.

School Uniform

It is great to see the majority of children in the required school uniform. We are however seeing a range of non-uniform (without the CNPS school logo) bottle green jackets and hoodies that students are wearing to combat the cold weather. I want to remind families that this is in breach of the school Uniform Policy: 

Winter uniform options include the windcheater and jacket. The polar fleece jacket will be available mid next term as an optional extra layer. Thank you for supporting Clayton North's Uniform Policy, and ensuring that your children are proudly displaying our school brand.

You can use your School Saver Bonus funds towards purchasing school uniform through PSW until next Monday, 30th June. After this date, any remaining SSB funds, including online voucher amounts that have not been redeemed, will become a credit to use for school activities. Credit will not be available on your family account at our school until late July. Please note that remaining funds DO NOT get credited to your personal bank account.

Sue Simadri