ABC Gardening Australia

Last week, Gardening Australia visited Athol Road Primary School to film a feature on our Environmental Education Program. The producer, host and crew were extremely impressed and blown away by the breadth of our learning spaces: our thriving vegetable garden, the farm animals and environmental room, the beehive, wetlands, desert garden and our wonderful nature playground. We are incredibly proud of these facilities and of the high quality program delivered by Mr Hunter. Photos from the filming day are now available on our Facebook page—please take a moment to like and comment on the post.

Gardening Australia will advise us when the story is scheduled to air in 2026, and we will keep our community updated!

School Concert

This year our whole school (K-6) concert theme is 'Back to the 80s' and will be held on Friday 12th December in our school hall from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased via trybooking.com - please follow the BOOK NOW link here or below for access. Tickets will not be available for purchase at the office. Due to capacity restrictions, there are a limited number of tickets available. To ensure every child has at least one member of the family in the audience, ticket purchases will be limited to a maximum of 2 tickets per family. Any tickets purchased over the maximum limit will be cancelled. Additional tickets may be made available depending on capacity. This will be communicated at a later date.

Tickets available here BOOK NOW

Swimming

The 2025 Swimming Program at Kingswim in Dingley is progressing smoothly, and our students are thoroughly enjoying their lessons. Thank you for your ongoing support and for ensuring your child arrives prepared each day with all required items: bathers, towel, swimming cap and goggles. A reminder that parents entering the venue must hold a current WWCC, and that photography or video recording is not permitted. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining our child-safe practices.

Student Voice Council Raffle

Please remember to return your raffle ticket stubs along with the $10 in the envelope provided by Friday 5th December. The raffle will be drawn at our school concert on Friday 12th December. Thank you to all families for supporting this fundraiser, and a special thank you to those who collected extra booklets—your enthusiasm and generosity are truly appreciated!

Upcoming Events

As we wrap up November and move into a very busy December, we have several important events on the horizon: the Year 4 Doxa Camp, Whole School and Statewide Transition Day, Year 6 Graduation dinner and ceremony, the Year 6 special day at Luna Park, and our Whole School End of Year Reward Day. Please continue to check Sentral for notices, consent forms and updates to ensure your child doesn’t miss out on any of the wonderful experiences planned for the remainder of 2025.

New National Social Media Law

From 10th December 2025, new Australian rules will require social media companies to prevent children under 16 from having accounts on many popular platforms (such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube).

Social media age restrictions | eSafety Commissioner.

This is not a ban, it’s a delay, giving young people extra time to grow, develop digital awareness and emotional resilience before joining social media.

Social media age restrictions and your family| eSafety Commissioner

As parents, you can use this period to talk with your child about online safety, healthy screen habits and how to seek support if something upsetting pops up online. You might also encourage alternative ways to stay connected, for example through safe messaging apps or offline activities. See page 10 of the newsletter for information from Inform & Empower.

Carmel Nigro

Principal

Big Summer Read