Principal's Desk

Open Night - Monday 27 May

This year Victoria will celebrate Education Week from Monday, 13 May to Friday, 17 May. As we are currently in the middle of our camping program, with our Year 5 students away early next week, Park Ridge is holding our Education Week Open Night on Monday 27 of May.

Please join us in this year’s theme, Spotlight on STEM, highlights the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in our everyday lives, in the classroom and beyond. We will be holding a sausage sizzle outside the Library. There will be sausages in bread and drinks available to purchase. Also, our EarlyAct student team will be holding a bake sale, raising money for The Make a Wish Foundation and Back Packs 4 Vic Kids.

Classrooms will be open from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, with a fun family activity trail in the  classrooms and specialist areas across the school. More information will be shared next week of the activities in each of the learning areas.

We hope to see you there!

2024 Attitude to School Survey

Over the next few weeks, students in Years 4, 5 and 6 will participate in the 2024 Attitude to School Survey. As in previous years, students will complete the 20-minute survey online during school hours using a purpose built secure online survey tool. The confidentiality of your child’s responses is protected at all times. 

It is important to note that we are not in any way ‘testing’ the students. We value student voice as a means to improving student engagement, wellbeing and quality instruction and are conducting the survey to find out what your child thinks of our school. 

The Attitudes to School Survey is an annual student survey offered by the Department of Education and Training to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students' perceptions and experience of school. We will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child's schooling experience.

The survey results will be reported back to the school at the end of Term 2. All survey data that is made available in reports are for groups of students only so that no individual student can be identified.

Choosing a School for Next Year / 2025 Foundation Enrolments

At this time of the year many people are thinking about choosing a school for next year. This may be parents of children in Year 6 who are deciding on secondary schools or parents of pre-schoolers who are looking for a primary school. 

Choosing the school that is best suited to your family and child’s needs can still be a challenge. The best way to determine the right school for you is to visit them, participate in the school tours and take advantage of the open days/nights and various transition events that the schools offer. 

This approach works equally well for primary and secondary schools.

We are now accepting enrolments for Foundation in 2025. We encourage prospective parents and carers to complete an online tour via the school website where you can learn about our wonderful school and meet our staff and students. Prospective families can also attend an in-person tour where we can show you our school and answer any questions you might have or discuss your child’s individual needs.

Mrs Chalmers, Mr Garvey and I have been busily providing personalised school tours for interested families, looking to enrol their child at Park Ridge in 2025. Prospective families can book a school tour through our website: https://parkridge-ps.vic.edu.au/ or through the office on 9752 8555.

With a new state-wide enrolment timeline this year, we will be accepting enrolments for Foundation for 2025, and any other year level, from the beginning of this term. Further information about choosing a school and enrolling your child is available at https://www.vic.gov.au/how-choose-school-and-enrol Enrolment information is now available at the office.

If you know of anyone who is looking at a Primary School for next year, please encourage them to visit our website and register for the online tour where they will hear teachers, parents and students talk about our school. They are also encouraged to come and visit Park Ridge and see our school ‘in action’ where they will get a sense of the great relationships that exist here. We love showing people around and talking about our school.

Meaningful May

As we are in the month of May, let’s pause and give some thought to supporting the wellbeing of children and young people as this is an important part of what students, families and our school does each and every day since. It is especially important to ensure that children and young people’s wellbeing is looked after in times of uncertainty and stress. Supporting wellbeing not only helps children and young people to feel happier and less anxious, it will also help them to have positive interactions with the rest of the family and to learn more effectively. Have a look at the calendar below and see how many of these thoughts/activities we can achieve over the month of May.

I hope that all the mums and special people in our Park Ridge community have a wonderful Mother's Day. The school was a buzz this afternoon with so many mums and special people coming to share a special moment with their families. I know I am looking forward to spending Mother's Day with my mum this weekend by taking her out to lunch and buying her something special - you are never too old to spoil your mum!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with either Carrie, Brendan or I, should you wish to discuss anything. 

Take care,

Mr. Dale Blythman