It’s hard to believe we have reached the end of term one and our preps have completed the first term of their school life. They have settled into school with relative ease.

Our Grade 6 students are at the other end of their journey, in their final year of primary school. They have had a very busy term spending a week in Canberra where they experienced various activities. I had the pleasure of going with them and they were a fantastic group to take away.

At the beginning of next term, we will be sending out the secondary school transition forms. This brings with it the realisation that their time at primary school is nearing the end.

Pupil Free Day

Monday April 15th is a Pupil Free Day, so students will not attend school on this day.

The staff will be involved in Professional Learning related to Disability and Inclusion, and Wellbeing. We have two external providers who will be presenting, Silvana Izzo who is an Occupational Therapist and Sam Korsch from the Resilience Project.

School Council

Last Monday night we had the first meeting of our new School Council. This year we welcomed two new members, Felicity Blake and Beena Iyer-Logan.

I would like to thank our retiring members, Sarah Kitchen and Bev Taylor. Sarah has been a parent member on School Council for four years and Bev has been a staff member for the past two years. Both Sarah and Bev have been very supportive and valued members of the School Council.

The first task for the new council was to elect office bearers. Congratulations to:

President - Allison Harvey

Vice President - Anthony Stanley

Finance Sub-Committee - Aaron Hawke and Beena Iyer-Logan

Community Engagement & Sustainability Sub-Committee - Nadia Mecoli, Bec Grey and Anna Graham

The Community Engagement & Sustainability subcommittee will focus on organising events for the school including fundraising events and other social opportunities for families to connect.

We have already booked the date, Friday July 19th, for our Annual Comedy Night. We have not locked in the comedians at this stage however we are sure we will have some very entertaining acts. Tickets will go on sale next term. The subcommittee are also looking to run an outdoor movie night during Term 2 and a Trivia Night early in Term 4.

They will also be investigating different strategies to further embed sustainable practices throughout the school. The convener of the subcommittee is Nadia. If you are interested in joining the Community Engagement and Sustainability sub-committee or have some good ideas, you can email Nadia at nadiamecoli@gmail.com

Lunch Orders

School Council agreed last year to trial Classroom Cuisine for Term 1 of this year. Ali Harvey has sought feedback regarding the current lunch order company, however as she was not able to attend the meeting on Monday night, so we did not discuss it. We will continue to run the program during Term 2.

If you did have any feedback on the program please forward it to the school email preston.ps@education.vic.gov.au or directly to Ali at harvey.ali@gmail.com

Ride to School Day

Friday’s Ride to School Day was an overwhelming success. We had a huge number of students who rode their bikes and scooters to school. Our aim is to continue to encourage students to walk or wheel to school as often as possible. This will reduce the number of cars we have around the school in the morning and afternoon.

As of next term we are dedicating every Tuesday to walking or wheeling to school. Tuesday will become WOW Day. Every child who either walks or wheels (scooter or bike) to school will receive a token for their grade. The grade with the most tokens at the end of the term will receive the golden Boot Award.

Don’t forget if your child rides their bike or scooter to school, they MUST wear a helmet.

Sport

Congratulations to the students who competed in various summer sport finals last Friday. Congratulations also to the children who competed in the Regional Swimming competition over the past few weeks.

All of the children did an outstanding job of representing the school.

Dress Up Day

Huge thanks to all the families who supported the Junior School Councils fundraising event last week. We raised $986.30 which has been donated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

Holidays

As always, as the term draws to an end, the children are starting to get tired. The two-week break is a good opportunity for them to relax and recuperate ready for next term.

Tomorrow is the last day of Term 1 and school will finish at 2.30pm.

Parents, please ensure you are not late to pick up your child as some children become quite upset if their parents are not here to pick them up on time.

I hope all families have a safe and enjoyable holiday and we will see you back at school ready for the start of Term 2 on Tuesday April 16th at 9.00am.

Regards

Janet Paterson

Principal

2024 Term Dates
Term 1	29 January (students start 30 January) to Thursday 28 March

Term 2	15 April to 28 June
	Monday 15 April is a PUPIL FREE DAY
	Friday 07 June is a PUPIL FREE DAY

Term 3	15 July to 20 September
	Monday 19 August is a PUPIL FREE DAY

Term 4	7 October to 20 December
	Friday 22 November is a PUPIL FREE DAY
	Friday 13 December is a PUPIL FREE DAY

2024 Term Dates and Pupil Free Days