Principal's message

Dear Parents, Carers and Students, 

Thank you for taking an interest in our college and reading about what happens at our school.  The support and involvement of our parents and carers is truly valued and reinforces our college value of Community.  The following clearly demonstrates the various ways we value community.

One Hundred Days

Thursday 1 August saw our Prep students attend their one hundredth day of school.  It was brilliant to see our youngest students enjoy this special day.  They dressed up as though they were 100 years old.  They paraded their outfits and sang the ‘100’ song, all while in the presence of family and friends. Later a morning tea was had and then in the afternoon, they all enjoyed a picnic. 

Within these first one hundred days, we have seen our students grow so much with their learning and how they work with others. A terrific day was had by all. Congratulations preppies!

Community

This term, we welcome Mr Isaac Oogjes to our school. Mr Oogjes has picked up some Year 9 and 10 Science classes.  Some of our students will be familiar with Mr Oogjes from when he completed his pre-service teacher placement with us during Term 2.  He enjoyed our school so much; he was keen to return at the first opportunity possible.  Welcome Mr Oogjes. 

We had some of our Year 6 students recently visit the residents at the Sheridan Nursing Home where they socialised with the residents, getting to know them as they made beautiful friendship bracelets. Community is one of our college values and our students were clearly demonstrating this during their visit.  It’s important for our students to be given the opportunity to connect with others in the community and to give back where they can. 

We will have more students visit Sheridan each fortnight this term.  Our students have been so keen to visit. They are taking it in turns to attend so that no one misses out!

International Friendship Day 

Tuesday 30 July, marked as International Friendship Day, saw our Year 12 students make friendship bands for our Prep students.  I believe our Year 12 students enjoyed making the bands and sharing them with the Prep students. 

Little Learners Love Literacy

Last week, I attended the Government Schools Principals Conference at the Melbourne Convention Centre.  It was a great day to learn about new initiatives and direction all schools are to head.  Similarly, in the latter stages of last year, when it was announced that the teaching of phonics in our younger year levels will be a focus for 2024, I was proud to know that our Prep-Year 2 team were already ahead of the game!  This team of teachers had done the research and participated in professional learning, ready to deliver an evidence-based approach to learning to read from day one of this year. 

Little Learners Love Literacy resources were purchased and with the assistance of our community volunteers, many books were contacted and rolled out this year.  This new program has seen our students enthusiastically learning new sounds each week. 

To compliment this program, Prep Teacher Mrs Kayla Coombs, recently applied for a grant from Variety and was successful in gaining $2000!  Well done, Kayla!  This will go towards more decodable readers for our little learners.  A wonderful effort and terrific resource for our students.

P-12 Athletics Day

On Tuesday 6 August, we saw students from Prep through to Year 12 participate in our 

P-12 Athletics Day.  It was a fabulous day, and all students participated with great enthusiasm wearing their house colours. So much work had gone into the planning and preparation of the day. Thank you to our Sports Team for your hard work. 

It was fantastic to see our students supporting each other in their houses across the year levels throughout the day.  We had so many events that were spread across both the primary and secondary ovals. 

I would like to thank all the volunteers who assisted on the day. 

Subject Selections for 2025

To date, we have seen our current Year 9, 10 and 11 students participate in course counselling days where they explored their interests and discussed their possible future pathways.  They have selected their preferences for subjects for 2025.  Our current Year 8 students have also submitted their preferences as well. Once all selections are entered into the system, we will commence the development of the 2025 timetable. 

Subjects running will be dependent on how many students select each subject.  We will look to maximise student preferences by exploring different combinations of subjects in each block at the senior year levels.

The plan is to provide subject information to families by the end of this term in preparation of placing orders for resources with Campion book supplies.  Further information will be provided to families later this term. 

Representing Kyabram P-12 College

How does one show they are proud to be a student at Kyabram P-12 College?  A clear indication is by the way they present themselves.  Students wearing our college uniform correctly and in full demonstrates they want to be part of our community. 

Over the coming weeks, we will be checking our students’ uniforms.  We will continue to offer support to our students and their families for anyone who does not have a complete uniform.  I would like to remind our students to please ensure they wear their uniform correctly. Be proud to be a Kyabram P-12 College student.

We want to hear from our parents and carers

As a strong partner in our community, we always want to hear from our families.  

There are several ways for parents and carers to have their say.  This term will be no different.  

As we continue to implement our School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) framework into our school, we gathered feedback from parents/ carers, students and staff on our Behaviour Matrix which directly links to our college values.  We have also implemented our Rewards and Acknowledgement system through the College Values awards and the SWPBS Shop.  This is seeing many students be acknowledged for their positive behaviour.  The next stage of the SWPBS implementation is to gather feedback from families and staff about undesirable behaviours.  We ask parents and carers to please take a moment to tell us what they believe is a minor and a major undesirable behaviour.  Our students will also be asked to do this during their upcoming Connections lessons.  If you would like to give us your thoughts, please complete the survey by clicking on this link: Minor and Major Undesirable Behaviours.

Another very important way that we want to hear how parents and carers are feeling about our school is to do so by completing the Parent/ Caregiver/ Guardian Opinion Survey.  Earlier this term, I emailed all families inviting them to participate in this year’s survey. It is a survey that is conducted each year.  It is an opportunity for parents and carers to have their say about our school.  The survey will be open until Friday 30 August.  It is anonymous and voluntary.  I encourage all parents and carers to participate.  

This is a big year for Kyabram P-12 College.  Every four years, schools complete a whole school review.  This will happen for Kyabram P-12 College in early Term 4.  Parents and carers will have the opportunity to participate in a Parents/ Carers College Review Workshop later this term in preparation for our review.  This workshop is scheduled for Thursday 5 September from 5:00 pm until 6:00 pm.  We will be reflecting on the past four years to identify our major highlights.  If you would like to participate, please contact the college, and let us know.

On behalf of the college, thank you for your ongoing support and participation with the college. 

Marina Walsh

Principal