Some words from the Principal

Dear Karoo PS Community, 

Welcome to Term 4! We have an exciting term ahead, with many special and community events, which we look forward to sharing with you.

Term 4 Calendar of Events

Buildings and Grounds Updates

Over the holidays, our wonderful school continued to undergo buildings and grounds improvements. The Library, Music Room, and Rooms 1–10 have all been freshly painted and revitalized. You will also notice new signage at the gates and around the school. We look forward to continuing to enhance our facilities to further support an inspiring and engaging learning environment for our students.

Staffing Update

It gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome four new Educational Support Staff to our Karoo PS community.  

• Emma Beckwith
• Emily Ginesi
• Mia Richardson
• Amber Moore 

Emma, Emily, Mia and Amber have all been working at Karoo PS over the past year and look forward to joining our community and continuing to support our students.

Classes for 2026

The construction of new classes for any year is a dynamic and strategic process, which ensures that children are thought of both individually and collectively. When we are working to organise class groups many factors are taken into account including academic ability, individual needs, gender, student relationships, social and emotional traits, behaviour, working relationships, influences (the influence a child has on others, how others influence them) and previous class placements/teachers etc. All these elements are considered in building the new “learning community”, as we make decisions about what is in the best educational and learning interests for students.  At all times we make decisions that support the learning environment for your child, based on our expertise as educators.

As students at Karoo PS progress from Foundation to Year 6, it is expected they will learn to work and relate to a range of teachers and students. As with all school decisions, the aim is to offer the best possible learning experience for all our students. 

In 2026, the composition for classes in our school will be:

Foundation – 3 classes

Year 1 – 3 classes

Year 2– 3 classes

Year 3 – 2 classes

Year 4 - 2 class

Year 5 – 3 classes

Year 6 – 3 classes

Student and Parent requests

Students are supported at our school to reflect on their personal growth over the past year and will work with their teacher to confidentially nominate learning partners that they feel they work best with in the classroom environment for the subsequent year.  Teachers spend time reviewing a social story to support students to identify their best learning partners.  This is also done as a whole cohort, so that students can consider all students in the year level, not just their current class.  When developing new classes for 2026, student feedback on their effective learning partners is an essential element and how students are able to request key students in their following years class.

For parents thinking of making a request for their child's class in 2026, it is important to consider if your request is supportive of the best learning environment for your child, as well as their growth in expanding their friendships. 

Requests do not include names of requested teachers (to have or not to have). Instead, these requests need to articulate the learning environment in which best supports the learning for your child and the type of teacher which supports this classroom culture (eg: warm and nurturing, firm and fair etc). Names of specific teacher requests will not be taken into consideration when formulating student classroom placements for 2026.

Please also note a new request needs to be submitted for each schooling year. Previous requests will not be taken into consideration for 2026 as each year situations change and students develop. 

Parent requests must be returned to the office by Friday 31st November for consideration. Any submissions after this date, unfortunately cannot be taken into account in our grade formulations for 2026.      

All requests need to be emailed to:  karoo.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

Term 4 Pupil Free Day

Our last Pupil free day for 2025 is to be held on Friday 21st November. As per previous pupil free days, no children are required onsite. OSHC will be running a program for students who are booked in.

I look forward to seeing you around our sensational school!

Warm Regards, 

Courtney Hoffmann

Principal