Principal's Blog

Good Afternoon Parents Students, Staff and Friends of Derinya,  

The students continue to settle in beautifully. A big thank you to all our teachers for creating such warm and inviting classrooms for the children, getting the year off to a great start. There is a true tone of friendship and kindness throughout the school and it is lovely to see how well students are doing.  

Supporting students social and emotional learning.  

Throughout 2023, staff engaged in the Berry Street Education Model training. We worked together on our first day back to learn more about this and have now implemented morning circles, announcements and positive primers in to our daily routines. This sets up the day in a positive way enhancing learning, relationships and connection. Mr Stevens and Mrs Trevaskis lead our work in this area and will be sharing more information with you shortly.  

Restorative practices are a well-researched, evidence based approach to supporting children to engage in conversation when a disagreement or an incident has occurred. As a staff we are committed to facilitating these conversations to support the development of happy healthy relationships.  

Federal Education Minister Visit  

On our very first day back, we had a visit from Federal Education Minister the Hon, Jason Clare and his team creating some extra excitement. 4EC featured on channel 9 engaging in their morning circle.  

School Council Elections 

Each year the school embarks upon the process of establishing a core group of parents and department representatives to form our School Council. This formal process commences on Monday with a ‘Call for Nominations’. School Councils directly influence the quality of education that the school provides for its students. Parents viewpoints and valuable skills can help shape the direction of the school maintaining high performance, success, safety and most importantly a positive culture. Please find attached information about being a school council member. Please note the following timeline below. 

Call for nominations – Monday 12th February  

Closing date for nominations – Monday 19th February  

List of candidates and nominations will be displayed – Wednesday 21st February  

Ballot papers will be prepared and distributed if required – Monday 26th February  

Close of ballot – Tuesday 5th March   

Vote count – Wednesday 6th March  

Declaration of ballot – Thursday 7th March  

First council meeting – Monday 25th March  

Please note that School Council meetings are held approximately once per month on a Monday evening at 6pm at school.  

Colour Run  

This morning at assembly we launched this year’s Colour Run which will be held on Friday 1st March. For preps we will do the run with their year 5 buddies here at school. Years 1-6 will head up to Overport Park to do the run and play some games. You will receive information about creating a profile this afternoon. We are grateful for any funds raised. This year we are hoping to purchase beautiful new furnishings for our library which has been reestablished in the old 6 space. Next Friday the class with the most profiles set up will receive a special treat. If we reach our $60000 fundraising target, there is a big bucket of slime waiting for me!  

All families are welcome to attend on the day, join in the fun and enjoy a coffee from the coffee cart.  

Connecting Your Class 

Many thanks to all families who came along to our information sessions this week. It was great to see so many of you. If you were not able to attend we will ensure that the presentations are shared with you.  

Illness and attendance  

Regular attendance at school is incredibly important. In saying this, if your child is unwell, we do appreciate you keeping them home particularly if they are contagious or present with a fever. In line with department guidelines, children who have vomited should not attend school until 48 hours after passed. Please be mindful that we do have some students with compromised immunity in various year levels and we need to be diligent in keeping them safe and well.  

If your child is absent please ensure that you mark on Xuno the reason for absence in both am and pm locations. The school absence line can also be utilised if you are experiencing technical difficulties.   

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend, 

Nadine Pye on behalf of the Derinya Team