Principal's News

Welcome Back!

It has been such a thrill to welcome back our students, staff and school community for the start of the 2026 school year. It has been a settled start in and out of the classroom and the highlight of the start of a school year is always meeting our new Foundation (Prep) students on their first day.

Teachers and students are well into our Start Right program, setting up classrooms and establishing routines and expectations. Please feel free to make contact with your child's teacher if you have any extra information that they might need to know or if you have any concerns, early communication is key for success.

Student Attendance

Regular attendance at school is very important for your child's learning and social development. Very good attendance for a child is 95% and above.

It is important that children are at school as much as possible to ensure the BEST opportunity for learning growth. We need to utilise every available minute to ensure student growth academically, socially and emotionally, in and out of the classroom. 

If early collection for a shopping trip or to beat the traffic happens on a regular basis this can take away from valuable learning time throughout their schooling life. 

Please take the time to read the graphic below and to understand the long term affect this can have on student development. We understand that students are impacted by illness, injury or other ailments. 

If your child is going to be absent you are required by legislation to notify the school by:

• Logging onto Sentral and
• Enter the absence for full days only 
• If your child/children arrive late or are being collected early, the office staff will enter this onto Sentral for you.

Annual Privacy Reminder for our school community

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ privacy policy and the Schools’ privacy collection notice.

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students policy (linked below), describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn. 

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Microsoft 365/Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ privacy policy: information for parents. 

School Council 2025/2026 Meeting

Our first school council meeting  for 2026 will take place on Tuesday 17th February in week 4. This will be our final full meeting with our current 2025 school council group. 

Nominations for the 2026/2027 will be communicated in the coming weeks via our newsletter and elections will take place if required.

Before and After School Supervision

Student safety at Drysdale PS is our highest priority and the safe and appropriate supervision of students is an important element of our duty of care to students. Part of this duty is ensuring parents and students are aware of our student supervision arrangements before and after school. 

Before school: School grounds are supervised from 8:50am on either side (Clifton springs Rd and Stonehouse Place), as well as on the basketball court/playground area. Students should not arrive at school before 8:30am. 

After school: School grounds are supervised until 3:40pm on either side (Clifton springs Rd and Stonehouse Place), as well as on the basketball court/playground area. Students on school grounds outside these times will not be supervised (unless they are attending a before or after school care program or supervised extracurricular activity). 

Parents/carers are requested to ensure that students do not attend school outside of these supervised times unless they are attending before or after school care, or a pre-arranged supervised activity (i.e. sports practice). 

Families are encouraged to contact Their Care for more information about the before and after school care facilities available to our school community or if you would like any further information about our student supervision arrangements.

For a copy of our school’s Yard Duty and Supervision Policy please follow the link