Acting Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

After consultation with our Junior School Council, Building and Grounds subcommittee and staff, I’m pleased to announce that the School Council has approved the installation of our new playground which will be coming in March 2025! The playground will have many new elements plus some of the same elements that we currently have (some of the student favourites!).  Unfortunately, the student wish list of a jumping castle, swimming pool, and extensive slide could not be accommodated! 

We greatly appreciate all the hours of volunteering and fundraising that have allowed this project to go ahead plus contributions made to the school from families. Without these contributions, the realisation of this project would not have been possible. Thank-you!

At the same time, that the school will renew the play equipment, the existing shade sails will be replaced creating an updated and vibrant new area for our students to play. Again a big thanks. 

Images of the new playground plans will be available, to view, in office, in the coming weeks.

The celebration of the amazing jobs teachers do every day

Australia including our school community, celebrated the teaching profession with World Teachers’ Day last Friday. We thank the parents who supplied the staff with the delicious morning tea. It was greatly appreciated by all!

New staff

We recently welcomed Renae Wallis (Psychologist), to the allied health professional team. Renae will be in attendance one day a week and will work with our staff in supporting students in need, as well as supporting our whole school, small group, and individual school programs. We now have a full complement of allied health: psychologist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist!

What an amazing camp!

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Year 5 camp at Lord Somers in Somers, on the southern side of the Mornington Peninsula. The students took on many personal and team challenges with highlights including kayaking, raft building (yes, some of them did float!), bush walking, beach Olympics, initiative activities, screen printing and designing a t-shirt, to name a few of the activities. 

I was extremely proud of our students who displayed resilience, bravery, courage, team spirit, collaboration, as they found themselves out of their comfort zone and trying new experiences. At all times the students displayed our school values to a very high level.   

Thank-you to the teachers: Ms. Paslis, Mr. Fletcher, Ms Martelli, Ms Katie Smith, Mr. Yardney, and Education support staff, Bethany, for their amazing organisation and enthusiasm for making this such a memorable camp experience.

Camping program Term 4 

Over the next two months, we have several more exciting camps planned and we know for many this will be their first camping experience. Some students will be so excited they can’t wait, and others will be quite anxious about going away for two nights. Many, many students express that camps are one of the best experiences of the school year, so we hope all children will participate. 

All our camps are reasonably local with Camp Rumbug being the furthest away (2-hour drive). If your child is anxious, here are the dates to prepare them: 

• Year 4 Camp Rumbug – Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th December 
• Year 3 Portsea Camp - Wed 27th to Friday 29th November 

Anxiety, particularly about camp, is a common and natural part of life. Everyone feels anxious sometimes. Learning to manage anxiety is an important life skill, which you can help your child learn. Here are some ideas from the Raising Children Network https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/mental-health-physical-health/stress-anxiety-depression/anxiety

Allocation of 2024 Classes

When developing individual classes each year, teachers consider several factors including academic ability, social competencies, gender, students who work well together, those who may not work well together and friendship groupings. Whist the students are consulted about appropriate learning partners, these are only some of the criteria considered because building new relationships is also part of our education process and an important skill for students to develop. 

The placement of students is a complex process where teachers put great thought into their planning. They discuss, reflect, and review their decisions over a period of times. Please note that students will be introduced to their 2025 teacher and class, at the whole school transition day on Tuesday 10th December.

TRANSITION 2025 

As we have begun work on class structures, for next year, it is imperative that we know of any changes to our student enrolments. If you know of someone in our community considering enrolling for 2025, encourage them to let us know or to make an appointment as soon as possible. 

Thank-you to the families that have notified us that they will not be attending TPS in 2025.  If you have a child in Foundation to Year 5 who will not be attending TPS in 2025, could you please let the school, as this will assist with planning for next year.

Please review our dates, further in the newsletter, so that we see you at key events. 

Kind regards,

Sharon Wildermuth

Acting Principal