Principal's Report
Tim Furphy, Principal
Week 7, here we are! I hope you've all had an enjoyable long weekend and feeling refreshed for the last few weeks of the term. I've enjoyed popping into all classrooms to see what's been going on. I must say I wasnt overly enthusiastic about our snake visitor last week though!!
The past couple of weeks have been busy, in particular this week coming off a long weekend straight into NAPLAN for grade 3 and 5. Day one, computer glitches! Argh. Let's hope for more luck connecting over the next little while.
We're looking ahead to holding a parent information session to share how things are done at NPS. We hope this is a beneficial event for us to share the research behind our practice, and why we believe it's best for our kids. Please visit the link below to respond to our Google Form to ensure we are covering the topics you want to hear :
CURRICULUM DAY
We had Gary Perrot (Education Improvement Leader) here for our Curriculum Day on Tuesday to help us dig deeper into VTLM 2.0. Some very insightful conversations and take aways to improve outcomes for our kids at NPS. We looked at:
- What engagement looks like in our classrooms
- Repetetive retrieval practice to embed concepts
- Planning for sequences of learning
CLEANING
The cleaners we secured on a contract for 2026 have unfortunately left us earlier this year. In their absence, the Muir family have been helping on a casual basis to keep our school clean. Due to the difficulties securing suitable cleaners in our region through the DET's request for quote tender process (other schools are also in the same position), we have been given permission by the VSBA Cleaning Division to employ a cleaner locally, essentially as a member of staff. Tomorrow a position will be advertised on Recruitment Online for this role at our school. 2 hours per night, 10 hours per week. If this interests you please have a look or get in touch.
SCHOOL COUNCIL
On Monday the 23rd March we have our first School Council meeting of the year. This also means our AGM will be held prior to this at 7:00pm, all parents are welcome to attend. Following our most recent nominations for positions on school council, it will be made up of:
Tim Furphy, Jacqueline Lee, Shey Newitt, Chris Wiseman, Tanya James, Kimberley Varasso, and Scott Pape
KITCHEN
Unfortunately the Newham Hall has been pretty well booked up towards the end of this term, we just cant fit around a few of our own calendar dates. We will have extra sessions next term to mkae up for this!
COMMUNICATION
Please continue to use Compass Connect (messenger function) on Compass for communication between families and teachers. See below photo, highlited icon for messaging. Narelle in the office is also there to support your admin questions.
VISITING THE CLASSROOMS
Please know that we'd love you to visit the classrooms with your child(ren) before or after school - they're open from 8.45am in the morning. Staff are in meetings Monday/Tuesday at 3.45. We really do hope to see some faces checking in!
MULTI-PURPOSE COURT
At School council the decision was made to remove the $66 membership fee for use of our courts, and instead open it freely for all members of our comunity. It is a great resource to have for the Newham township, we'd love to see it used more regularly. Hopefully this encourages people both within our school and wider community to have shared space for a range of sports and activities over the weekends.