The Newlands Times

Leadership Report

Newlands has welcomed a plethora of new little faces this week! Our 2024 Foundation students have begun their primary school journey and have settled well into the school year. There have been lots of smiles, lots of songs, games, and learning. A big thank you to our fantastic Foundation students who have helped make the transition successful and to Jess and Sonya, for setting up the Newlands transition program in 2024. We would like to welcome all the new families to our school and look forward to a successful relationship with Newlands Primary School. 

 

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 [Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy_2022 (newlandsps.vic.edu.au)], 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 The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.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, 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, please contact the school. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents (Schools' privacy policy | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)

 

Foundation

Katherine, Kate, Paula, and Juan have set up the classrooms and invited families to join in the mornings. The new Foundation students are already working so well together and showing great independence. It has been great to meet all the students and to hear about their favorite things and food. It seems like ice cream is clearly number 1. More importantly, there have only been 2 lost items, great start, Foundation students! The students have been playing in the sensory playground during recess and lunchtimes, so they can begin to build relationships. I want to thank the Grade 6s who have given up their lunchtimes to help settle in and play with our new foundation students. 

 

 

1/2 Area

It has been wonderful seeing the new buildings being utilised how we imagined. Students have a range of areas to work in the new learning world. It has been fantastic seeing students outside in the undercover areas, reading on the deck in the centre of the learning world, and using the breakout spaces. Congratulations to the 1/2 team of Sophia, Christine, Sergio, Moira, Kylee, and Rob for setting up for a successful year. A great start by all the students in the area! 

 

 

3/4 Area

I had the pleasure of working with the 3/4s in helping me expand my sentences this week. The teacher's dream is to see the students go ‘Uhh-I get it’ and I witnessed this many times during this session. To see students change a simple sentence to concise, descriptive sentences was fantastic. A big shout out to Mali, for having the most incredible writing I have seen from a Year 4, and a special mention to Taylor for the amount of work he completed during the session. 

 

 

5/6 Area

Lisa & Karren have jumped straight back into the learning in the 5/6 area. To coincide with our start-up program, the students have been involved in a range of Respectful Relationships learning experiences. They have spent time thinking about their actions in a range of scenarios and deciding if they can solve a problem independently or if they need to see a person a trust. This has included digital literacy sessions and how to be safe online. A big shout-out to the Assembly leaders last week, they have set the expectations very high. It was impressive to have an assembly without technical difficulty. 

 

 

Office Building Open

I would like to send an extra special thank you to Mandy and Densie this week as they have moved from the old to the new office! While we are still not 100% ready, we are in the final stretch! If you have any questions or queries, please come and see Denise and Mandy in the new office. 

Vegetable Garden

Everyone already knows about the Newlands vegetable garden that Winnie, Hazel, Hazel, and Lia were spruiking and trying to sell our delicious produce to our community. They are trying to raise money for the school. Regardless of the money raised, the selling techniques were passionate and convincing, watch out for it to happen again in the coming weeks!

 

Clubs started this week!

Clubs are an important part of our schooling community as we try to offer students a range of activities to engage in at recess and lunch times. While they were mentioned at assembly last week, this will help you just in case you have forgotten.

 

Our fantastic Spanish Sub Committee continues to provide a Spanish-speaking activity club on Mondays after school. Here are the details:

 

 

State School Spectacular 

Clara held auditions for the State School Spectacular this week. Congratulations to the students who will be representing Newlands Primary School later in the year. We would congratulate all the students that tried out with over 50 students applying for a position. 

 

Building Update

It won’t be too long until the students will have an official bag area for the undercover outdoor areas. Students eat their lunch between 11:45 -and 12:00, we recommend that on hot days, students include an ice block cooler in their lunch box to keep food cool.  Can we please also make sure that families use the pathways around the learning worlds, we have had some of our new plants destroyed, which is a little heartbreaking not only to the Buildings and Grounds subcommittee, but the community as a whole!

 

School Council Nominations

Newland Primary School’s School Council is looking for 3 new members from the parent community to join our team in 2024. The School Council consists of 8 meetings throughout the year. School Councils functions are:

  • to establish the broad direction and vision of the school within the school's community
  • to arrange for the supply of:
    • goods
    • services
    • facilities
    • materials
    • equipment
    • other things or matters required for the conduct of the school, including the provision of preschool programs
  • to raise funds for school-related purposes
  • to regulate and facilitate the after-hours use of the school premises and grounds
  • to exercise a general oversight of the school buildings and grounds and ensure they are kept in good order and condition
  • to provide for the cleaning and sanitary services that are necessary for the school
  • to ensure that all money coming into the hands of the council is expended for proper purposes relating to the school
  • to provide meals and refreshments for the staff and students of the school and make charges for those meals or refreshments
  • to inform itself and take into account any views of the school community to make decisions regarding the school and the students at the school
  • to generally stimulate interest in the school in the wider community
  • to prepare the School Strategic Plan and review the Annual Implementation Plan — to be signed by the president and the principal
  • to report annually (the Annual Report) to the school community and to the department on:
    • the school’s financial activities
    • the School Strategic Plan, and
    • any other matters that are determined by the Minister
  • to manage the hire, licence, and shared use of school facilities
  • to determine the dates for the school’s student-free days:
    • in accordance with the number of student-free days each calendar year specified by the Secretary of the department
  • to perform any other function or duty, or to exercise any power conferred or imposed on the council by or under:
    • the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, or
    • any regulations made under that Act
    • a Ministerial Order made, or direction issued, by the Minister under the Education and Training Reform Act.

If you are interested in nominating to be a member of school council, please fill in the nomination form found at the office by Friday 23rd of February. If we receive than 3 nominations, the school will have an election where our parent community will nominate their preferred applicant. There will be further information provided in the case this happens. 

For more information about School Council and the role of its members , please click on the following link - School Council – Powers and Functions: Policy | education.vic.gov.au. 

 

Spanish Fiesta – Time Change

Just an official note that the Spanish Fiesta on Thursday [the last day of term one] the 28th of March will now commence at 3. The event will conclude at 6:00 pm. 

 

We would like to once again welcome all of our Foundation families to NPS! It has been an incredible start to the year and are looking forward to continuing to celebrate many new and first experiences throughout their school journey! 

 

Thanks, 

Luke

Newlands Primary School