Only 34 more days until Christmas. That’s only 5 more Fridays and importantly, only 21 more school days. To say the weeks are flying by is an understatement, and yet I’m sure we all feel there’s still so much to do.

In this end of year hustle and bustle, don’t forget to take time as a family to enjoy life’s simple pleasures, like playing in the park or taking a walk along the beach.

TRANSITION – ‘Step Up’ to the next year.

Plans are underway to create activities for our students for their transition to the next year level. We call it the ‘step up’ day. This is the day where students meet their 2025 teacher and classmates. Activities are designed to learn more about each other and the events they can look forward to in the following year.

Tuesday 10 December is the ‘state-wide transition day’. On this day, our year 6 students will be attending their government secondary schools and all students new to our school will be invited to join our transition activities.

2025 NEW SPORT UNIFORM

This year, our Sport Action Year 6 Leadership team have engaged an Aboriginal artist (Ky-ya Nicholson Ward from Djirringu Art) to create sport shirts for each of the Houses with their chosen emblem. Our uniform supplier (PSW- Primary School Wear) is now in production mode in an endeavour to have the shirts ready for purchase at the commencement of next year.

We are hoping that the shirts are ready in time for our new 2025 prep students to wear in their first couple of weeks of school. This will help us identify our new little students quickly so buddies can further support them in the school yard.

The sport shirts can be worn on days when a class has P.E or year level sport, or for school level sporting days such as swimming and athletics carnivals, cross country and so on.

SCHOOL SAVINGS BONUS

The School Saving Bonus is a one-off $400 support for government school students from Prep to Year 12 in 2025, who are enrolled as of 18 October 2024.

Next week, across three days (26, 27 and 28 November), parents and carers will receive their second email from the Department of Education with their unique $400 bonus code for each eligible student in the family and a link to the school savings bonus online system. It is possible, due to the large volume of emails to be sent, that families could receive an email for each child across the three days. Remember to check your junk (spam) folders.

Families will be able to start spending with suppliers (for example: PSW for uniforms including the new sport shirt) or allocate funds to school activities (such as SAKG, camps, excursions).

We will be sending further information via Compass including instructions for the portal next week.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT INCREASED CYBER SECURITY

The Education Department has been implementing systems across schools to improve internet and security. The new direct internet service will improve internet performance, content filtering and help online applications and services better meet current and future teaching and learning needs.

All devices, school or student owned will be connected to the school’s management console which provides schools with improved monitoring systems.

Our student ICT User Agreement has been revised with the assistance of our tech savvy students who were able to share with us where loopholes are, and to ensure the agreement is written in student friendly language.

The new ICT Agreement will be sent home in paper format on the statewide transition day (Tuesday 10 December) so that families can read and discuss it together. There is a tear off section which can be signed and returned to school this year. Students will not be able to use devices in 2025, until the agreement is signed and returned.

THE SCHOOL WEBSITE

If you haven’t seen it in a while, please take the time to explore our school website. Mrs Sewell does an outstanding job in keeping the website up to date with important information. Our aim is to house more information which answers the most common questions we receive from parents and carers.

Of note is the calendar tab which marks all school events now and events that have been confirmed in 2025. This may be helpful if you’re planning a family occasion but don’t want your child to miss out on an important school activity.

YEAR 6 EXHIBITION

Today our year 6 students will be presenting their exhibition inquiry with classes scheduled to visit throughout the day. An invitation is extended to the wider community to participate by visiting the year 6 classrooms and main building corridors between 3:45 – 5:45pm.

PARENT AND CARERS’ OPINION SURVEY

We had 174 responses to the Education Department Parents and Carers Opinion Survey making the data received, a true reflection of school community perspective. As per previous communications, we said we would let our school community know of the results.

Here is a summary of data highlights:

Factor	2024 Result	Historical Result
Parent participation and involvement	94%	2023 - 82%
School communication	91%	80%
Teacher communication	76%	69%
Stimulating Learning Environment- AIP Focus	86%	79%
Parent participation and involvement	94%	82%
Teachers are enthusiastic and positive about teaching	96%	85%
Teachers are very good at making learning engaging	93%	80%
My child feels safe at school	95%	88%
My child feels motivated by their teachers to learn	94%	82%
The school treats my child with respect	98%	88%

A significant factor contributing to the success of such improved results, has been our emphasis on enhancing student voice and agency, where students are involved in decisions about their learning. Parents saw evidence of student ownership over their learning at last term’s student led conferences.

In 2025, we will continue our efforts to achieve our school’s mission which we’ve summarised to three short words: making learning visible, engaging and personalised.

Areas for further development

There were three clear areas where results were significantly lower:

I understand how my child is assessed = 69%
My child is taught organisational skills to help them manage homework and workload = 60%
Teachers communicate with me often enough about my child’s progress = 66%

We’d like to thank the many parents and carers who contributed their perspectives through the survey. The above three areas will be included in our 2025 school development plans with a first step being to unpack what parents are hoping to see.

Thank you again to our wonderfully supportive school community.

Chellee Plumb

From The Library