Principal's Report

Dear Skye Families, 

School Review - Complete!

Last Thursday marked the conclusion of our School Review, and we are so proud of how the entire Skye community came together throughout the process. Students, families and staff all played a meaningful role, and that collective contribution made for a genuinely rich and rewarding experience.

A real highlight was seeing our students step up during their focus groups. They engaged thoughtfully and shared their perspectives with honesty and confidence, and their voices were a valued part of the process from start to finish.

The overall message from the review was an affirming one. The foundations of our school, across curriculum, instruction, wellbeing and community engagement, are strong, and we are well placed to head into the next four years with real momentum. Importantly, our new Strategic Plan reflects that. Rather than a change in direction, it is about deepening and strengthening the work already underway.

Our continued focus will be on two core goals: improving student learning outcomes and improving student wellbeing. On the learning side, this means strengthening instructional practice, building leadership capability, and making even better use of data to support and extend every student. On the wellbeing side, we will be investing further in our whole-school systems for identifying and supporting student needs, and continuing to build an environment where every child feels safe, connected and a sense of belonging.

The reviewer will finalise their report over the coming weeks and we look forward to sharing it with the community when it is complete. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

Reports and Parent Teacher Conferences

A reminder that Semester 1 reports will be going home towards the end of next week. As previously communicated, due to the ongoing Protected Industrial Action, reports this year will include A-E achievement levels, effort and behaviour ratings, and attendance data, but no written comments included. We know written comments are something many families value, and we appreciate your understanding during this time. 

The good news is that Parent Teacher Conferences are just around the corner, and these are a fantastic opportunity to have a real conversation with your child's teacher about their progress, wellbeing and goals for the rest of the year.

Bookings open tomorrow at 9:00am via the Sentral Parent Portal. Conferences are held in 10-minute slots across the last week of Term 2, with an evening session available from 3:30pm to 6:00pm for those who can't make it during the school day. We encourage you to get in early to secure your preferred time. If you have any trouble with the booking process, please don't hesitate to contact the school office.

Curriculum Day: Monday 13th July

A reminder that the first day of Term 3, Monday 13th July, is a Pupil Free Day. Our staff will be spending the day focused on two exciting areas of school development: Maths Fluency and School of Play.

Maths Fluency

Over the past six months, our team has been working hard to develop a whole-school approach to building mathematical fluency. Led by Maths Learning Specialist Hailee Eade and Assistant Principal Gareth Snow, in collaboration with external Mathematics consultant David Morkunas, we have developed a structured fluency scope and sequence that is grounded in research and designed to be practical and sustainable in every classroom.

The evidence is clear: when students can recall maths facts and procedures with speed and accuracy, they free up mental energy to tackle more complex problems with greater confidence. Even just a few minutes of daily fluency practice can make a meaningful difference. We have already trialled these routines in Years 4 to 6, with students and teachers noticing real improvements in confidence and recall in as little as two weeks. On our Curriculum Day, we will be launching this approach across the whole school, and we look forward to sharing more about its impact as the year progresses.

School of Play

Our staff will also be exploring the School of Play, a play-based approach to student wellbeing backed by research conducted with La Trobe University across schools in 25 countries. Schools that adopted this approach saw student-reported wellbeing rise by 28% in a single term, with no additional load on teachers or classroom hours.

The School of Play will be woven into our broader, comprehensive approach to supporting student wellbeing at Skye. It will also give our teachers a fresh toolkit of ideas and energy for brain breaks, those short, purposeful bursts of movement and play that are a key classroom strategy for resetting attention and optimising focus during learning time. We know that students who are engaged, energised and feeling good are better equipped to learn, and we are excited about what this will bring to our classrooms in Term 3.

Building Works Update

Ramp Works

Great progress on the ramp works! Concrete pours are now complete, and the landings, ramps and stairs are all visible, giving us a really exciting glimpse of what the final product will look like. Attention now turns to clean up and landscaping as we move towards completion.

Kindergarten Project

We were thrilled to welcome Minister Sonya Kilkenny to Skye Primary School this morning to officially celebrate the start of construction on our new on-site kindergarten. It was a fantastic milestone for our community and a wonderful acknowledgement of the exciting journey ahead.

Works are progressing nicely and are being delivered in two stages in partnership with Community Kinders Plus and builder Shape. In the northwest corner of the school, the area will be fenced off to create a brand new soccer pitch, which we are hoping to have ready for students by Term 3, along with a new service road connecting the staff carpark to the kindergarten site. At the same time, the current soccer pitch area is being transformed into the future home of the kindergarten, with site preparation for the modular buildings already underway and the buildings themselves expected to arrive in Term 3.

We are incredibly excited about what this means for our community and look forward to keeping you updated as the project takes shape!

Exciting News from Carrum Downs Secondary College: SEAL Program

As many of you know, we have a wonderful relationship with our neighbouring secondary school, Carrum Downs Secondary College, and we love celebrating the great work happening there. We are thrilled to share that CDSC has been granted provisional approval to launch a Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) Program, commencing at Year 7 in 2027.

The SEAL Program is designed to cater to the needs of high ability students through acceleration and extension, nurturing their love of learning and opening doors to post-secondary pathways earlier. Students in the program will have the opportunity to work alongside other high-performing peers, engage with universities, CSIRO and Parliament, participate in academic competitions, access VCE subjects in earlier year levels, and be supported by an academic mentor.

For families with a child who may be entering Year 7 in 2027, the application timeline is as follows:

• Monday 1st June: Register an Expression of Interest to receive updates
• Monday 13th July: Applications Open
• July/August: Entrance Test (TBC)
• August: Interviews (TBC)
• September: Notification of Outcome (TBC)

For more information, visit the CDSC SEAL Program page or contact CDSC Principal Chad Ambrose at Chad.Ambrose@education.vic.gov.au.

Have a fantastic next two weeks!

Warm regards, 

Tim