End of Year Picnic and Art Show

It’s almost time! Join us for our End-of-Year Picnic on Monday, 2nd December, from 5pm

We can’t wait to see you there! It’s the perfect chance to kick back, relax, and enjoy some downtime with other families before the Christmas chaos kicks in.

This year’s picnic is extra special because it also doubles as our Art Show. Our talented young artists, guided by Amy, have been busy creating some absolutely incredible masterpieces. Right now, Amy is working with staff and students to pull it all together into an amazing display that celebrates their creativity and hard work.

So, grab your picnic rugs, pack some snacks, and come along for an evening of great company and inspiring art. There’ll be plenty of space to chill, connect, and admire the creativity of our students. We’re so excited to celebrate with you all!

Working Bee- Saturday 30th of November

Unfortunately, due to the wet weather forecast for this Saturday and the low number of volunteer sign-ups, we’ve made the decision to cancel this Saturday’s Working Bee. This was the last one scheduled for the year.

Changes to Assembly in 2025

After careful consideration and ongoing consultation with key stakeholders, we have decided to move our weekly whole-school assembly from Monday morning to Friday afternoon at 2:50 pm starting in 2025. Please note, this change will not take effect until next year, so assemblies will remain at 9:10 am on Monday mornings for the final weeks of this year.

This adjustment ensures that we can maintain uninterrupted instructional time at the start of the week when students are most focused and engaged. It allows us to maximise learning time without sacrificing important school-wide activities, such as assemblies, which provide valuable opportunities for our school community to come together.

While we are still finalising a few details, please rest assured that we will continue to notify families in advance when their child is receiving a Student of the Week award, as we know how important this forward notice is to you.

We appreciate your understanding as we implement this change to support our commitment to delivering high-quality education.

Staffing-Farewell to Martin

This week, we bid a fond farewell to Martin, who has accepted an ongoing position teaching Music at a school in Dandenong. Martin has been an integral part of our school community this year, and we are grateful for the passion and energy he brought to our music program.

We wish him all the best in his new role and know he will continue to inspire students in his future endeavours. If you would like to pass on your well wishes, please get in contact with me and I will be sure to pass them on to Martin for you.

Statewide Transition

Tuesday the 10th of December marks a very important event, the upcoming Statewide Transition Day, where students will meet their new teachers and classmates for 2025. This is an important step in helping students feel comfortable and excited about the year ahead.

After the session, students will bring home a slip of paper with the details of their classroom teachers for next year. Please remember to check in with your child and keep this slip in a safe place as it contains important information for the upcoming year.

We look forward to seeing our students embrace this opportunity to connect with their new peers and their learning environment!

Online Cyber-safety Parent Session (2025)

In 2025, Northcote Primary School is again partnering with Evolve Education to enhance Digital Safety and Wellbeing for students, staff, and families. Their goal is to:

Engage students in positive online behaviour.
Educate parents and carers on the challenges of online environments.
Empower educators with strategies to address student online experiences.

As part of this, Evolve Education will host a Parent Information Session on Tuesday, 11th February. Topics will include:

-Digital Safety

-Digital Wellbeing

-Screentime

-Online Playgrounds

-Online Platforms

We encourage all families to attend, as this session will address important issues surrounding students' online lives. To help us plan, please complete the Google Form linked below to indicate your attendance and delivery preference (in-person or online).

Google Form Link

School Savings Bonus

The Schools Savings Bonus was rolled out this week by the Department of Education please ensure that you have received your email with each individual child's unique code.

If you have multiple children enrolled in Victorian Government Schools for 2025 you will receive one School Savings Bonus code email per child. These emails might arrive on different days. Please make sure you check your spam/junk email folder. Families can allocate all or part of the bonus to help with the cost of school activities and or uniform for the 2025 school year. This allocation will be made within the online system. For those families considering using their School Savings Bonus for camps, below are the confirmed dates for 2025 and approximate costings.

Grade 1/2 camp to Mt Evelyn Overnight camp departs on the 23rd of October 2025 and return on the 24th of October 2025 approximate cost $260.00
Grade 3/4 camp to Phillip Island 2-night camp departs on the 13th of August 2025 and return on the 15th of August 2025 approximate cost $390.00
Grade 5/6 camp to Lord Somers Camp 2 nights departs on 28th May 2025 and return on the 30th of May 2025 approximate cost $450.00

If you have not received your School Savings Bonus Code via email by Friday 29th November, please check your junk mail. You can contact the Department of Education by emailing school.saving.bonus@education.vic.gov.au should you have any concerns.

Northcote High School visits

The Northcote High School Band did the long march up St Georges Rd with their instruments to put on a wonderful performance for our students in the hall on Monday. It was a very special performance; a highlight was the Alladin Medley. There were quite a number of our past students in the band, who seemed quite proud of their connection to Northcote Primary and their familiarity and connection with our current students.

We also had a group of Northcote High Year 7 students visit our year 6's to chat about their transition to high school this week and discuss what to expect, the things that can sometimes be challenging and tricky to navigate and the big one - what to look forward to!

It is great to witness the continuing partnership between Northcote High School and Northcote Primary School with these shared events.

Meet the Teacher/ Welcome Picnic 2025

Save the date for next years Meet the teacher/ Welcome Picnic for next year Tuesday 4th February.

Take care,

Shaun.

ESafety-Parents' Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls

Do you need parental controls?

What are the options?

Do they really work?

Here's everything you need to know about the wide array of parental control solutions, from OS settings to monitoring apps to network hardware.