Mr. Barclay's Bulletin

Hello NPS families! :) 

As always there has been a bit going on in recent weeks with the past two being no different, just like the next two will not be either!!!

Last Tuesday and Tuesday just passed, I have been able to spend some quality time with our 4 school captains at the GPAC Inspiring Student Leaders Program and the Melbourne Primary Schools Dream and Lead Conference. Our 2024 Captains are certainly driven and passionate about making improvements to our great school and I look forward to continuing to work closely with them as the year progresses! You can read more about their adventures, and ideas, in the Student Leadership Update Page. 

Last Wednesday we held a Curriculum Day where staff from NPS joined teachers from Lara Lake and Anakie Primary schools to spend a day on 'Responsive Teaching' and Formative Assessment. The day was led by Bronwyn Ryrie-Jones, an expert in this field. 

Walking away from the day certainly gave all 3 schools a lot to think about in how we as teachers adapt our teaching in a way that is responsive, and meets the needs of our students with much more urgency and impact.  A number of our staff will be working closely with Bronwyn and other staff at Lara Lake and Anakie Primary Schools throughout the year to identify and strengthen our teaching practices for the betterment of our students! 

Next week we have another massive week with our Cross Country and Athletics Days being in the same week. This has come about due to District events being early in term 2 and venue availability being hard to come by! Our Cross Country on Monday for all 3-6 students will be held at Sacred Heart College between 9 am and 11 am. Our F-2 Cross Country event will be on our school oval starting shortly before 3 pm.  A Compass post regarding both events was shared this morning.

THANK YOU to all parents/caregivers who have volunteered to assist with our events recently and or that are coming up! We definitely need your support for these events to run and run smoothly so thank you! 

Finally, I attended an Australian Education Union meeting this week where the "For Every Child Funding Campaign" was heavily discussed. The AEU is asking schools and their communities to put the pressure on federal and state governments to ensure all public schools receive the full allocation of funding per student, like our catholic and independent counterparts. Currently, we do not, and here in Victoria, we only receive 86.4% of the funding and not the 100% that our students are entitled to. 

A national survey of 7,808 teachers, principals, and support staff revealed that:

• 90% of principals report teacher shortages in the last year – almost double the number that experienced them three years ago.
• Two-thirds of teachers say their workload has increased in the last year and less than 1 in 5 are committed to teaching until retirement.
• There are worrying falls in student and teacher wellbeing with over 70% of principals saying there has been a decline in student wellbeing in the last year.
• Almost 90% of principals are taking funding from other areas of their school budget, such as maintenance, due to a lack of funding for students with disability, whose numbers have increased by 29% since 2015.
• Over 90% of teachers believe four key changes would help them improve student outcomes: additional support for students with a disability or behavioural issues, more time for lesson planning, more classroom assistance, and smaller class sizes.
• Principals believe children who have fallen behind in literacy or numeracy and those with a disability or learning difficulties are the ones who would benefit the most from full funding of public schools.

If you can spare the time, please head to https://www.foreverychild.au/sign-up and sign up to this extremely worthy fight. 

Thank you everyone and have a great weekend! 

Newtown Primary School 

Principal

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