From the Principal Team

Welcome to Term 4 at Banyule Primary School! 

We hope you all had a great term break and are looking forward to the great things ahead in the final part of the year. We've had a great start to the term, with the students settling into their busy work in the classrooms, while our staff continue the work behind the scenes preparing for 2026! 

PARENT SURVEY THANK YOU

Thank you to all of the families who completed the 2025 DET Parent & Carer Opinion Survey. This year we had 38 families complete the survey. This is a significant increase on the completion rate from last year and will enable the results of this survey to be more reliable and useful as we consider ways to improve our school into next year and beyond. 

In general, our Parent & Carer Survey results are always very positive, however we always strive to improve. For example, the 2024 survey results indicated a 77% positive endorsement for “parent participation & involvement”, 80% positive for “school communication” and 75% positive for “teacher communication”. As a result, these have become areas that we have been working on throughout 2025. This has included streamlining communication methods, providing more detail to our weekly newsletters and Year Level community newsletters each term and working closely with our CEC to expand parent participation opportunities. We look forward to receiving the 2025 survey results later in the term. 

Changes to the Education Department's Digital Device use

Today the Department has issued new guidelines for schools relating to the use of digital devices in primary schools. 

What does this mean for our school?

As you know, we already provide school-owned digital devices for student learning, so there is no impact on our school’s provision of devices for students.  We are also very mindful of screen time usage and our teachers have always planned for a balanced approach to their usage which currently complies with the new guidelines.

Students with disability who use a digital device as a reasonable adjustment to access and participate in the classroom program are exempt from these changes. 

Planning for 2026

In the coming weeks we will be spending some time 'crunching the numbers' and developing our school structure for next year. This involves looking at the student enrollment numbers in each year level and aligning that with the Education Department guidelines for average class sizes.  (Averages of; 21 students in Prep-2 and 26 students in Years 3-6).

Once we have determined the class structures the teachers then engage with the painstaking process of assigning students to the classes. Part of this process involves an opportunity for children to list friendship preferences. Teachers then work together in teams with the support of leadership and our inclusion teachers to find be best placement for all of our students.

In the meantime, could you please let us know if your child won't be returning 2026 as this information has an impact on the process of building 2026 classes. 

We will provide an update to families relating to the school organisation, class structures and the allocation of teachers for you later in the term when this work is completed. 

Looking good!

During the term break an empty school made way for some tradies and it seems our accidental theme was 'flooring'. We enlisted carpet layers to re-carpet our final portable near the big shelter and the gym floor looks amazing after being re-surfaced. We thank our OSHClub Program for being flexible whilst the works were undertaken. 

The holidays also provided time for our building project to tie up a few loose ends and as a result, our playground is free of builder's fences for the first time in years!!

Please enjoy this early burst of summer weather and we look forward to seeing you around this term.

-Natalie, Claire and Sam 

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