From Our School Leaders

The end of the 2023 school year is fast approaching. Cup Day always creeps up, and then it feels like it’s almost Christmas, but there is always a lot to tick off as we head to the end of the school year.

We are in the process of transitioning our 2024 Foundation students into school, and we will also be having 2 transition sessions for our current students moving into new year levels. 

• Cohort Transition Day -  Friday 15th December,  9.15 - 10.45am
• Meet Your 2024 Teacher Day - Tuesday 19th December, 9.15 - 10.45am

Camp

Our 5/6s are back from Summit Camp and they have had a fabulous time away. It was really good to spend a day with the students and staff at the camp last Thursday. The staff at Summit Camp ran a terrific program full of challenging activities, and with it came a debrief after each activity and the students discussed great messages about stepping outside of their comfort zone and working together as a team. The 5/6 kids were fabulous and really enjoyed being away with each other. 

I’d like to once again thank the staff who attended our 2023 camp: Miss Whittington, Ms Dinakis, Mr Butters, Josh, Julie and student teacher Sarah Harper.  I’d also like to thank Wendy McQuie who came to support her son Jacob, and Sheridan, our Chaplain, for attending on Wednesday. 

Plans are being made for the 2024 SPS camping program. 

• The Year 3/4s will be attending Camp Oasis in Mt Evelyn in August for 3 nights
• The Year 5/6s will be attending Sovereign Hill in Ballarat in August for 3 nights

Working Bee

There was a very enthusiastic group of people who attended our last Working Bee for the year on Sunday morning.  We had seven families come and help us replenish the sand pits, prune foliage and clear up the play spaces for our students. 

The following families were represented on  the day : 

• Emery Family
• Bouchereau Family
• Eagland Family
• Murphy Family
• Chiu Family
• Wilmott Family
• Mrs Coster 
• Mr Hartley 

Some of our wonderful SPS students came along with their parents and got stuck into tasks as well. Heath, Lucy, Jacob, Harmony, Christopher and Kirk, thank you for coming and helping keep our school looking wonderful. Mrs Hartley will be shouting you an icy pole on Friday! 

Split Grades 

This year has been another year where we have had significant staff absences due to illness and personal, unavoidable circumstances. As we come to the end of the year, we have almost spent our teacher replacement budget (CRT budget). Over the coming weeks, to avoid budgets completely blowing out, there will be more class splits happening across the school. 

Splitting a class across a level has the advantage of students being able to continue on with the planned lessons, and complete class work, as the teachers all plan together weekly. If there have been a couple of splits over the week, or a class teacher is unwell for a nominated period of time, we will book a replacement teacher. We are closely monitoring the CRT budget and will try to avoid overspending where we can. 

Values Signage And Pencils 

We are investigating some more signage for our school to take our school values outdoors and put them front and center. I am currently pricing up giant colored pencils to sit in the grassed area inside the fence, opposite the school crossing, and some stair labels for our front steps incorporating our Heart Values. 

We are very fortunate at Scoresby PS to have such a strong values culture. I want our school values out in our grounds so that our school community knows about them too. It also demonstrates how much we care about our school culture to our community. 

Our School Choir

Our school choir has been out and about this week. They have had 2 local performances.

Remembrance Day Ceremony

Last Saturday, Mrs Fox and I attended the annual Knox Remembrance Service at the Ferntree Gully Arboretum with members of our school choir, and our school leaders. It’s always a lovely, respectful ceremony, and local school students are involved throughout the event, presenting poems, reciting odes, singing songs in the Knox Network combined choir, and laying wreaths in respect of the fallen women and men. 

Thank you to those students who were able to attend, and thank you to the families for supporting our Scoresby PS representation at this special community event.

Scoresby West Kindergarten Performance

Our choir has also been preparing a repertoire of nursery rhymes and interactive songs for younger children. We have been planning a tour of these songs at our local kinders and childcare centers. This week was our first performance at Scoresby West Kinder. Thank you to Sonja for hosting us! 

SUE HARTLEY

Principal