Principal's Report

Dear HPS Community, 

What a way to start our week with the Year 3 and 4 Summer Nights and Christmas Lights performances at assembly on Monday lifting the roof of the COLA and prompting an encore! Congratulations to our performers and thank you to our whole school community who came to support and encourage the students. While we all agree it is not the preferred format, it is wonderful for these children to still have the opportunity to perform and bring celebratory and Christmas spirit to our school.

Monday next week will be our Foundation, Year 1 and 2 performances and is sure to again provide lots of excitement, fun and good vibes energy!

We send a very warm thanks to our Arts teachers, Laura Ghiotti and Ewen Soo, for the work they have put in to prepare students for these performances. We also thank the classroom teachers and other staff for their support of students and classes to perform to their best and shine through what they contribute. Well done everyone!

After assembly, families are welcome to wander through the Gallery in the main building to leanr about the RESP project that our school have been involved in this year with Centre ofr Multicultural Youth and Foundation House. There will be staff there to discuss more about the program and to explain some of the changes that are happeninig as a result of this work.

Meet the Teacher transition day

On Tuesday we had a fabulous day where students got to spend time with their new class mates, meet the teacher/s and start to learn about what to expect in their next year level.

It was so lovely to walk around the school and see everyone engaging so well. It can be a big build up for some children who find the unknown and change challenging, but we are so proud of how they all responded and drew upon our school values to demonstrate resilience, respect, responsibility and compassion toward themselves and others. I am looking forward to another great year at HPS in 2026.

2026 Staffing

Principal- Naomi Ivers

Assistant Principals- Monique Rankin and Helen Thomas

Learning Specialists- Stef Galvin, Tegan Griffiths and Nicola Colgate-Jones

Disability Inclusion coordinator- Tegan Griffiths

Mental Health Wellbeing Leader- Nicola Colgate-Jones

Tutor Learning Initiative- Nicola Colgate-Jones 

Foundation- Faye Philips and Katelyn Tino

Year 1- Gemma Lindsay-Knape, Libby Langlands and Carla Daniele/ Sheri Booth

Year 2- Stef Galvin/Sally Morgan, Yana Li, Tom Grisdale

Year 3- Heather Gordon, Brad Kendall and Tahnee Pape/ Tegan Griffiths

Year 4- Leigh Barry, Liam Szczepanski and Chris Roberts

Year 5- Halbeen Kobani, Dani Durando and Rebecca Paterson/ Fiona Welsh

Year 6- Simon Lovett, Taniya Senanayake and Jonathan Wilisoni

Library- Denise Pilinis and Alexandrea Ferguson

Science- Peter Ruff and Fiona Greville

PE- Ethan Griffiths

The Arts- Laura Ghiotti and Ewen Soo

Japanese- Ryoko DeCunto and Satoko Kuhlmann 

Education Support

Kristy Thews, Thuy Farmer, Mel Katz, Kelly Spratt, Renne Daaboul, Amy Fredricksen, Matthew Aldridge, Ghada Al Den and Kris Sebalj

First Aid- Sue Zerna

Admin- Vickie Bird

Business Manager- Sam Thornton

Facilities Manager- Jack Thornton 

SAC coordinator- Vimmy Abraham

ICT technician- Isuru Rathnayaka

In 2026, Charlie Hughes will take a year of leave and will return to HPS in 2027.

Helen Thomas will take some well deserved long service leave at the beginning of next year and will return to HPS from March in her role as assistant principal.

Year 6 Graduation

On Thursday evening we celebrated our 2025 graduating students in a ceremony at Viewbank College. It was a very special event and where the journey of primary school was able to be celebrated by students, families, friends and staff. 

Congratulations to the Year 6 students for an exceptional dance performance, that I know they put a lot of effort, rehearsal and commitment into leading up to the night.

Congratulations to the recipients of the following 2025 student awards:

The School Council HPS Values Award recognises a student who embodies a positive attitude, takes pride in their actions, shows responsibility, and supports their peers. This student respects diversity of opinions and beliefs and demonstrates humour and humility while aligning with the school values.

Congratulations, Essie Davidson

The Le Rossignol Awards for Academic Excellence is presented to students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement across all areas during their time at Heidelberg.

Congratulations, Franklin Hughes and Skylar Vo

The Community Engagement Award is presented to a student who exemplifies strong leadership. They take on challenges with confidence, approach opportunities with integrity, and lead others with grace.

Congratulations, Isla Lavigne 

The Peter Ruff Sports Award is presented to students who embody the achievement and characteristics of great sportsmanship, demonstrating core values like fairness, respect, integrity, responsibility, and safety.

Congratulations, Lachie Charlesworth and Phoebe Hewitt

Thank you to our Year 6 staff and students for planning and presenting an excellent and very worthy celebration.

Thanks also need to go to all other staff who supported and assisted with the graduation, as well as Steph S and the parent group who supported staff to coordinate the party celebration element of the evening after the ceremony. The thought and consideration into all your contributions is very much appreciated and we are grateful for your support. The decorations were fantastic and really provided an eye catching visual aspect to the celebration. 

2026 School Captains...

After a thorough process that included poster creations, speeches, voting, shortlisting and interviews, we are pleased to be able to announce the HPS School Captains for 2026.

We were very impressed by the maturity, confidence and effort that all candidates showed throughout the process.

It is a significant achievement for these four students, which reflects the leadership qualities, positive attitude and commitment that they have demonstrated over their time at school. We are confident they will represent our students and school with pride and be fantastic role models for our school community.

Congratulations to the 2026 HPS School Captains:

• Darcy Barrett
• Campbell Crawford
• Kevin Ihara
• Elle Wood

Building Works Update

After much anticipation, and pumping out of a lot of rain water, we finally have a slab poured for the new learning centre! The off-site pre fabricated building structure will start to be craned into place in January...how exciting.

HPS camping program from 2026

Earlier this year we conducted a survey regarding our current camps to gather data and perspectives from parents, staff and students about what the needs, strengths and challenges of the current program.

Our aim was to ensure that our whole school program from Foundation to Year 6 meets the expected purpose and current needs of our students, school and community.

Overwhelmingly, each category of those surveyed understand and agree with the many benefits to students through attendance on overnight camps in primary school. 

Important life skills such as developing independence, confidence, cooperation and social skills, resilience building as well as considered and age appropriate risk-tasking all being 

things that are often developed and strengthened by most students who attend.

Challenges and barriers that are often represented as the greatest considerations from students, staff and families usually relate to student wellbeing such as homesickness, safety and behaviour etc.

After much discussion, analysis of data and consideration from all perspectives, we have decided to make a change to the Year 3 component of our whole school camping program beginning in 2026.

Foundation Breakfast at school

Year 1 Activities and dinner at school extending beyond school hours

Year 2 Little Explorers' day moving from school to local community

Year 3 King Lake Day Camp moving beyond local community and providing opportunity to experience a camp location and its facilities and features extending beyond school hours

Year 4 Lady Northcote Camp providing a two night experience

Year 5 Alexandra Adventure Resort Camp building upon overnight experience and providing opportunity to consolidate adventure aspect

Year 6 Kangaroobi Camp extending length of time away to 3 nights and providing a different experience to the previous adventure camps

Whilst we understand there will be some disappointment around this decision, particularly as we move through this change in 2026 with Year 3 expectations, we also strongly believe that in the overall whole school program, the opportunities provided are developmentally built upon from year to year to support transition for students to overnight camps and to provide positive and successful experiences to all.

We thank everyone who completed the survey, and our 2025 school council, for providing your perspectives and considerations.

Assembly Summer Nights & Christmas Lights Performances

Monday we will have our final performance with the Foundation, Year 1 and 2 classes sharing some festive and celebratory songs to bring us to the end of school year. 

Students will have the opportunity to perform to their family and peers at allocated whole school assemblies from 9.10am:

• Monday 15th December- Foundation, Year 1 & Year 2 students

Wishing you a lovely weekend and a great final week ahead!

Naomi Ivers

Principal

Heidelberg Primary School