Year Level News

Upcoming Excursions and Incursions

Please ensure you have processed all consents and payments on your Compass portal to guarantee your child's participation in all upcoming incursions and excursions. 

Please also ensure 2026 Permissions and Agreements have been processed to include permission for local excursion, photography permission, and ICT agreements. 

Foundation News

Here we are in Week 8 already, and it won’t be long before we wrap up an amazing first term! The past two weeks have been filled with wonderful learning and growth.

Firstly, a huge thank you for the generous donations of tissue boxes. With the colder days ahead and plenty of sniffly noses, they will certainly come in handy; we truly appreciate your support.

Our Foundation students have now met their buddies, and there was such a buzz of excitement! We look forward to continuing these fun and meaningful buddy sessions throughout the year.

In the classroom, students have been learning about Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, understanding what we are learning and how we can be successful. We regularly check for understanding and reflect on our learning together.

During Literacy sessions, students have been engaging in independent reading, reading to themselves, and practising sounding out letters. We have also introduced Fluency Pairs (our 'Apples and Bananas'), where students are paired up to read to one another. They practise sounding out letters and support each other when they get stuck.

In Sounds-Write, students have been building words by listening carefully to the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. They have also been swapping sounds within words, for example, changing sat to mat and identifying which sound needs to change. It has been wonderful to see students confidently attempt their homework, and this is clearly reflected during class time as we revise letters, sounds, and the words we have learned so far.

In Mathematics, we have been exploring Time, learning the days of the week, understanding the difference between weekdays and weekends, and discussing day and night. Students have also practised sequencing events in their day using terms such as first, next, and last.

In Health, we have been learning about how it is okay to be different and how we can make connections with one another. Students created self-portraits to represent themselves, celebrating both our differences and the wonderful way we all belong together. We have also been unpacking emotions and feelings, recognising that it is okay to feel happy, sad, nervous, shocked, or excited. We encourage students to talk about their feelings with trusted people and remind them that it is always better to let feelings out than to hold them in. We have also been practising calming breathing exercises.

It was fantastic to see so many families visiting classrooms and discussing the learning with your children. We are incredibly proud of our Foundation students for confidently sharing their work and talking about their learning; it was truly lovely to witness.

Due to the wet weather, we also had an indoor timetable where students remained in their classrooms, enjoying games and mindful colouring activities. It was wonderful to see how well they played and worked together.

As a reminder, beginning Week 9, Foundation students will be dismissed directly from their classrooms without their teachers walking them out. We hope you have had a chance to chat with your child about where you will meet.

Thank you for your continued support.

Year 1 News

Walk to Newport Lakes Reserve

Our Year 1 students recently enjoyed a wonderful excursion to Newport Lakes Reserve as part of our learning about local places of social, cultural, and environmental significance. This excursion connected with the Victorian Curriculum focus on understanding the history of a local site and how it has changed over time, and we were amazed to learn that the reserve was once a quarry and then a tip, before being carefully restored to become the beautiful natural space we see today.

During our visit, we met Ranger Suzette, who encouraged the students to explore the Lakes using all of their senses. We listened for birds, looked closely at plants and trees, and noticed the subtle smells of the environment around us. The children walked carefully across the stepping stones and showed great care for the natural surroundings, by picking up the bits of rubbish they found along the way.

Students were excited to spot a range of birdlife including fairywren, Eurasian coot, honeyeaters, purple swamphens, ducks and black swan. It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to connect with a special local place and see how nature and history come together in our community.

Year 3 News

It’s been a busy two weeks in Year 3 between NAPLAN and the Wild Action incursion this week. Students (and families) have done an amazing job preparing for NAPLAN. Everyone sat the assessments well, double checked their answers, and we know that they all gave it their best. Some students finished assessments and enjoyed the challenge, some didn’t enjoy the sitting and waiting for it to finish but found the assessment okay, and some surprised themselves by overcoming challenging questions and walked out feeling proud of their efforts. Well done to all the Year 3 students on finishing your first NAPLAN assessment!

In Literacy we have been continuing our novel study of Brindabella where we have been exploring adjectives, verbs, mood, tenses, and conjunctions. We have been enjoying hearing about how Pender has cared for the kangaroo joey with responsibility and kindness. The story took a turn when we started hearing it from Brindabella’s point of view, who wasn’t so happy about being a captive kangaroo, when she was born to live in the wild. Over the next two weeks students will start their own narrative about a fictional child who finds and raises an animal in need. 

To support their literacy learning we organised a Wild Action incursion to meet some young Australian animals, which will provide a personal connection to our narrative writing. Liv from Wild Action brought in some reptiles, including a blue tongue lizard, a long neck turtle, a black headed python, and even a lace monitor. We were delighted to meet some of her flying friends including a tawny frogmouth, a gang gang cockatoo, a fruit bat, and a very tiny and super soft young sugar glider. We all really connected with the mammals that feature in Brindabella including an echidna, a young wombat, and a 10 month old eastern grey kangaroo called Buttercup. It was amazing to see, pat, and hold some of these beautiful creatures, but also great to learn about how we can keep them safe or possibly help to rescue them if we find one in need. This experience will definitely give us all some authentic connections to Brindabella and our narrative writing ideas!

Year 4 News

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne 

Last Thursday 12th March, our students visited the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne as part of our Geography unit. During the excursion, students explored the gardens and investigated a variety of plants, including native Australian species. This hands-on experience helped deepen their understanding of the important role vegetation plays in supporting healthy environments, and which plants thrive in certain climates.

Students also participated in the ‘Connecting to Country’ program, where they learned about Indigenous plants and their significance to Aboriginal Australians. Through this experience, students explored Aboriginal knowledge of caring for Country, including traditional plant uses, land stewardship practices, and the tools and technologies developed by Aboriginal communities. 

Year 6 News

Celebrating St Patrick’s Day During Harmony Week

Our Year 6 students had a wonderful time learning about St Patrick’s Day as part of our Harmony Week celebrations. It was a great opportunity to explore and appreciate different cultures and the traditions that make them unique.

Students watched an engaging video about the history of St. Patrick and discovered why he remains such an important figure in Irish culture. They also learned about the symbolism of the lucky four‑leaf clover and why it’s considered a sign of good fortune.

To finish off, the Year 6 students created vibrant St Patrick’s Day‑inspired artwork, showcasing their creativity while celebrating cultural diversity in our school community.

PE/Sports News

Division Swimming Carnival

On Thursday 5th March, five students from Newport Lakes went to the Werribee Outdoor Olympic Pool to participate in the Hobson’s Bay Division Swimming Carnival. 

The students had qualified for this event recently after performing well at the District Swimming Carnival at the same venue in mid-February.

Alice F swam extremely well in the 9/10 Girls Breaststroke, finishing in first place and nearly four seconds ahead of the next best swimmer. Lewis S also swam excellently in the 9/10 Boys Backstroke to finish in first place. Both students will now proceed to the Western Metro Region Swimming Championships which take place in Geelong towards the end of the month. We wish them well!

Special mention also to Milla W who finished in third place in the 12 Girls Breaststroke and Butterfly events, to her sister, Ava W, who finished 6th in the 9/10 Girls Backstroke, and to Alexi N who finished in 4th place in the 12 Girls Backstroke. We are all very proud of their achievements and wish them well in their future swimming endeavours.

Music News

Band Camp 2026

On Sunday 15th March, the students of the NLPS Band met for our annual Band Camp. Students underwent a whopping six hours of rehearsals (approximately half a term’s worth of Band!) and had a mix of whole-band rehearsals and sectionals, where each instrument group went off by themselves to practise. 

This gave our section leaders (Pip, Farrah, Josh, Oliver, Zoe and Mihika) a chance to showcase their leadership skills by helping their section workshop difficult parts in the music. 

Afterwards, there was a workshop from our guest conductor from Eltham High School, Ed Ferris, who gave the students lots of new ways to think about counting silences and how to listen. 

After a pizza lunch and a trivia quiz, the students returned for a final full band rehearsal and prepared a short concert for the parents. They played selections from We Will Rock You, The Avengers theme, Elgar’s Pomp & Circumstance, and a very dramatic piece called Clouds. 

The day was a huge success and the improvement that the students made can be clearly heard in their playing. A huge congratulations to all involved!

Foundation

During STEM, the Foundation students have been working on their creativity and building skills to partake in weekly design challenges. Last week, they put on their engineers’ hats for the session and designed and built bridges. Students worked collaboratively in small groups and focused on making their bridge strong.

The Term 1 focus for Years 1 to 6 has been on Digital Technologies. 

Year 1 & 2

Students have been working with LEGO Spike to design and build their own amusement park rides. Using motors and the Lego app, they have created rides that spin, swing, and move. Each week students are given a new challenge where they design a ride, construct it, test how it works, and then improve their design.

Year 3 & 4

Students have been learning to code Vincibot robots. They began by exploring how to make the robots draw, play sounds, and use lights. More recently, students have started adding LEGO to their Vincibots to create and code their own sports-themed games.

Year 5 & 6

Students have been exploring Maker’s Empire, a 3D design app. They have chosen a design challenge from a range of topics including sports, jewellery, animals, and space. By the end of the unit, students will create a 3D model that can be printed using our school’s 3D printers.