Principal's Message 

Fortnightly reflection

Wow! This term is ticking by quickly. Four weeks in the bank and all of a sudden November has begun. 

The last fortnight has been another exciting one with Bunnings kindly providing seedlings for our veggie boxes with our students assisting with the planting, Barwon Water ran an incursion for our 2/3 students, celebrations were held for our amazing teachers, the 5/6s visited the Melbourne Museum, and we also held our 2025 Foundie Parent Information Night.  Never dull around here.

A friendly reminder too that we have some school council approved Pupil Free Days scheduled next week:

• Monday, November 4th for teachers to complete some assessment and reporting commitments and 
• Tuesday, November 5th (Melb Cup Day) planned for teachers to conduct some new English curriculum learning. 

Parent Survey Data Dive- Thanks and results

Thank you to those parents who attended our Parent Opinion Survey Data Dive yesterday. It was an insightful discussion and opportunities like this are a wonderful opportunity to highlight some of the key areas we have improved upon since our last Parent Survey data exploration (see pic below) and highlight some areas we seek further clarification on to make these goals for the next 12 months. We as a staff are proud of what we have achieved at Ceres PS in recent years and are always striving to improve and reflecting upon our survey responses is one such way to do so. For parents to give their time to help us set our goals for future improvement we say a very big thank you!

Some of the biggest improvement areas in the 2024 Parent Opinion Survey compared to 2023;

• This school has clean and well maintained facilities and grounds 70% (+37%)
• My child feels accepted by other students at school 91% (+32%)
• This school has a strong relationship with the local community 74% (+30%)
• My child can explore their own interests in class work 70% (+22%)
• My child feels safe at school 91% (+21)
• My child feels confident about skills and strategies they have learnt at school to address bullying 61% (+20%)
• I am able to get the information I need through the school’s regular communication channels 83% (+20%)
• My child gets extra help with learning from teachers when needed 74% (+20%)

Before School Care 2025 EOI

As you may have seen in Tuesday's Compass post, we have engaged Kelly Club about the prospect of reintroducing Before School care in 2025. 

To do so, 7 students each day must be enrolled for this to be a financially viable option. One great aspect is that KC doesn't require the sessions all five days during the week. 

Therefore, we are very keen to know which families may need Before School Care in 2025 and what days in particular. If we have enough interest for 7 students (or more) to attend on the same days then we will strongly recommend Kelly Club to reinstate the program on those particular days.

If this applies to you, please respond via this Google Form by Wed, November 6th.

Save the dates

We have two special and exciting events planned for  Week 11 this term.

On Monday, December 9th we are having a Grandparents and Special Friends open morning from 8:45-10:45am. Our classrooms will be open for special guests to come in and work with their loved ones to make Christmas decorations which we will use to decorate our school at our Carols on the Deck evening. Please spread the word regarding this fun morning.

Our Carols on the Deck evening will be held on Thursday, December 12th from 3:15-5:30. Kelly Sports have been invited to run some fun activities on the oval for all the kids from 3:15-4:15 with our Carols being presented from 4:30-5:30. Classes will perform a couple of songs each and it will be a great opportunity for our community to celebrate another huge year of learning at our fantastic school. 

The event will be held on the deck outside the 2/3 classrooms (weather permitting) and families are encouraged to bring their own picnic rug, food and camp chairs when they come to watch. Students are encouraged to dress in Christmas clothes or their favourite cultural attire.

2025 Beginning of the school year information

At our School Council meeting this week it was approved for ALL Ceres PS students to begin the 2025 school year on Thursday, January 30th.

This slightly delayed start is due to Wednesday, Jan 28th being a mandated Pupil Free Day for all Government Schools and Wednesday, Jan 29th will be used as our second Pupil Free Day as staff embark on Literacy and Wellbeing professional learning for programs and strategies we intend to introduce very early on in 2025. 

Subscribe to our Newsletter 

Our newsletter is private to our school community and is not shared on our website or social media.  However, you may want to have a grandparent or other family member be able to receive our newsletter.  If you do, you can subscribe to our newsletter with the link below and then when the newsletter is published it will go to them. You can also subscribe if you would like to receive the newsletter directly to your email instead. Subscribe here

Reminder: Our student led Assembly is on today at 2:30 pm.

Our assembly is an important part of our school. It is an opportunity to proactively reinforce our school values and expectations through the acknowledgement and celebration of our students and school. 

Have a great fortnight.

Tim Callaghan

Acting Principal