Principal's Blog

Good Afternoon Parents Students, Staff and Friends of Derinya,  

As another week comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the superb leadership of this year’s year 6 students. These students have got off to a great start, living and breathing our school values and modelling this to our younger year levels. It is with great pleasure that I announce this year’s student leadership group to include. 

School Captains – Will Hunt, Heathcliff Bussey, Daya Budiarta and Tibbs Tabor 

Learning Leaders – Beth Westrup and Olive Thompson 

Wellbeing Leaders – Bailey Flavelle and Charlotte Brooks 

Sports Leaders – Henry Crouch and Maddy Flavelle 

Visual Arts Leaders – Edie Jenkins and Henry Surwayan 

Performing Arts Leaders – Sophia Blundell, Emilee Stewart, Jasmine Smyrk and Jack Ramsay 

Japanese Leaders – Piper Clugston and Spencer Jolly  

Science Leaders – Will Westrup and Bronagh Nicholls 

STEM Leaders – Cameron Forster Knight and Lachlan Swift 

Sustainability Leaders – Evie Hanger and Toby Bauer 

Journalism Leaders – Scarlett Phillipzig and Tessa Lawson 

House Captains 

Yellow House – Brooklyn Wallis and Addison Scott 

Red House – Nate Tueno and Rose Grigor 

Green House – Toby Ulyatt and Lexi Friend 

Blue House – Ryan McCullough and Holly Palmer 

These leaders presented to both their peers and teachers at the end of last year and are to be congratulated on their appointment to these roles. I wish them the very best of luck for the year ahead. Our Student Voice Team is currently being elected where all years 3-6 classes will have a nominated leader and will be buddied up with years P-2.  

School Council  

I can confirm that the School Council election process is now complete and that this year a ballot was not required. This year our school council includes; 

Parent members – Danny Alcock, Chrissy Robertson, Robyn White (DET  parent), Blair Crouch, Rob DiCarlo, Lenore McCullough, Jessie Sharp, Jodie Houghton and Eleanor Simons.  

DET members – Nadine Pye, Stuart Charles, Cory Stevens and Tina Ramsay 

Community members – Theresa Poulsom and Nadine Van Grootveld  

I would like to sincerely thank Therese Sakamoto, Julian Bartlett and Liz Poole for their dedicated service to our school council who are retiring from duties this year.  

Colour Run 

Our Colour Run is fast approaching and I continue to be blown away by our communities generosity. With one week to go, we are almost half way to our $60,000 fundraising target with the balance currently at $29, 305.00. There is still time to set up a profile if you haven’t done so already. Families are encouraged to come along to Overport Park next Friday 1st March to join in the fun. More information to come on the schedule of the day.  

Annual privacy reminder for our school community  

Our school collects and uses student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy and the Schools’ Privacy Collection Notice. 

Our Photographing, Filming and Recording Students Policy https://derinya.vic.edu.au/about/#policies describes how we collect and use photographs, video and recordings of students. The policy also explains when parent consent is required and how it can be provided and withdrawn.  

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Microsoft 365 safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Microsoft 365 please contact the school. 

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages: 

Amharic 

Arabic 

Dari 

Gujarati 

Mandarin 

Somali 

Sudanese 

Turkish 

Urdu 

Vietnamese 

Swimming Sports and House  

A huge congratulations to all students on their incredible participation and team spirit that was shown at yesterdays swimming sports. Many thanks to Mr Runchey and the team of staff and parents who organised and helped out on the day.  

We are currently in the process of renaming our houses. We had scheduled a launch date for this on Friday 8th March. The process is taking a little longer than expected so this event will be postponed until our new names have been finalised.  

Please note that this newsletter will be published fortnightly in 2024.  

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend.   

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend, 

Nadine Pye on behalf of the Derinya Team