Message from the Principal 

SPRING IS IN THE AIR…

The weather is starting to become a little bit warmer (he says optimistically!) and there are lots of signs that Spring has arrived. This is a time of the year that many of us really love and there is light…indeed longer daylight at the end of the tunnel. This is a reminder for all our students to start wearing their school hats outdoors!

We have all worked hard to get this far this year and with only a couple of weeks of term left we are in the final stretch. There is lots to look forward to and only 15 more sleeps until the premier performances of Lost in the Movies! 

THANK YOU PARENT ASSOCIATION FOR A WONDERFUL FATHERS & SPECIAL PERSONS BREAKFAST

CELEBRATING OUR DADS & SPECIAL PEOPLE

What a fantastic morning we had at Greenhills celebrating our Fathers and Special People! It was wonderful to see so many families joining us for breakfast, spending time together and enjoying the opportunity to connect as a school community.

Events like this are about much more than breakfast! They are about connection, belonging and community — bringing the important people in our students’ lives into our school and creating those special moments and memories together. The smiles, conversations and energy around Greenhills made it a really GREAT way to start the day.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and to our wonderful Emma Oliver from our Parent Association and all of our PA helpers who worked behind the scenes to make the morning such a success. We hope all of our dads, grandfathers, carers and special people enjoyed being part of the morning and know just how important they are in the lives of our Greenhills kids.

This Sunday, I’d like to wish all of the dads, grandads, stepdads and special people in our Greenhills community a very Happy Father’s and Special Persons Day! 

I hope you get the chance to slow down, spend some quality time together and enjoy all those little moments that make family life so special. As a school, we know just how important the encouragement, love and support of the significant adults in our children’s lives can be.

To all of our dads (including my dad - Peter Penson in the photo above) and special people, thank you for everything you do, for the school drop-offs, the packed lunches, the cheering from the sidelines, the bedtime stories, the helping hands, the words of encouragement and the countless other things that often go unnoticed.

I hope you are spoilt just a little bit this Sunday and, most importantly, get to enjoy some special time with the people who matter most.

Happy Father’s and Special Persons Day from all of us at Greenhills! 

RED NOSE DAY THANK YOU

Yes, it does look like a Waa convention but a huge thank you to everyone who got involved in Red Nose Day last week! It was fantastic to see our Greenhills students and staff getting behind such an important cause, bringing plenty of fun, colour and, of course, red noses to our school. 

A special thank you and well done to Josh Hick for his fantastic work in organising and promoting not only the day but also the daily running challenge which our students really loved getting involved with. Thank you also to our families for your support, donations and enthusiasm. Once again, our Greenhills community showed what a G.R.E.A.T. place we have!

VPA CONFERENCE

Last week Janine, Brad and myself had the opportunity to attend the Victorian Principals Association (VPA) 2026 Conference at the new Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre. More than 440 school leaders from across Victoria came together over two and a half days around the theme “Leading with Connection and Purpose”, providing a valuable opportunity to learn, reflect, connect and bring new ideas back to our own school communities.

A real highlight for the three of us was the incredibly thought-provoking keynote from Dr Gill Hicks AM MBE. Her remarkable story and reflections on humanity, connection and the choices we make in how we respond to others were both powerful and challenging. It reinforced for us that great schools are ultimately built on people, relationships and a strong sense of belonging. We returned to Greenhills feeling incredibly grateful for our community, but also challenged to keep asking: How can we continue to make our GREAT school even better?

PLAN FOR THE LAST DAY OF TERM

We are incredibly excited about our upcoming school production and can’t wait to see our students take to the stage! With performances across two evenings, we know there will be plenty of excitement and some very tired students (and staff!) by Friday.

As Friday 18 September is also the last day of Term 3, we will run a modified school program and there will be no whole-school assembly. Families are welcome to choose what works best for their child; attending at the normal time, enjoying a sleep-in and arriving later, or having a rest day at home. Greenhills will remain open and supervised for the full school day, with the usual last-day finish time of 2.30pm.

These arrangements also support the wellbeing of our staff and help us manage Time in Lieu requirements for those involved across both production nights, including all Year 5 and 6 teachers and a number of other staff. Where a classroom teacher will not be present on Friday, I will communicate directly with those families. We hope this flexibility allows everyone to enjoy what promises to be two fantastic nights while recognising the enormous effort that goes into bringing our production to life.

Thank you for your support. 

LEARNING TOGETHER IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

At Greenhills, we know that some of the best professional learning happens when schools open their doors, share their practice and learn from each other. As part of our ongoing commitment to improving teaching and learning, we are working alongside three other local schools as a Community of Practice, creating opportunities for our leadership teams to collaborate, reflect and learn together. These schools are Apollo Parkways, Glen Katherine and Banyule Primary Schools.

Over the next few weeks, leadership teams from each school will take part in Learning Walks, visiting classrooms across the four schools to observe teaching practice in action. Our particular focus will be on the key elements of Explicit Teaching within the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0). These visits are not about comparing schools or individual teachers, but about developing a shared understanding of effective practice, identifying what is working well and considering what we can learn from each other. We are really looking forward to welcoming our colleagues into Greenhills classrooms and continuing to strengthen the GREAT teaching and learning happening across our school.

TRANSITION PROGRAM

Our 2027 Preps have continued to participate in our Experience Greenhills sessions and we look forward to building momentum around our transition and preparation for next year. Thank you to our Prep Team for their organization and for doing so much to set our current prep students up for success. At this stage we are planning to run 4 x prep classes of 18 or 19 students for next year.

A reminder about the following dates:

Thursday 10th September – Student Agency Conferences (students only attend for the duration of their conference).

Friday 11th September – Footy Day & End of Term BBQ (after our assembly)

HILAT Focus: Pursuing Goals

At Greenhills, we want our students to take ownership of their learning by setting goals, making plans and reflecting on the progress they make along the way. Our weekly reflection question is a simple way to continue these conversations at home and encourage children to think about how they can keep growing as learners.

Week 8 – Celebrating Progress

What progress are you most proud of so far, even if you haven't reached your goal yet?

James Penson,

Principal.