Principal Team's Report

This fortnight at the Springs...

As always, it has been an action-packed fortnight at the Springs, with many examples of wonderful learning taking place in our classrooms. There really is a 'buzz' when you walk into our learning spaces and see our students engaged in hands-on, practical tasks that consolidate the concepts being taught. Our staff are working hard to keep students excited and focused on the learning during this busy time of the term, whilst also undertaking assessments to gather evidence to write accurate, informative and personalised reports for all students. 

We've also had a number of other events going on at the Springs over the past fortnight, with our first group of students attending Ecolink for a sustainability and climate change workshop and we also had the Tiger PAW program visit our Year 6 students to talk about the importance of healthy eating and active lifestyles.

Rotary Public Speaking

Each year, we run a Public Speaking senior elective for our Year 5 and 6 students which provides students with important skills in effectively communicating a message in front of an audience. Throughout the elective, students are guided in choosing a topic of interest, formulating a speech and learning the skills needed to deliver their message in an engaging manner, with confidence and nuances including body language, tone, pace, volume and different persuasive devices. At the conclusion of the elective, families are invited in for a presentation afternoon, where speeches are heard, and two students are selected to represent the school at the Rotary Public Speaking Awards. 

This year, Elizabeth and Faiza represented Pakenham Springs and delivered amazing speeches that made us all proud. Faiza was even awarded a special judge's prize! We are incredibly proud of the effort they put into preparing for this event and congratulate them on their results. I'd also like to thank Mr Teague Rook who delivers this program each year to our students. Public speaking is such an important skill to master and we are lucky to have the expertise of Mr Rook guiding and supporting our students in this area. 

Victorian Education Excellence Awards

We are proud to announce that the Cardinia Network was the winner of the 2024 Outstanding Koorie Education Award. Each school within the Cardinia network works hard to ensure that the work we are doing is culturally sensitive and celebrates the diversity and inclusion of each and every student, staff member, family member and community member. This award is a wonderful acknowledgement of the efforts of all of our schools and we are proud to be part of such an active network in this area.

Looking ahead to 2025

Our planning is well underway for 2025 and we are getting excited about the plans we have going forward. Our Specialist programs in 2025 will stay the same, with Physical Education, Media Arts, Visual Arts and STEM being delivered to all students P-6. Auslan will again run for all students across the school, as will our year-level sports program and our Year 5/6 Interschool Sport development and competition program. We have some whole school events already booked in, such as World of Maths, a Dance Day (including the opportunity for our families to bust out their best moves) and a plethora of different experiences to help enrich the educational opportunities for all students.

If you are not returning to Pakenham Springs in 2025 (not our Year 6 students) please let the office know as soon as possible, as this will assist us in our planning for 2025. Likewise, if you have a child beginning Prep that you haven't already enrolled, please do so immediately ahead of our Prep Transition Program. 

Uniforms

Parents and Carers are reminded that a condition of enrolling at Pakenham Springs Primary School is adherence to our School Uniform. This includes the wearing of school-approved jumpers and polo shirts, the minimal wearing of jewellery, and also the requirement that hair colour be natural. Please note that our old red polo shirts are no longer acceptable. If you are having trouble securing uniform pieces, please contact our office for some assistance. Uniform breaches will be recorded via Compass, and we ask for parent/carer support in rectifying them as soon as practicable. Possible actions following frequent breaches of our Uniform policy are listed in the document attached. 

Supervision before school

Students are not to arrive at school until 8:30 am on school mornings.  Staff do not begin their workday until this time, and there is insufficient supervision available in the mornings.  Any student arriving before 8:30am will be asked to sit at the office and wait. We ask for your support in this matter.  Likewise, under no circumstances are students allowed to leave the school grounds in the morning and go across to the shops.  Not only is this incredibly unsafe, with them crossing the busy Heritage BLVD road unsupervised, but a small number of students are also coming back having purchased items inappropriate for the school day.  

Please contact OSHClub if you need to organise care and supervision for your child/ren outside of 8:30 am - 3:30 pm.

Have a wonderful fortnight,

The PSPS Leadership Team