From the Principal

Welcome to IPS

It has been a short but very busy week back to school after the long weekend!

Students were excited and eager to be back, to see their friends and teachers and share tales of their long weekend adventures.

Just look at how happy some of our students are to be back at school playing with their friends before school in one of the new cubby houses.  The cubby house has become a shop and we can clearly see a few excellent mathematicians here...

NAPLAN 

Students in year 3 and year 5 participated in the first of the NAPLAN tests this week. They sat the Writing assessment on Wednesday morning and today sat the Reading Assessment.   There are two more assessements taking place:

• Conventions of Language on Friday morning and 
•  Numeracy next Monday morning after assembly. (This is the last of scheduled NAPLAN tests although there catch up sessions until Wednesday next week for students who have been absent).

Please ensure your child is on time as students who are late are not as prepared as others and it can also disrupt those who have started testing.  Depending on the time your child arrives, it may not be possible to start the test that day.

Check the timetable below for dates and times of the tests.

School Review - Update

We have completed our final day of the school review process.  The reviewer and the panel have held focus groups with a cross section of our school community to ensure we have a wide lens on where we need to concentrate efforts to continually improve.  Using this information, along with data from staff, student and parent surveys and also student achievement data we have been able to formulate a new set of long term goals and key implementation strategies.  Once we have refined and optimised these, they guide our journey over the next four years.  

The thoughtful discussions, collaboration, and shared expertise of students, staff and parents throughout this process have reinforced what makes our school community so strong — our passion for student learning and well-being.

Mark and I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone for their valued contribution and would also like to thank the review panel for their critical evaluation, guidance and support. we look forward to seeing the positive impact of this review on our school's future.

25 Days of Foundation

Foundation students have been at Ivanhoe Primary School for only 25 days and what a great start we have had! 

Foundation teachers and all staff at IPS are so proud of the ways students have settled into school life, demonstrating all our school values of Respect, Resilience, Persistence, Independence and Confidence! 

As students have explored the school environment, they have been introduced to school routines, classroom learning expectations and outside play all while developing new friendships and showing a positive mindset to take on new experiences.  

This term students have: 

• participated in phonics learning activities with their RWI groups 
• joined in learning with specialist teachers 
• undertaken special craft and experiences to introduce new letters and sounds 
• used number sequencing to count and match collections  
• borrowed books from the library 
• met buddies in Year 4 
• participated in classroom home reading program 
• played in the yard supported by Peer leaders  
• and so much more…….! 

A special thank you to families who have helped children have a successful start to school! 

Look how far they've grown already from their first day to what they can do now...

Head over to the Student Voice page to see more photos and watch the Foundation students' Silly Socks Day video.

Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Ivanhoe Primary School is excited to be taking part!

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 and aims to help young readers develop a lifelong love of reading. 

It is not a competition; it is a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 5 September 2025.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

This year, the Challenge is celebrating its 20th anniversary with the theme ‘20 years of words and wonder’ and a year of special activities. For details, follow the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge Facebook

Since it began in 2005, more than 4.5 million young readers have taken part and together read more than 63 million books!

To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge 

You can also contact our school’s Challenge coordinator, Francine Stroud with any questions.

Happy reading!

Mural

Much to the delight of our students, our artist Lee, finished off the mural over the weekend.  It went from this....

To this...

First thing on Tuesday morning, students were super keen to come and tell Mr Kent and I when they had spotted the hidden objects in the mural.  Next time you're at school, take a closer look and see if you can find the hidden objects...

Parent Payment Contribution

While all Government schools receive funding, IPS runs many programs  and resources that rely on the parent voluntary contribution. We are yet to meet many of our budget targets, including digital learning technologies and curriculum contributions. If you are still considering to what level, you are able to support the school program please also consider the educational benefits the contribution affords every child at our wonderful school. The form is at this link.

School Photos - Friday 21st March 

Don't forget that next Friday (21st March) is school photo day!

Sibling, group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link below. 

Three easy payment methods: Visa, MasterCard or PayPal 

To order, visit: www.advancedlife.com.au And enter online order code: TMA QV8 A9V 

• Online orders - Do not require an envelope 
• Sibling Photos - Don’t forget to pre-order your sibling photos online up to 24 hours before photo day. We provide your school with a list of sibling orders right up to the day of photography. If you miss the online order deadline, you can submit a completed sibling order envelope, found with the photographers first thing in the morning on photography day to the photographer. Please also inform the school so they are aware to schedule your children in for a photograph. Sibling photographs only apply to children enrolled at your school. Please note not all schools offer sibling photos. 
• Late fees – A late fee will be applied to each package purchased after photo day due to the additional cost of producing these packages separately. Please refer to the cut-off date on the flyer. 
• Package delivery - School photographs will be delivered approximately 8-10 weeks after the day of photography. Please note this delivery timeframe is dependent on proofing, the post-production process and additional photography days at your school. 
• Previous Years’ photos - Past years’ photographs including sports, co-curricular and representative groups are also available to order under the “previous years or group photo” tabs at your school’s advancedorder site, click on the “Order School Photos Here” button. You can also order past packages, portrait images and gifts from your child’s unique, individual and secure advancedyou image archive site using the unique 9-digit image code found on packages you have ordered in the past. 

advancedlife would like to express our appreciation to Ivanhoe Primary School for placing your trust in us. Please remember we offer a 100% money back guarantee on our products to ensure your peace of mind. We would also love to receive your feedback or resolve any issues you may experience as fast as possible, to ensure your satisfaction. If you have any questions, comments or feedback relating to your advancedlife experience, please contact us at: www.advancedlife.com.au/contact. 

Class Rep Q & A - Every Class needs a rep

Find out a little more about being a class rep from Emily, who has done this a few times!

Emily's Q & A 

Is it a lot of work?

Like most volunteer roles, you completely control how much time you commit to being a class rep at IPS. 

Even just assisting in setting up a class WhatsApp group for all of your class’s parents and carers to join is a fantastic way of connecting the parent and carer cohort. 

Wait a minute. It’s a Fair year – doesn’t that mean there will be SO much to do?!

Not at all! There is one extra task added to your responsibilities in a Fair year (more on this below), but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Fair Committee to run and organise the Fair.

So what is this extra “Fair responsibility” you speak of?

Your class will be assigned a stall to run at the Fair by the Fair committee. There are many ‘how to’ guidelines and instructions relating to your particular stall which the Fair Committee will provide you and guide you through, however the main duty you will be responsible for is liaising with all parents and carers in your class to create a roster of who can help run the stall on the day. If there are enough volunteers, it is possible to be allotted only 30 minutes of stall duty – plenty of time remaining to enjoy the Fair with your family. Quite often, two classes are assigned to run the one stall so you have plenty of people to support with what needs to be done.

What about producing an artwork masterpiece with the class for auction at the Fair?

 Not this year! The Fair Committee has decided that this is no longer the responsibility of the Class Rep but do not fear! Each class will still be producing wonderful pieces of art to raise extra money at the Fair, however, creation of each masterpiece will happen under the guidance and leadership of the class teacher (with any parent assistance entirely optional).

Hmm, ok, I’m thinking about it…

Excellent! We would love you to be a Class Rep this year. Please reach out to your class teacher on Dojo to let them know. It is a wonderful way to connect with, and assist in connecting, the IPS community; something we all value and may it long continue…

Please help.

Each class needs a class representative to help get things done!  Contact your child's teacher if you are interested.  If you're happy to help out every now and again, or you're interested in social get-togethers, you might want to consider adding your contact details to your child's class rep list.  Keep a look out for the request coming soon!

We welcome and value families who would like to volunteer with us.  Take a look at our classroom helpers information along with our Child Safe Volunteer information and please do volunteer. You'll find it really rewarding.

Annual PFA Trivia Night Coming Soon...

Finally

Next Friday is National Ride2School Day! It is also our school photo day too! 

We plan well in advance for whole school events like school photos and in this case we booked the photography company over 12months ago prior to the National Ride2School day being announced.   

We really would encourage as many students as possible to participate but we do understand that some parents may not want their child's hair messed up by wearing a helmet before having their photo taken.  

One of our school values is reslience and this might be a good opportunity for students to demonstrate just how resilent Ivanhoe Primary School students can be!   Older students might like to bring a brush with them to school and perhaps younger children could opt to walk to school instead of riding or scooting.   Why miss out on what always an exciting morning with Ride2School leaders handing out stickers and fresh fruit!  Head over to the Ride2School page for more information.

Thank you for your continued support.

Pam Wright

Co Principal

http://www.ivanhoeps.vic.edu.au/ 

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Victoria and pay respect to the ongoing living cultures of First Peoples.