Principal's Report

100 days of Foundation 

Our Foundation students will be celebrating 100 days of primary school this Friday at our assembly and in their classrooms throughout the day. We are proud of the wonderful growth and learning our youngest students have achieved in just 100 days at school. This Friday is a chance for students to reflect on their learning and growth, and for teachers to celebrate their achievements. Activities will involve understanding the number 100, such as counting to 100, creating art with 100 items, and dressing up as if they are 100 years old! I am sure everyone will enjoy this fabulous celebration.

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD).  The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability.  These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2020). Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling

• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional

• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools 

• consider how they can strengthen the support for students with disabilities in schools

• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information.  To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy   https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal  https://www.nccd.edu.au

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school. 

Students at school very early:

We are concerned at the number of students arriving at school without a parent onsite before 8:45am. Prior to 8:45am staff are not on duty and the school grounds are unsupervised. Whilst we understand that some parents have work commitments that require them to leave for work earlier than 8:45am you need to plan for your child. Camp Australia offers an excellent out of School Hours Care (OSHC) program to support our families. 

Year 6 – 7 Transition

Secondary school acceptance letters are due back to school by Tuesday, 12th August. All students attending a government secondary school need to return these forms so that we have a record of where are students are moving on to. 

Musical Tickets

Tickets for our Whole school (F-6) Musical production ‘The Real Story of Alice in Wonderland’ are now on sale via Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/DDHII

Dates

Wednesday 6 August 2025 - Thursday 7 August 2025 from 6.30pm

Location

WELLINGTON SECONDARY COLLEGE91 Police Road, MULGRAVE VICTORIA 3170

Ticket purchase revenue helps to cover the cost of creating and purchasing costumes, art consumables for creating props, the commission for the rights to the purchased script, lighting and sound technician costs, video recording and more.

Whole school rehearsals 

Today we enjoyed a whole school dress rehearsal at Wellington Secondary College, with students from Foundation to Year 6 practising their dances and stagecraft, ready for the big performance nights next week. Even some teachers had a go! 

Musical Promotion Badges are selling fast! There are 8 wonderful designs for students to choose from. Badge prices are:

1 badge = $2

3 badges = $5

8 badges = $10 (this is a full set)

Important Information about our Uniform Supplier and Shop – Reminder

Our new Uniform supplier is Spartan School World, Noble Park. 

The Albany Rise Primary School retail uniform range is now available instore at Noble Park and online at the following URL: https://www.spartanschoolworld.com.au/collections/albany-rise-primary-school

NAPLAN information - Victorian student outcomes

Book Character Parade 2025

A reminder that our Book Character Parade for 2025 will be held at 9.00am on Monday August 18th (in the hall). Start planning your costumes now!

Ticket Information for VSSS

We encourage you to let your family, friends and the wider school community know so they can purchase tickets and enjoy our students' hard work.

See VSSS page in this newsletter for more information.

Gifts for Staff

The Department of Education periodically remind us about the rules around accepting gifts from parents and carers.  Whilst we would always say that your ‘thanks’ is enough I know that some families like to acknowledge the teacher or education support staff through a small gift. It is perfectly OK for staff to accept these gifts, but they must be less than $100 in value. Occasionally parents and carers will contribute to a group gift, and this is also OK so long as the individual amounts contributed don’t exceed $100 in value. Of course, there is no obligation to provide a gift to staff but for those who do it’s better that we all know the rules for this kind of thing. 

Policy Updates- Response to concerning Online behaviours:

The Department of Education has updated policy effective from the 21 July 2025. Under Ministerial Order 1125 – Procedures for Suspension and Expulsion in Government Schools, principals will have the power, in exceptional circumstances, to suspend or expel students where incidents that occur outside of school activity, particularly online, significantly impact the health, safety and wellbeing of students or staff at school. 

These powers apply only to serious incidents where there is a clear and close connection to the school and the behaviour of a student outside of school unreasonably impacts the safety and wellbeing of students or staff at school, and their ability to learn or work. Please note: 

They do not apply to behaviours unrelated to the school or school community.

Suspension and expulsion will remain measures of last resort – our primary approach continues to focus on proactive and positive behaviour support, including working with you to teach students the behaviours we expect of them, in school and in life.

Student Bike and Scooter Safety

Parents/Carers are reminded that it is a legal requirement that children riding a bicycle or scooter near the road, in parks or playgrounds, must wear a helmet. Staff on duty before and afterschool are seeing an increasing number of children without head protection riding bikes and scooters into (and out of) the school grounds.  Our Duty of Care requires us to ensure all students have adequate safety protection. We are mandated to report any situation where this is not the case. Please help staff by ensuring every child is wearing a helmet when riding, scooting, roller-skating, etc. 

You can find more about Victorian bike rules and helmet rules here: https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/cyclist-safety/wearing-a-bicycle-helmet

Additionally, before and afterschool when staff are on yard duty (8.45am-9.00am and 3.30pm-3.45pm) we do not allow students to ride and scoot on the grounds for the safety of other students and parents collecting and dropping off students. There are just too many people on the grounds to have students (including secondary students) riding and scooting around the grounds. We thank all our families for your understanding.

Judith Drew

Principal