Welcome Back!

Welcome back to the start of a new school year. I hope you’ve all had a well-earned, relaxing break after another very busy year.

We should all be immensely proud of our success and achievements as we continue to offer quality and authentic learning opportunities for our students. Thank you as always!

 We have had a low-key summer break as a family. We spent Christmas in Shepparton with Han's family, followed by some trips around the Bellarine with my cousin visiting from the UK. 

Whether you were able to get away or spent time at home, I hope you were able to turn off from work and feel refreshed to start back at work.

I have been elected as the Network Chair for our network of schools across Keilor-St Albans. In this role, I will lead the Network Executive to enable school leaders to collaborate and take collective responsibility for all learners in our network of schools. This is a 1-3 year position, which I will undertake in addition to my duties as Principal of Jackson School. It will however mean that I will have some additional days offsite throughout the year. I am confident that with the support of the leadership team, school operations will not be greatly impacted by this appointment. 

50 Year Golden Anniversary

This year, we celebrate our 50th Year Golden Anniversary. St Albans Special School was officially opened on 16th March 1976. St Albans Special School was renamed Jackson School in 1989. For a summary of our history, please visit: 

In addition to our "50th Birthday Party" on 16th March, we aim to celebrate our jubilee throughout the whole of 2026. 

This includes a temporary rebrand in 2026. For all external communications, please use the stationary with the 50 Year logo in the 50 Year Golden Jubilee branding folder on the FileDrive. This folder includes the logo, letterhead (including principal team e-signatures) and an email signature block to add below your existing email signature.

For internal communications and for whole school documents which will be in operation beyond 2026, please continue to use our normal school logo.

Workforce & HR

Despite the many staffing and recruitment challenges still faced across Western Melbourne, I am proud that we are starting the 2026 academic year with a teacher and at least one education support staff member assigned to every class.

On behalf of the Jackson School Community, I would like to officially welcome our new staff for 2026. 

• Teachers: Ashleigh Kelly (7/8B), Julie Sinclair (Health & Fitness/CRT) and Michelle Nowak (7/8E)

   

• Classroom ES Staff: Abi McCue (Prep B), Allana Harvey (1/2B), Jacqueline Honeywell (5/6D), Sonja Rowe (3/4C) and Thuy Duong (3/4D)

   

• Admin ES Staff: Michael Deans (Facilities & Grounds)

   

Over the holidays, 4 additional ES positions were advertised. We will aim to finalise the recruitment processes for these positions over the coming weeks.

A full staff list is available on the Operations Update.

Our school will continue our structure of three collaborative learning communities (sub-schools): Junior School (Prep - Year 4), Middle School (Year 3 - 8) and Senior School (Year 7 - Year 12). Within these communities, staff and classes work in smaller collaborative Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) led by an Assistant Learning Specialist (PLT Leader).

Lousie-Amy, Chloe, Casey, Uzer, Aaron, Taleisha, Jo P., Faith and Ben have been appointed as Assistant Learning Specialists (PLT Leaders) for 2026 and Brianna as the PLT Leader for the Allied Health Team. 

Alison (Phonics) and Kat D. (Independent Learning) also take on Assistant Learning Specialist roles to support the School Improvement Team. Cassandra will take on a new role within the Mental Health Team as our Digital Wellbeing Mentor to support our students to navigate the recent legislative and policy changes to social media and screen time

Bec M. will support our ES staff with their induction program and support the delivery of the ES professional learning; Jodie, Manu and Nimisha will continue to support the specialist team in their full-time roles; Karlie, Liz and Nadya will support the teaching and learning team with literacy and numeracy resources; Emily and Lauren L. will support the junior and middle school teams with resourcing support; Haley will support marketing throughout the school and Sandra will support in the running of the Jackstore.

Congratulations to all the staff who were successful in being appointed to a new position or a position of responsibility for 2026.

The leadership team will continue to focus on our SSP goals and AIP actions and activities in two smaller School Improvement Teams: Learning and Wellbeing. These are as follows:

1. Learning SIT: Julie (AP - Inclusive Practice), Kelly (LT Curriculum & Assessment), Gabi M. (LS - Professional Learning), Sarah B. (LS T&L - Literacy), Jaclyn (LS T&L - Numeracy) & Jess R. (LS Inclusion Outreach Coach). 
2. Wellbeing SIT: Bernadette (AP - Community Partnerships), Michelle (LT Mental Health & Wellbeing), Meggan (LT Junior School), Kathy P. (LT Middle School), Helena (LT Senior School) & Alex (Social Worker & Child Safety Officer).

Click below to view the School Structure for 2026:

Buildings & Grounds

Over the holidays, we continued to have several trades in each day. They have pushed to get the major works completed in time for our return next week. Cleaning is being completed this weekend. Time will be allocated in the afternoons on both Tuesday and Wednesday to support staff to set up their classrooms for our students' first day of 2026. Thank you Dan, Matt, Michael and Pushp for the mountain of work to deliver these projects over the holidays.

• Classrooms in Blocks 2 & 3 Renovated (New Ceilings, Lights/Electrical, Cabinets, Felt Smartboards)
• New Junior Playground with swing
• New Senior Playground (Ninja Course) at the back of the oval
• Replacement soft fall rubber around the swing and trampoline
• New AV System in Hall with LED panels
• Hall walls have been felted in preparation for our retractable, tiered seating system which will be installed in the Term 2 holidays
• New drink fountains (Aquabubblers) installed throughout the outdoor areas
• Back car park surfacing and line marking
• Prep Cubby Renovations (ongoing)
• New phone system with mobile extensions

We are awaiting for some additional works to be completed:

• Reconnection of our alarm systems
• CCTV Upgrade
• New Door into Music Studio from the courtyard
• New Intervention Room in Block 6
• Allied Health office felt
• New Transport Victoria Train Map

Curriculum Days - Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th January

Our Curriculum Days 1 & 2 will be held at school in the hall.

Please arrive by 8:30 am for an 8:45am start. 

Both days will be fully catered with morning tea and lunch.

Our Curriculum Day 1 will be focused on school operations, outlined in this bulletin, to begin the school year. We will also launch our 2026 AIP.

Our Curriculum Day 2, on Wednesday 29th January 2025 is external professional learning for P-10 staff on Numicon.

For more detailed information on other areas of School Operations, please click on the pages on the left for important updates ready to start the school year. These include: 

• Operations (Admin, HR, Finance, IT and Facilities/OHS) Update (including information on the new phone system and refreshed Xuno interface).
• School Performance & Improvement (including 2026 PDP template)
• Learning (including Youth Myki and Sunbury Line changes)
• Wellbeing (including Anaphylaxis Briefing)
• Disability Inclusion & NDIS (including AI Transcription notes)
• Staff Health, Safety & Wellbeing (including Speak Up QR Form)
• eHELP: AI (including Term 4 Slido results)

• Termly Dates

   

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your break, and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday.

Anthony