Relieving Principal's Message

Last Wednesday’s Education Week Open Day at Carlingford West Public School was truly wonderful. It was heartwarming to see so many members of our parent community spend the day with us, celebrating student successes, effort, and overall excellence together. Sharing this special day with our staff, students, and the Executive Director of NSW Department of Education Metropolitan North, Cathy Brennan, is a memory I will cherish.

Although I am leading Carlingford West Public School for a short time, I felt incredibly proud of the talent showcased at the Open Day Concert. Congratulations to all the students who performed and to the dedicated staff who have worked tirelessly both in the classroom and through extracurricular activities, providing more opportunities for our students to shine.

The performances by the training band, beginning strings group, and junior and senior choirs were simply amazing. Special mentions go to the Chinese Poetry Recital group for their rendition of 'Magnificence,' to Mandy for her breathtaking cello performance, and to Allen who mesmerised us with his violin playing.

Thank you to Mrs. King for organising the concert and to the entire Carlingford West Public School community for continuing to ‘inspire excellence’ every day!

New school wayfaring signage and school map

During Open Day, I was approached by many parents and carers seeking directions to their child’s classroom. With 62 classrooms spread across our large school site, this proved to be quite a challenge.

To help our school community and visitors navigate the school with ease, we will be installing wayfaring signage throughout the campus. We anticipate these signs will be in place over the coming weeks.

Additionally, our admin staff have colour-coded a school map indicating the locations of grades and classes, which can be found on the ‘Our principal and staff’ page on our school website. We hope these improvements will make visiting and moving around the school much more straightforward for everyone.

New Aboriginal signage

We are delighted to announce the installation of new Aboriginal signage around our beautiful school, Carlingford West Public School. These signs warmly welcome and farewell all community members and visitors, reflecting our deep respect for those who came before us. They remind us of the shared responsibility we hold today as contributors to our school's ongoing history.

Central to this message is our school mural, proudly displayed in the hall and featured on our sports shirts. The mural's design highlights the Tree of Knowledge at its heart, symbolising growth and learning. The footprints represent our students' journey as they grow through education to become the leaves of the tree. The core of the tree embodies our strong community, surrounded by our seven grades, from Kindergarten to Year 6. Winding through our local area is Hunts Creek, a place of significance where Aboriginal people traditionally fished for our local totem, the Black Snapper.

This signage and artwork together honour our past, celebrate our present, and inspire our future.

Walking home from school

We kindly ask all families to remind their children who walk home from school to ensure that they walk straight home each afternoon. It is important that students do not stop or detour on their way home, so that families know they are safe and accounted for.

Thank you for your support in helping us keep all students safe and encouraging responsible behaviour as they travel home.

School Community Charter

Parents and carers play an important role in the school community. The School Community Charter outlines the responsibilities of parents, carers, educators, and school staff in NSW public schools to ensure our learning environments are collaborative, supportive, and cohesive. It informs parents and carers on how to engage positively with NSW public schools.

Parents and carers can expect to be welcomed into our schools to work in partnership to promote student learning; communication from teaching staff will be timely, polite, informative, and solutions-focused; professional relationships with school staff will be based on transparency, honesty, and mutual respect; and to be treated fairly, with tolerance and understanding promoted as we respect diversity.

We remind parents that it is not appropriate to approach other children or their parents to discuss incidents that sometimes occur between students.

Respectful communication is a right, and everyone in our school community has the right to feel respected. Unacceptable or offensive behaviour has no place in our schools.

To ensure the safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and the wider community, steps will be taken to address any unacceptable behaviour. This may include restricting contact with the school community or, in more serious cases, referral to NSW Police. We encourage you to read the School Community Charter to understand how important it is to create and maintain a positive learning environment for all students. Thank you for working with us to uphold these values.

New NSW DoE student behaviour code

From Day 1, Term 4 2026, NSW public schools will introduce a revised Student code of conduct.

This revised Student code of conduct sets clear, consistent and high expectations for behaviour across all schools. It will replace the existing Behaviour code for students. The existing Behaviour code for students will remain in place until the start of Term 4 2026.

We are committed to high standards of behaviour in every school. All students are expected to follow these expectations:

Respect everyone
Be responsible
Be safe.

Schools will continue to teach and model these expectations in classrooms, playgrounds and online. Teachers and staff will help students understand what respectful, responsible and safe behaviour looks like in different situations.

We believe behaviour is everyone’s responsibility. When students, parents, carers and school staff are all on the same page, we create positive school environments where everyone can thrive.

For more information about helping your child better understand the expectations of the code visit the Student code of conduct - Respect everyone, Be responsible, Be safe webpage.

What you need to know about the revised Student code of conduct

The revised Student code of conduct:

has been simplified into a clear and concise document
aligns with existing school policies and procedures
clearly outlines what is expected of students
supports consistent expectations across all NSW public schools
applies to all school-related activities — at school, off-site, and online.

The revised Student code of conduct will be available throughout 2026 so everyone in our school communities can become familiar with it before it begins. Resources are now available to support schools to communicate with students, parents or carers and staff. This includes translated versions.

We encourage parents, carers, families and students to read the Student code of conduct before annual acknowledgement starts from Term 1 2027.

The revised Student code of conduct will also be included in each school’s School behaviour support and management plan by the end of Term 4 2026.

Together, we can ensure our schools are respectful, responsible and safe places for every student.

Kind regards,

Lee Shipley,

Relieving Principal.