Principal Team's Report

This fortnight at the Springs

As we near the end of another school term, I want to thank all of our Springers Community for their energy, enthusiasm and support as we continue on our mission to educate, motivate and inspire all of our students to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to become respectful and informed members of our local and global community. I am so proud to lead our school, and it fills my heart every day to look around and see the smiles on the faces of our staff, students and families as they enjoy everything the Springs has to offer. 

Over the past fortnight, it was a privilege to visit our Year 4 campers in Phillip Island and hear about their adventures. I am impressed with the way a group of our Year 3 students presented their poetry to the residents of the Evergreen Retirement Village, and it was a joy to watch our younger students learning how to safely interact with Vixen, the Responsible Pet Ownership Golden Retriever earlier this week.

Thank you to all of our visitors this week who popped in for our Prep Grandparents and Special Person's celebration and our Open Afternoon. Even though the weather wasn't great, the number of visitors to our classrooms was wonderful to see. Our students are certainly proud of the learning they do in their classrooms and love showing this off to their families. 

We want to congratulate all of our State School Spectacular participants who have been working so hard throughout this year, learning songs and movements ready for the big show! Your moment to shine is this weekend - we can't wait to see you take the stage and make us proud! Thank you to Mrs Priestley and Mrs Mattson for all of your hard work in making sure our performers are reading and raring to go!

Emergency Management Processes

Each year, all schools undergo a thorough review and update of our Emergency Management Response processes. A big component of this is the scheduling of various emergency drills throughout the year to ensure all staff, students and visitors are prepared for action should an emergency situation occur. This term, we practised our response to a Lockdown situation. This may occur if there is a dangerous animal at large within the school grounds, an unfamiliar or suspicious person in the vicinity, an unregulated student who may be displaying dangerous behaviour, a sudden and potentially dangerous weather event, or a number of other local situations occurring. In these cases, our processes include:

• Sounding an alert to gain the attention of all school community members.
• An announcement signalling that we are moving into a 'Lockdown' response.
• All external doors and windows are locked. Blinds are being drawn if they are installed in the classrooms.
• Lights being turned off.
• Students being moved out of sight as much as possible - this may include moving away from windows in a dangerous weather situation, or under tables if necessary.
• Staff and students remain calm and quiet until the 'all clear' signal is given. 

During a Lockdown, classroom teachers communicate with our school office to indicate that all students and staff members are accounted for. Any visitors to the school at that time (i.e. those who may be reading with students, helping distribute fruit tubs, etc) should remain with the class closest to them and the teacher of that class will let the office know that they have been accounted for. The importance of accurately signing in and out of Compass at the front office when visiting the school is absolutely crucial for all community members.

We understand that Emergency Drills can be distressing for some students, however, we make no apologies for running these regularly. We offer well-being and debrief support to staff and students as required. I'm sure that you can understand the importance of us being prepared for potential future emergencies and having the opportunity to practise and refine our responses over time.  We appreciate your support in speaking with your child/ren about the importance of these drills, taking them seriously and asking questions if they're unsure of what to do in an emergency.

We want to hear from you!

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Caregiver / Guardian Opinion Survey and is seeking your feedback. The survey, offered by the Department of Education, is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement.

Your opinions are important to us and will contribute to identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. The department will use the results from the survey for research purposes and to improve outcomes for students.

The survey will be conducted online and only take 20 minutes to complete. It can be completed on any internet-enabled device (desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone) and is compatible with most browsers.

To complete the survey, simply:

1. Click on the link below or copy and paste the text (https://www.orima.com.au/parent) into your browser. This button will take you directly to the survey... 

2. Select the School and Campus name:

School Name: Pakenham Springs Primary School

Campus Name: Pakenham Springs Primary School

3. Enter the School PIN below.

PIN: 617659

4. When complete, please click on the TICK button at the end of the survey to submit your answers. Please note that the survey will time out after 60 minutes of inactivity.

Planning for 2025

It's hard to believe that we're already planning for 2025! Our budget and workforce planning take place now and it is important that we have the most up-to-date information possible. If you know that you will not be returning to Pakenham Springs in 2025 (not our current year 6 students!), please let us know with as much notice as possible. This allows for our class structures to be finalised as early as we can.

If you have a request that should be considered before placing your child in a class for 2025, please address this in writing to me at renee.cotterell@education.vic.gov.au with the subject line "2025 Request". Please note that requests for specific teachers are generally not considered. Likewise, friendship group requests from parents cannot always be considered for many reasons. 

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 8:30 am 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 holiday break Springers. We'll see you back on Monday October 7th ready for an action packed Term 4!

The PSPS Leadership Team