Building Opening

Last week we celebrated the opening of our new building, with an official opening in the morning where we were joined by MP Sonja Terpstra and project key stakeholders, Representatives from School Council - Bec, Kathryn and Peter T, former principal Libby Anderson, Minx Architecture, Melbcon Builders, the VSBA and project manages from RPS Consultancy. School Captains, Declan and Jamie, co led a tour of our new facilities with Judith and I; this was followed by a special assembly in the library with Senior Secondary and room 4 students involved, while all other classes joined in via webEx. Our new Acknowledgement of Country written and performed by our students opened the assembly, this was followed by ceremony events including cutting the ribbon and unveiling the building opening plaque.

Following the assembly, our visitors gathered in the new staffroom for morning tea and all students across the school were given a commemorative Croydon SDS cookie to either enjoy for morning tea or take home and share with family.

It was an honour to see our students respectfully engage with our visitors, and display our school values throughout the tour and assembly. It was one of many proud days to be the Principal of Croydon SDS.

In the afternoon we had our Community Opening event, where again Declan and Jamie supported by some of our other student leaders, led new building tours. We welcomed many past students, families and staff, along with current parents and carers, and School Councillors Bec and Peter T. This was followed by an afternoon tea where our current staff join in. Peter T joined Judith and I to cut a building cake for everyone to enjoy. It was a warm and positive vibe in the staffroom as everyone mingled.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in organising, attending and supporting these events. It was a great way to celebrate the building journey we've all been on for many years. Now we start to work towards stage 2 of the building project!

We have been featured in the local paper, you might like to have a read on page 8.

Other Term 3 Special Events

We are looking forward to celebrate Book Week next week with some fun whole school activities based on the Australian 2025 Book An Adventure books. We encourage everyone to join the fun and dress up as their favourite book character on Thursday 21 September.

On Thursday 11 September we have our whole school community Footy Day. Our community engagement team are currently planning some fun footy activities for students and family members to engage in on the day. We invite you to join in from 9:30-10am.

Father's Day Stall

Classes will attend the Father's Day Stall on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September. Leanne has been preparing for the stall, and with Bec's assistance will open and run the stall at our school for students to attend and purchase a gift. It's wonderful that our students have this opportunity to purchase a special item to thank their father or a significant person in their life.

Curriculum Day

On Wednesday, all staff met in the library for a full, engaging and highly valuable day of learning, focused on Shared Reading underpinned by Comprehensive Literacy for All, our whole school literacy approach. Teachers and ES collaborated as they were led and inspired by our Curriculum Leader, Lauren and Literacy/Communication consultant, Helen Tanish. Staff revisited previous learning and learnt new key reading and communication teaching concepts, practiced some new skills with each other and created engaging individual and class student specific reading prompts.

Staff also had the opportunity to consolidate Shared Reading learning with our Structured Functional Independence model for learning. In the afternoon, Student Engagement Leader Nick guided staff through a practical workshop where they explored and practiced how they would set up Shared Reading activities in the classroom.

We thank you for your support of our curriculum day by making alternate arrangements for your child/ren on this day.

Christmas Raffle

Preparation has commenced for our Showcase and Shine and Christmas raffle. It's hard to believe we are planning for December, but the school year is going quickly!

Leanne is once again organising many hampers for our annual community Christmas raffle fundraiser. We are calling for donations of any new goods appropriate for a family hamper, (eg. toys, books, pamper packs/items, gourmet food items, gift vouchers). If you, a family member or friend has anything that you would like to donate for the hamper, please bring this along to the front office. We are collecting items throughout this term.

Dates to Remember