From the Principal 

End of Term 1 2026

As we approach the end of what has been a full and energetic start to the year, it is worth pausing to reflect on the many highlights that have shaped our term. There has been a great deal to celebrate, and these moments are a testament to the strength and spirit of our school community.

We would like to sincerely thank our families and community members for the enthusiasm and support you have shown across the term. Your involvement plays a vital role in 

enriching the experiences we provide for our students. We also extend our appreciation to our staff, whose ongoing dedication ensures the delivery of a vibrant, engaging curriculum with student wellbeing at its core.

Throughout Term 1, our students have participated in a wide range of learning opportunities, events, and celebrations, including:

• Parent Information Nights

• Swimming trials

• ‘Getting to know’ you parent evenings

• Student Leaders Badge presentations

• Year 2 – Police Academy excursion

• Harmony Day / Dance Incursion

• Year 4 Bike Education

• NAPLAN

• Year 6 Camp to Lorne

• Year 6 Interschool Sports and Gala Day

• Year 6 Student Leadership Badge Presentation

• District and Divisional Swimming Carnivals

• Announcement of Whole School Production and selection of main cast

• Twilight Sports event

• Cross Country trials

• GRIP Student Leadership Conference

• Hot Cross Bun Morning Tea

• Junior School Council Trivia

• Annoucement of Breakfast Club to commence in Term Two

Meeting with the Honourable Jacinta Allan

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity and privilege to be invited with four other principals to meet with our Premier, the Honourable Jacinta Allan and our local Member of Parliament, Mr John Mullahy. Also present at this meeting were the two School Captains from Glen Waverley Secondary College and a parent representative (Macy Liao) from Camelot Rise PS. 

The purpose of this meeting was to provide the Premier with some feedback in relation to the positives that are happening in our schools and provide her with information about what are the current major issues in education. It was great to hear from other Principals and realise that we are all on the same page. I was able to advocate for our school in relation to some much-needed additional funds to improve the facilities at our school. We hope that we can receive some funding from the government to enable us to update our classroom learning spaces, administration building, toilets and our oval. We hope that this meeting will benefit everyone at Camelot Rise Primary School.

One of the people attending this meeting was a parent at our school (Macy Liao) and I would like to share with you all the email that she sent to Mr Young (5YT) after the meeting

Hi Mr Young, Just want to say Thank You to the Camelot Rise teachers, my son Godfrey Li (graduated to Highvale Middle School now) and Issac Li are both enjoying your teaching. Today it is my honour to have a meeting with Principal Mr Coney to fight for the school funding from Premier of Victoria, and it is very touching as a parent for seeing how hard Mr Coney tried during the meeting for the kids. 👍 His speech has really hit the points. Please keep up all the good work for the students and pass the attached photo to Mr Coney, thanks very much 🌺 Best regards Macy L. 

Emergency Evacuation Drill

On Tuesday, 31st March the school will be undertaking an emergency evacuation drill (This was a lockdown drill). Throughout the year we undertake regular evacuation and lockdown drills on different days of the week and at different times. This ensures that in the event of an emergency all students and staff know exactly what to do.

School Council

On Thursday, 26 March, Ben Heys and I presented our Annual Report to the School Community, which enabled us to celebrate the many successes of the 2025 school year and highlight the opportunities for future focuses.  

On this night we also held our first School Council meeting with the new members. I would like to officially welcome our newest parent representatives, Mithilesh Pathak, Himja Parekh and all returning members to the School Council committee. Congratulations to the following people who have been nominated and have accepted office-bearing positions: Angela Gray – School Council President, Mithilesh Pathak – School Council Vice President, Terry Lung – Treasurer, and Fiona Mackenzie – Secretary / Minute taker. Please see the table below for all School Council representatives for 2026.

As you can see above, we have 1 casual vacancy to fill if anyone is interested in joining/being co-opted into the School Council. Please contact the office for more information. 

The next School Council meeting is scheduled for the 21st of May 2026. Please let the office know if you would like to attend as a visitor.

Parent Financial Contribution 2026

Thanks to the families who have paid a financial contribution to Camelot Rise PS in 2026. If you have overlooked contributing, please consider supporting Camelot Rise PS to offer the highest standards of learning through your financial support. For us, it’s all about our students and giving them the best possible standard of learning. Hopefully you agree that our students are a worthwhile investment and that we want better than a standard curriculum for them. 

But doesn’t the State government pay for this? 

All schools are government funded for a standard curriculum. It’s a base level of funding which is a good start, but what we are really aiming for is much better than standard. Surely, we want better for our students than standard!

How is the money parents contribute used?

Over the last few years, we have updated all laptops and iPads, purchased a new playground, updated and repainted the Junior Playground, installed split systems in all classrooms, purchased tables, chairs and umbrellas around the basketball courts, installed new synthetic grass on the basketball court, installed split systems in the hall and increased budgets in all curriculum area.

We also use this money to buy art materials, sports equipment, stationery, first aid supplies, STEM resources, language resources, books, musical instruments etc. 

To date we only have 59% of our families who have paid this contribution. We need this figure to be much closer to 100%.

We only ask for what we use!

Compared to other schools we only request a moderate parental contribution. I read in the Age recently about one school that request $990.00 each year. We always try to keep costs to a minimum to support families whilst still being able to provide the best learning opportunities and experiences for all students.

Curriculum contributions can be paid through Compass. Please click on the ‘Course Confirmation/Parent Payments’ tab on your home screen. 

Thanks for your consideration, remember that every contribution to Camelot Rise PS goes straight into learning programs for our students/your children. 

School - Home Partnership for Understanding Mathematics

When families and schools work closely together to support students in their learning journey, results are stronger.  The Victorian Government have collaborated with the Victorian Mathematics Ambassadors to create some videos to assist families, particularly in Grade Prep-2 to understand how some key concepts in mathematics are developed. Mathematics is much more than just a set of number facts and those students who have a strong ‘number sense’ understand mathematics concepts with greater ease.

The videos show what number sense looks like in the classroom and give simple tips to help your child build number sense at home. The videos can be viewed with captions for various languages.  The first video, ‘Strengthening number sense at home’ gives an overview of the series, then the following videos outline each of four key concepts:

• one-to-one correspondence

• subitising (the ability to recognise a group of objects such as dots on dice, without needing to count)

• partitioning (part-part-whole)

• teen numbers

Please take some time to watch these short videos and learn more about how you can support your child with some Maths at home.

Mathematics and numeracy at home | vic.gov.au

Junior School Council Trivia

This week we will be holding our annual JSC trivia for Grades 1-6 (we will do something 

different for the Foundation students next term). In our JSC meetings we have been brainstorming different topics/categories for the questions using feedback from class meetings. There were lots of great ideas that we have incorporated! 

Trivia will be held on the following days:

Tuesday 31st March

Grades 1 & 2 – with Miss Eaves in Foundation classrooms

Grades 3 & 4 – with Miss Gabriele in 3G

Wednesday 1st April 

Grades 5 & 6 – with Miss Eaves and Miss Gabriele in 6A

Prize for winners will be icy poles and winners will be announced on Thursday 2nd April 😊 No sign up required! Just tell students to come in groups (max 5) ready to go!

Thanks to Miss Gabrielle and Miss Eaves for coordinating these very popular events.

End of Term - Timetable for the last day of Term One, Thursday, 2nd April

Thursday, 2nd April is the last day of term and the timetable for the day will be slightly different. As always, school finishes at 2:30pm on this day.

9.00am – 10.40am        Students in class 

10.40am – 11.10am      Recess

11.10am – 12.50pm      Students in class

12.50pm – 1.00pm        Students eat lunch in class 

1.00pm – 1.50pm           Lunch play

1.50pm – 2.30pm           Students in class 

2.30pm                             Students dismissed from their classrooms.

The Camp Australia, Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) program commences at 2.30pm on the last day of term.

The students return to school on Monday, 20th April. This is the first day of Term Two.

Matthew Coney and Ben Heys