Message from the Principal 

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SYSTEM

We are very much looking forward to our Curriculum Day this Friday. Janine and Brad along with our Wellbeing and Inclusion Team Leaders are delivering a professional learning day focused on launching our School Wide Positive Behaviour System. Our school successfully applied to be part of this program for the next 3-5 years and we are supported by a DET coach and other resources. 

You will hear our staff use the language “Be Safe, Be Responsible and Be Connected.” A matrix has been developed using this language to explain and teach positive behaviours across our school. 

Two Minute Tuesday next week will be a special feature on SWPBS.

WE WANT OUR PARENTS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK!

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what parents think of our school. The Parent Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education and Training that is conducted amongst all parents. It is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of parents’ perceptions about your child’s learning, teachers at the school and general satisfaction with the school. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. 

Some examples of the data from last year’s survey include (note that the green area represents the percentage of positive endorsement, the grey area is percentage of neutral and the black area percentage of negative responses):

As you can see the positive feedback around transitions, school communication and promoting positive behaviour are quite strong. These percentages have improved over recent as a result of your feedback to us. Examples of this include adding additional sessions to our Prep transition sessions to total a program of 10 hours, the introduction of a High School Day for our Year 6’s as they prepare for Year 7, Two Minute Tuesdays and three emails from each of our teaching teams each term, our successful application into the School Wide Positive Behaviour System program this year. All parents will be invited to participate in this year’s survey. All responses to the survey are anonymous. This year, the Parent Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday 29th July to Friday 30th August.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. These include: Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Chin (Hakha), Hindi, Japanese, Somali, Turkish, Punjabi and Greek.

An invitation to the survey with a link and password will be sent out via Compass next week. Please contact me if you would like more information:

james.penson@education.vic.gov.au

TERM 3 MEET WITH THE PRINCIPAL TEAM

7.30pm Wednesday 7th August via Webex

Another improvement we have made in recent years to the way we communicate to families is holding a Meet with the Principal Team session once per term. This is an opportunity to hear some more information about what is happening around the school. We also provide time for questions, feedback and suggestions around any topic. 

A Webex link will be sent home via Compass shortly.

YEAR 6 to 7 TRANSITION 2025

Letters to our Year 6 families went home last week to confirm the secondary school they will attend. As usual, we have a large percentage of this cohort going to both Montmorency and St. Helena Secondary Colleges. Other schools our students will attend next year include Greensborough College, Bundoora Secondary College and a number of private or Catholic schools. 

I take this opportunity to thank Nicole Pearson who manages our Year 6-7 transition for our school and all the work she does to support our families in the process. 

PREP ENROLMENT 2025

Interest in our school continues to be very strong and in line with the Department of Education transition timeline, we are now at the point of confirming our prep enrolment for 2025.

We are also gearing up for our “Experience Greenhills” sessions that are part of our transition program. These sessions aim to assist children and their families to feel comfortable and informed as they begin their learning journey at our school. The first session is Art on Monday 12th August. Details on how to book will be included in the letter of confirmation sent home this week.

James Penson 

Principal