Principal's Report
State-wide Strike
The AEU has advised the Education Department that they will be taking industrial action on Tuesday March 24th. Teachers have until 5 pm on Friday March 20th to notify me if they are intending to take strike action. I will notify parents and carers as soon as possible which grades will be affected. If your child’s teacher is taking action, your child should not attend school.
Out of School Hours Care
The OSHC program will operate as normal (before care: 7:00 am to 8:45 am and after care: 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm) on Tuesday March 24th. If your child will not be attending school on Tuesday, please make sure that you cancel your child’s booking. If you do not cancel you will be charged. Please cancel as soon as you can so we do not over staff the program.
School Council
We had two vacant position to fill and this was done through an expression of interest process. As we only had two people express interest, the positions have been filled by Tim Duncan and Zach Hannan who will join us at our first meeting next Monday, March 23rd.
NAPLAN
Last Tuesday our Grade 3 and 5 students started NAPLAN. Unfortunately, it didn’t get off to a good start as there were state-wide technical issues with the writing test. Our Grade 5 students were unable to log on to do their writing so they had to do it the following day. The validity of the results will not be as accurate as previous years as the students knew the prompt and had 24 hours to plan their pieces of writing. Our Grade 3 children did their writing using pen and paper and so they completed it on Tuesday.
The students have completed the other tests last week and this week. We still have a small number of students who have to complete make up tests as they were away on the scheduled day.
Planning Week
Next week we are having planning week so the children will have all of their specialist subjects on the one day their grade level is planning. This will allow the teachers to plan the Term 2 program together. The teachers will let the children know which day they will be having their planning day.
Cross Country Trials
We had a wonderful day with the Grade 2-6 students competing in the cross country trials recently. It was great to see so many parents come along and join us. The children in Grades 4-6 who finished in the top 14 will now advance to the district cross country event on Wednesday May 20th.
Building Works
It’s exciting to finally see things happening with the building works at the Junior School. The fencing and site shed are in place and they have demolished the play equipment. They are currently doing the earthmoving and site preparation. During the holidays they will be demolishing the Art Room. In preparation for the demolition, we will be moving everything out of the Art Room at the end of next week.
2027 Prep Tours
We have been inundated with calls from prospective families regarding Prep enrolments for 2027. If you know of any families who are wanting to enrol their child at Preston PS for 2027 please let them know we will be running Information Sessions, which include a tour of the School, beginning early next term.
All the information on how to book an information session and tour is located on the school website under enrolment: www.preston-ps.vic.edu.au/page/165/Enrolment
Tour dates:
Tuesday April 28th: 9.30 am to 10.40 am
Monday May 4: 9.30 am to 10.40 am
Tuesday May 12: 9.30 am to 10.40 am
Monday May 18: 9.30 am to 10.40 am
Thursday May 21: 9.30 am to 10.40 am
Bookings are essential.
Regards,
Janet Paterson,
Principal.