Principal's Pen
Welcome to the 2026 School Year!
Kaya, hello and welcome back, everyone! It’s wonderful to see our students arriving in school uniform, on time, and ready for learning. Your preparation and positive start set your child/children up for a great year ahead. We’re excited for all the learning, growth, and achievements to come in 2026.
Let’s make it a fantastic year—together!
School Board News
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Luke George, who has now completed his tenure as Chair of the School Board. Luke has made significant contributions to our school over many years, and we deeply value his commitment, leadership, and genuine support for our students, staff, and community. We thank him for his interest, energy, and effort, and we wish him all the very best for the future.
We are pleased to welcome our new Chair of the Board, Tara Richardson, and congratulate her on taking up this important leadership role. We also warmly welcome Brenda Hapi as a new Parent Representative. We look forward to the positive impact their perspectives, strengths, and community focus will bring to our school. Thank you to both Tara and Brenda for your interest in joining the Board.
Teaching and Learning
Attendance News
Improving daily attendance is our goal. Everyday that your child is well, your child needs to attend school. Not only will regular attendance provide the opportunity to build skills and knowledge with their learning, it also enables students to build stronger connections and friendships. Regular attendance is considered to be 90% and above.
CONGRATULATIONS to our Kindergarten and our Year 4 students and families who achieved and maintained regular attendance for Term 1. As the data shows, we have work to do to aim for every year group to achieve 90% and above. Let's keep working at this. Congratulations to the 187 students who achieved regular attendance this term.
Please remember that if your child is absent, please advise the front office or class teacher as to the reason to enable that entry to be cleared as "explained". This is a legal requirement, and we appreciate your support with this.
As an incentive to improve daily attendance, every child receives a raffle ticket each day they attend. At the end of the term, we have a raffle draw to celebrate daily attendance. Congratulations to our lucky winners for this term!
Assessment
This term has been an important term for assessment. Our Pre Primary and Year 1 teams completed the On Entry Assessment whilst our Year 3 and Year 5 students completed the NAPLAN testing. These assessments are mandated and provide essential information with regards to Literacy and Numeracy starting points and progress. Well done to all the students for working hard to try their best. We look forward to sharing the results with families when they return. Teaching teams will review this data to ensure the teaching and learning support all students to make progress and build capacity. Thank you to all staff for preparing student academically and supporting our students to participate fully.
REAL SCHOOLS
This year we continue our work with Merrilee Wright from Real Schools to continue to build our restorative school culture. Thank you to families who consistently model this approach when working with staff to ensure that we have a team approach to supporting students to problem solve respectfully and productively. Please scan below for further information.
All staff will be working with Merrilee on the Staff Development Day for the last day of Term 1 to continue their professional learning.
DEAR- Drop Everything and Read
It is wonderful to see all classes starting their day with reading. Regular, daily opportunities to read to an adult, be read to and enjoy texts is vital to developing literacy skills, building confidence and developing an enjoyment of reading. Thank you to our family members who take the time to support their child and others each morning, this is great to see. Please remember that our library is open before and after school if you would like to read together or your child would like to change their books.
Cultural Library
We are excited to share the opening of our new Cultural Library - a space filled with stories from around the world, reflecting the rich diversity of our students. From Aboriginal stories to books from countries like India and Ghana, there is something for everyone to explore and enjoy.
A big thank you to Mr Beedie and everyone who helped bring this wonderful space to life, and we warmly invite families to visit, read, and share in the experience together.
Together we continue to build a school where everyone feels seen, respected, and included.
Student and Family Support
Thank you to 54 Reasons for the ongoing support of our students and families. Currently families are enjoying Discover and Explore Playgroup each Tuesday which is a great opportunity for children from birth to 4 years of age and parents to connect and play. Angela and Muzhda are doing a great job leading the team. All families are welcome to attend. Please contact the front office for further information or come down to meet the team on Tuesdays.
This year we are very lucky to welcome Khadija in the role of Child and Youth Therapeutic Wellbeing Officer. Please see her details below.
Meet Khadija – Degree Qualified Parenting Consultant and Child and Youth Therapeutic Wellbeing Practitioner at Neerigen Brook Primary School
Khadija is currently working with 54 Reasons – Save the Children as a Child and Youth Therapeutic Wellbeing Practitioner at Neerigen Brook Primary School.
Khadija is a devoted mother of five boys, a keynote speaker, and an experienced workshop facilitator who has been supporting families and young children since 2014. She has delivered hundreds of workshops and consultations both face-to-face and online across Perth and other cities working with multicultural women and students from pre primary to Year 10.
With expertise in child psychology, child development, and positive parenting, Khadija provides practical and compassionate guidance for families. Her work includes parenting workshops, therapeutic counselling with children and one-on-one coaching designed to strengthen parent-child relationships and build emotionally healthy homes.
Khadija holds a Bachelor of Social Science in Family and Children Studies and is currently studying a Master’s in Counselling. Her professional experience includes supporting parents and caregivers to build their capacity to promote safety, healthy relationships, and healing for children with diverse and complex needs.
She will work with students affected by domestic and family violence, delivering services to support children with therapeutic tools to feel safe, self regulated and harmonious.
To make an appointment or self-referral, please ask to meet Khadija at the front office or contact her via email here khadija.alkaddour@54reasons.org.au
The 54 Reasons team are currently located in the rear office near the dental clinic, opposite the school oval. If you would like to know more about supports that are available, please feel free to drop in or inquire at the front office.
Smith Family
We are very lucky to have the support of the Smith Family in our school. They provide a range of supports including Learning for Life Scholarships for students from Pre Primary, which covers all school related costs and other supports. Their focus is to support children to have strong daily attendance. To qualify, adults need to have a health care card. If you are interested in finding out more information, please scan the QR code.
School Improvement
A HUGE shout out to our Kindy and Pre Primary students, families and teaching teams for their patience whilst the roof on B Block is being replaced. It is never a convenient time to remove the roof however the team are making good progress and the children will have warm and dry classrooms, with reverse cycle heating and air-conditioning . The students have adapted to new classrooms and routines well and have continued with their learning. This has been very impressive for Term 1. Well done to everyone supporting the students.
We are looking forward to returning after the holidays to having the work completed and classes being settled back into the learning spaces.
At the end of last year we continued our focus on improving the learning environment for our students creating flexibility for Rooms 2 and 3 by adding outside fencing for the students. The next step was the addition of the shade sails to complete that stage to create usable outside learning areas. The classes will continue to develop these spaces over time and we look forward to seeing this progress.
Community Projects
- What’s Your Story? – Community Yarning Project
Over the past year, our students have been working with Aboriginal Elder Sydney Phillips on a special project called “What’s Your Story?” This project is all about yarning—talking together, sharing knowledge, sharing culture, and learning from one another. Through storytelling, we build respectful connections and strengthen our understanding of the many cultures that make up our school community.
We warmly invite all families to take part in this project. You can contribute in any way that feels right for you, such as:
- Painting a family tile to become part of our school mural
Sharing your family story, which will be recorded and linked to a QR Code placed on the mural or around the school
Stories can be shared in your home language and in English.
Our goal is to continue building a strong, connected community where children and families feel seen, valued, and respected. By learning from each other’s stories, we hope to grow a community with less judgment, deeper understanding, and reduced racist attitudes and comments. Together, we can create a school where everyone belongs and thrives.
- 🏗️ ECE Playground Upgrade – Community Working Party
We are excited to share that our ECE playground will be getting an upgrade. We have secured funding through an election commitment from Tony Buti’s office, and we are currently applying for additional grants to support the project.
We are forming a Working Party made up of parents and community members who would like to be involved in the planning, design, and project coordination. If you have ideas, interest, or expertise, we would love to have you on the team.
Once the roof installation on ECE Block is completed and the final handover is confirmed, we plan to begin the upgrade promptly. Please call the office or drop in to register your interest.
- 🌱 School Garden – Families Welcome!
Our school garden is a wonderful community space, and we welcome any parents who would like to get involved. Whether you enjoy growing produce, doing a bit of weeding, or simply spending some time in the garden, you are warmly invited to join in.
The Hands on Learning team, led by Mr Brotherson, work in and around the garden every Wednesday, but parents are welcome at any time that suits them. And of course—anything you help grow, your family is welcome to harvest and enjoy! Drop in to the office for further information.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all families a happy holiday and safe travels to those who are heading away for the break. Take care and thank you for a positive and productive term.
Lesley Barrett
Principal